SAC presents: Anand Vivek Taneja

Anand Vivek Taneja on The Afterlife of Islamic Architecture: Ethics, Ecology, and Other Times in the Medieval Ruins of Delhi

Anand Vivek Taneja, Department of Anthropology,Johns Hopkins University

During his fieldwork, Taneja often heard stories of people’s dreams of white robed Muslim saints amongst Delhi’s medieval monuments.  Visions of saints are conceptualized as coming from an Elsewhere, not from inside the unconscious but from outside the subject. But the persistent connection between these visions and medieval ruins indicates that they are also linked to elsewhen, times other than the contemporary moment. Ruins serve as thresholds of multiple temporality not just in dreams, but also in ritual and cinema. In each of these, ruins have ethical potential, the possibility of transformation for both individuals and communities.  

Sponsored by South Asia Center at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs and co-sponsored by the Departments of Anthropology and Religion