The rest of this essay visually elucidates the many spheres in which these modified paintings and calendar art of the socio religious reform leader are circulated and produce multiple meanings. In contemporary Kerala society, these images have found a place in various private as well as public spaces.  For instance, these images traverse into the different spheres like homes and temples for religious worship. They are also displayed in public places as assertive symbols of political, secular and community identity.

Fig. 66		Fig. 67

Fig. 68		Fig. 69

Fig. 70		Fig. 71		Fig. 72

Fig. 73		Fig. 74		Fig. 75

The assemblage of pictures on this page illustrate how some of these reform leaders’ images have acquired symbolic functions in family rituals [Fig. 66-75]. It is usual to find framed picture of ‘gurus’ placed alongside those of other gods as well as photographs of ancestors on the walls of homes, along with permanent illumination and other ornamentation such as garlands. Thus, the framed pictures of Ayyankali [Fig. 66], Poykayil Kumara Gurudevan [Fig. 67], and various images of Sree Narayana Guru are kept either inside the sacred (puja) room, or hang on the veranda walls of homes. They are ritualised through placing them alongside the divine figures and other sacred objects such as nilavilake (lamps using for ritual functions) [see Figs. 68-75]. The space itself becomes a sacred space where the historical image is transformed into a divine icon. It should be borne in mind that the icons of worship might vary according the caste and community identity of the family; occasionally, the display of the images in the home manifest the caste or community identity of its inhabitants. In this discourse of iconolatry, the ‘history’ that is invisibly subsumed within the inside space of these image fades, and they (iconic images) will appear as any other divine icon (god) for ritual worship. This phenomenon demands an analysis of how this ritualised icon functions in family spaces. It is believed that the ritualised image is observing and watching all activities of the family from its vantage point. This power of the ancestral gaze and the family member’s obedience to it, their spiritually oriented consciousness and the observance of the moral codes can be seen as iconolatry.

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