Paper short abstract:

Explorations of the stone carving and religious sculpture tradition in Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu, and its current engagement with the international tourist market.

Paper long abstract:

Mamallapuram, famous for its ancient rock monuments and stone carving tradition, is one of the most popular tourist destinations in South India. Hundreds of stone carving units scattered around the town create mainly carvings of various Hindu gods and goddess. These stone sculptures, often classified as both art and crafts, are made for temples and households, as well as for the international tourist market to be sold as souvenirs. Compared to the traditional religious statues, carvings aimed for the tourists are usually made from different stone varieties and also the iconography and technical details may vary. Whereas the philosophy behind traditional Indian (Hindu) sculpture making emphasises the importance of following ancient religious rules and norms, often the stone carvers working for the tourist market take more liberties in their work. Although the work of these so called tourist artists is sometimes accused of being mass-produced and showing low levels of technical skills, at the same time these carvers create new types of religious statues that can be also argued to show more creativity and artistic qualities than the sculptures intended for temples and other ritual purposes. At the same time many foreign tourists interested in spirituality buy these stone carvings for meditation or prayer irrespective of their scared status according to the Hindu philosophy. In this paper I will explore the artistic, aesthetic and sacred definitions of Mamallapuram tourist arts and their relationship with the traditional Indian and Western concepts of art and crafts