Occulted materialities

Abstract

The accompanying image is that of the Hindu god, Vishwakarma. Images like this are common in eastern South Asia. A different image of the same deity is popular in northern and western South Asia, while yet another image dominates in the south. Factories, offices and workshops frequently display these images and offer ritual prayers to them. On a given day in the year, artisans and workmen worship their tools directly and offer a feast to Vishwakarma. In recent years cars and computers have also been increasingly identified with Vishwakarma. Why have such practices been almost entirely ignored by historians of technology? What does the existence of such practices mean for the much-touted ‘materialist turn’ in histories of science and technology? How should we deal with the ‘materiality’ of the technological objects that circulate around Vishwakarma?