This symposium seeks to amplify the interventions on the multifaceted nature of divine embodiments in the context of bhakti in South Asian traditions by bringing together scholars across disciplines working on hagiography, literature, and lived religion (Waghorne, Cutler, and Narayanan 1985). It endeavors to critically intervene in contextualizing the role of the divine as an embodied self wherein the divine is not confined to abstract transcendence but is intimately woven into the fabric of everyday life.

As of yet, scholarly attention has focused on divine-devout relationships centering the devotee as the agent of bhakti. In this symposium, we hope to amplify and shed light upon the embodied divine as the perceived agent. The papers in this symposium illuminate how divine embodiments derive and confer meaning and efficacy, emerging from and giving shape to religious and nonreligious realms alike (Pintchman and Dempsey 2016).

We examine what it means for the divine to exert agency in an earthly form: can we decenter the devout in making the divine? How does the divine act within relationships of bhakti? What role does materiality or the lack thereof play in embodying the divine in South Asia? How do oral and written texts substantiate beliefs and practices in lived religion that aid in embodying the divine as a living being subject to human-like conditions?

The papers span a chronological arc from pre-modern textual and epigraphic sources, ritual analysis and philosophy, and anthropological analysis. Spanning varied religious traditions such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism, this symposium addresses issues of materiality, paradox (i.e. a transcendent deity whose earthly embodied self is subjected to human-like conditions), and wonder (Srinivas 2023). Through such varied lenses, we invite scholars of bhakti to rethink the role of the divine in creating the social of bhakti.