Altars and Alternations in Assam

Disciples of the sixteenth-century neo-Vaishanava scholar Sankaradeva –– who questioned the efficacy of orthodox rituals, idol worship, and caste hierarchies –– have long grappled with a challenge: how to cognize the supreme deity Krishna and establish meaningful relationships with him when it is inapposite to make and adore images of him. In this talk I consider two strategies that some of Sankaradeva’s disciples in Assam, India have developed to try to resolve this conundrum. One approach has involved disciples reshaping their own bodies and minds into altars where Krishna is invited to reside by practicing an arduous daily physical and mental regimen. Another scheme has entailed building architectonic four-sided altars with seven tiers. The tiers are heaped with inscribed textiles that strategically conceal and display the structure beneath and are decorated with ancient fossils, fresh flowers, and copper-alloy utensils. Their summits have small baldacchinos that house manuscripts of Sankaradeva’s writings. In the flickering light of oil lamps that illuminate the domestic spaces and community halls in which these altars are constructed, reflections of objects placed on altars and disciples who approach them appear on the utensils’ polished surfaces. These reflections modify interactions among and between persons and things and create new topographies. They also gradually nurture a sophisticated understanding of Krishna’s simultaneous presence in the world of forms and separation from it. Thus, it is possible to see these neo-Vaishnava altars as sites of accumulation, communication, and contestation.