The Hindu pañcāyatanapūjā in the aniconism spectrum

The Hindu pañcāyatanapūjā is the worship of five deities that can be in the form of five stones collected from various locations in South Asia. Each of these stones has visual properties which form points of reference to the iconography of the same gods’ anthropomorphic forms. And although the ritual use of these five stones is a clear example of an aniconic cult, their worship evokes anthropopathic properties and, depending on the specific context, anthropomorphic visual characteristics. These visual links and ritual movements between the aniconic, the anthropopathic, and the anthropomorphic are examples of a general fluidity that is characteristic of much of the material that has been described as ‘aniconic.’ Different categories of aniconic religious objects are therefore best understood within a spectrum that encompasses aniconic and figural, as well as theriomorphic and anthropomorphic, properties. The article attempts to situate aniconism within such a wider spectrum of representational options. The Hindu pañcāyatanapūjā is the worship of five deities that can be in the form of five stones collected from various locations in South Asia. Each of these stones has visual properties which form points of reference to the iconography of the same gods’ anthropomorphic forms. And although the ritual use of these five stones is a clear example of an aniconic cult, their worship evokes anthropopathic properties and, depending on the specific context, anthropomorphic visual characteristics. These visual links and ritual movements between the aniconic, the anthropopathic, and the anthropomorphic are examples of a general fluidity that is characteristic of much of the material that has been described as ‘aniconic.’ Different categories of aniconic religious objects are therefore best understood within a spectrum that encompasses aniconic and figural, as well as theriomorphic and anthropomorphic, properties. The article attempts to situate aniconism within such a wider spectrum of representational options.