For many centuries Hinduism has had an image-making religious tradition. Hindus have long wished to see their deities in visible form, and artists have met this desire through sculptures and paintings. In modern India, this desire has also been met by colorful mass-produced “God-prints” (sami-padam), often called calendar prints or bazaar art. 

Richard Davis, professor emeritus of religion at Bard College, outlines the history of this genre of commercial religious art, from its origins in colonial Kolkata and Maharashtra through its proliferation in independent India. Davis looks at how the depictions of principal Hindu gods have developed and changed and how artists like Ravi Varma, Narottam Narayan, and B. G. Sharma have created distinctive and influential styles of God-print art. Such artists, Davis argues, have shown what the Hindu gods look like.

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