The Tradition of Devotional Painting for Lord Jagannath: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

Art and devotion are like distinct yet interwoven notes in symphonies of the heart. The high points of these symphonies are reached
whenever creative outpourings of devotion are original, individualistic, and with no cause other than spiritual spontaneity or di­vine madness. Both are pleasing to the heart and both provide a shelter and release from life’s anxieties. In the words of U. S. novelist Willa Cather (1873–1947), “Art and religion (they are the same thing, in the end, of course) have given man the only happiness he has ever had.”