Paavai vilakku oil lamp of South India
Paavai vilakku oil lamp of South India
Paavai vilakku oil lamp of South India
Undated
Bronze
3.25 in x 1.25 in x 2.25 in
South India
1994.429
This bronze oil lamp, a paavai vilakku type from South India, embodies a woman holding a vessel for the lamp’s fuel in which the wick is put. This specific lamp falls under the category of arti (or arati, arathi) lamps, which are small, hand-held lamps that are often waved in front of a deity during prayer in the temple sanctum.1 Arti lamps are also often cast as groups of figures in dioramas recreating various gods’ exploits. Most Indian oil lamps are reserved for religious use rather than secular use and even purely secular lamps are associated with religious festivals.2 These lamps are used in rituals of devotional worship. Puja are worship rituals often executed privately at household shrines.
Puja is split into four sections: unction (anointing of the sick), decoration, food offering, and lamp showing. During the lamp showing, worshippers cup both hands over the flame and raise them to their faces to truly seek darshan, or the “vision” of the deity.3 Lamp-showing also addresses the divine bodies that were addressed earlier in the puja and uses the lit oil lamp to outline the image’s face, eyes, nose, throat, heart, and feet. This is portrayed as an attempt to please the deity by “gratifying all senses of his newly created body.”4
Originating from the Tamil Nadu area, paavai vilakku lamps are used in a ritual named Karttikai, more specifically Karttikai Dipam. This celebrates the birth of Murugan, the Tamil god, and the second son of Shakti and Shiva. During Karttikai Dipam, rows of oil lamps are arranged around the house for ornamental and cosmological purposes. Oil lamps are an indispensable part of rural Karttikai celebrations.5
The Paavai vilakku lamp is created using the lost wax casting process. In this method of metal casting, liquified metal is poured into a mold that has been made by a wax model, which is then removed to reveal the final product. In the Tamil Nadu area, which is where this lamp originates, there are different types of manufactories that create bronze icons for rituals and other uses. More specifically, the hereditary family-owned manufactories are run by sthapathi, or Indian sculptors, who maintain the most traditional aspects of bronze icon manufactory. Ownership of these workshops is passed down from generation to generation, compared to entrepreneur-owned manufactories which are owned by skilled craftsmen. They make icons for economic pursuit and lack the religious aspect of the process.6
This icon is involved in an intricate creation process. When religious icons are being prepared in these workshops, there are specific additions to the process, such as taking mold from the upper pit and placing it in the lower pit, where a larger fire can be prepared. Only the master sthapati could bear the responsibility of working on the face of the icon, since it was deemed valuable. For some workshops, a puja is performed before the casting process so that the perfect icon is made, further exemplifying the ritual aspect of this object. Individuals who would request these icons would visit the manufactory and add their own gold and silver offerings. They would even offer cows, sheep, and buffalo as gifts to make the ghee, a type of clarified butter, which keeps the lamps perpetually illuminated.7 The date of this lamp is an ambiguous matter. Due to the tradition of recycling metal pieces, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when lamps like this one were created.8 This object highlights the power of ritual in its role as social glue that melds together religion, society, art production, and economic exchange.
Sarah Lyou
Medicine, Health, and Society
Class of 2024
Ashley Kim
Human and Organizational Development
Class of 2026
Annotated Bibliography
Arumugam, Indira. “‘Divali Is for The Dead’: Abiding Relatedness and Bittersweet Revelries in a
Tamil Nadu Village.” Material Religion 16, no. 5 (2020): 563–83.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17432200.2020.1840315.
This article gives us context on how Diwali is celebrated specifically in a Tamil Nadu village. Rather than associating Diwali with prosperity and triumph, a Tamil Nadu village links Diwali to grief and mortality. It provides some background information about their rituals during Diwali (including the usage of an oil lamp) and emphasizes the varying celebrations of Diwali by region.
Bolon, Carol Radcliffe. Light of Devotion: Oil Lamps of Kerala. Archaeopress, 2022.
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2m7c584.
This book studies medieval oil lamps of Kerala and nearby regions of South India and their use in Hindu traditions. The chapter in which we gathered the most information from, “Chapter 5: Portable Lamps,” more specifically discusses the ritual function of the oil lamp in prayer. This source gave us an overview of arti lamps and their resemblance to our object.
Gangoly, O. C. “Southern Indian Lamps.” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 29, no. 160
(1916): 141–48. http://www.jstor.org/stable/860244.
This source was useful for providing specific details about the religious aspect behind the Southern Indian oil lamps and emphasizing how valuable these lamps were within the Indian community. The source also narrowed down the classification of the oil lamp as belonging to the Southern class of lamps that were modeled after human figures.
Good, Anthony. “Multiple Meanings in South Indian Temple Worship.” Culture and Religion 2, no. 2
(2001): 239–260. https://doi.org/10.1080/01438300108567177.
This source focused on the crossover between light and puja rituals. It helped relate the oil lamp back to worshiping the deity in the South India region.
Levy et al. Masters of Fire: Hereditary Bronze Casters of South India. WAZ-DRUCK GmbH & Co. KG, Duisburg, 2008.
This book has a great overview of bronze icons created in South India. It explains the lost wax casting process in-depth to emphasize how detailed and long creating a bronze caster takes. This source helped reveal some of the ritualistic aspects behind the creation process.