one of the four objects invariably carried
by the god Vishnuand thus one of his
identifying markers. See shankha.
Consecration
This term can refer to two different rites
performed in the creation of Hindu
images. One of these is devapratishtha,
or “establishing the deity,” the rites by
which an image of a deity is constructed
and established as an object of worship.
The word consecrationcan also be used
to refer to pranapratishtha, the more
important ritual, in which the image is
infused with the breath of life and
becomes the seat for the deity.
Coomaraswamy, Ananda
(1877–1947) Intellectual and art histori-
an who was one of the first Indian schol-
ars to address a predominantly Western
audience. He was born in modern Sri
Lanka, the son of a Hindu father and an
English mother. Although he was
trained as a geologist, by 1910 he had
found his true vocation, the study of art.
Coomaraswamy was largely responsible
for publicizing Hindu miniature paint-
ingas a genre distinct from the contem-
porary Muslim court painting. Due to
the strength of this and other interpre-
tive scholarly works, he became curator
of Indian and Muslim art at the Museum
of Fine Arts in Boston. He held this post
from 1917 to 1931, and his catalog of the
museum’s collection shows painstaking
and objective scholarship. In his later
years, he began to publish works on aes-
thetics, myth, religion, and culture,
focusing not only on India but also on
traditional Europe.Corbelling
In the realm of architecturethis term
refers to the creation of a dome or arch
through overlapping masonry courses.
This technique was widely used in
Indian temples, particularly those con-
structed in the Nagarastyle of architec-
ture in Orissaand the rest of northern
India. Corbelling was the prevailing
method of creating the shape of an arch,
since the true arch—in which each
part is supported in tension with the
others—was unknown in classical
Hindu architecture.Coromandel
Traditional name for the southern
Indian coastal region bordering the Bay
of Bengal, in the modern states of Tamil
Naduand Andhra Pradesh.Corpse
In the Hindu worldview, a corpse is the
source of the most virulent possible rit-
ual impurity (ashaucha). Although
Hindus accept death as an inevitable
part of life, the dangers caused by a
corpse cannot be ignored. The dead
body must be appropriately handled,
both to protect the living from danger
and to help the deceased make a
smooth transition to the next life. For
this reason the last rites (antyeshthi
samskara) are begun on the day of
death itself. Among the earliest of theseConsecration
The architectural technique of corbelling was
used to form the arched entrance to the
Mukteshvar Temple in Bhubaneshvar.