Place, Space, and Representation: Transporting Sacred Geographies

Building upon the notion that "space is a practiced place" and that spatial practices activate places, the article explores Indian pilgrimage maps and painted narrative panels of itinerant picture showmen as examples of portable geographies. It argues that these materials act as condensed and iconized places of pilgrimage activated in the case of maps by their worship and by audio-visual performance in the case of the painted narrative panels of Dev Narayan. These visual forms are not merely imaginary or imaged representations of particular sacred places but are representations of a very specific type: akin to mobile shrines, they facilitate the translocation of ritual, symbolic and performative functions. When delineated as pilgrimage maps, picture showmen's panels, or theater backdrops, sacred place and sacred space become iconized and transportable. In turn, they become vehicles for the imaginary transportation of audiences into their spatial form.