Columnar Temple Lamp

The lamp is conceived as a vehicle through which the divine can be accessed. Lamps are used in rituals as well as religious or temple settings, in order to propitiate the gods. During the countless festivals that punctuate the Hindu and Buddhist years, the lamp plays a pivotal role as a mechanism that allows the faithful to focus their concentration on the image or nature of the deity. Within homes, the lamp is used in Hindu practice to activate the presence of the deity with the 'aarti' ritual, which allows the devotee to acknowledge and accept blessings. While the form of the lamp changes depending on the religious context in which it is made and used, it is the lamp's "carrying" of light that is significant, whether it takes the form of a goddess, an animal, or a tree. The preservation of light signifies the deity's presence.