Includes bibliographical references and index.

Splendor and diversity of India's ritual arts are beyond compare. From the celebration of the household fires to the marriage ceremony and the rites of the cremation ground, every stage of human life in India is marked by rituals accompanied by an astounding array of icons and symbols. In the Indian countryside, ritual is still vigorous and prolific, and visual symbols are simple, vital, and immediate. Everywhere the splash of scarlet sindura on a wayside stone or shrine signals the approach to sacred space.

Unlike Western religious art, which too often presents institutionally established stock images, Indian ritual art draws us into a relationship, a state in which we can realize our oneness with the universe by collaborating with the creative rhythms of the world. It helps us to reach the center at which all experience, all being, is compacted into its utmost concentration--the point (bindu), the ultimate goal of all spiritual disciplines. It is precisely this inward-seeking quality that the Ritual Art of India reveals so brilliantly.