Subproject B04

The Human Body as Metaphor of the Divine: Anthropomorphism in South Asian Religious Traditions

The subproject gives attention to metaphors as constitutive of the emergence and development of two divergent dynamics in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism from the turn of the Common Era to about 500 CE: the manifestation in human form of the Hindu god Viṣṇu as Kṛṣṇa and Rāma as well as the deification of the figures of Siddhārtha Gautama (i.e., the Buddha) and Vardhamāna (i.e. the Jina). It places developments within Jainism at the fore of its investigation but explores concepts related to the corporeality of the divine in South Asia from a comparative perspective.