Amita Sinha
Department of Architecture, Planning & Design
Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
amitasinha.apd@itbhu.ac.in
Rana P.B. Singh
Department of Geography
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
ranapbs@gmail.com
Rabi Narayan Mohanty
Department of Architecture, Planning & Design
Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
rnmohanty.apd@iitbhu.ac.in
Indra Kumar Singh
Department of Architecture, Planning & Design
Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
indra.apd@itbhu.ac.in
E. V. S. Kiran Kumar Donthu
Department of Architecture, Planning & Design
Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
kirankumardevs.apd@itbhu.ac.in
Introduction
Diana Eck observes that in India, “every place has its story and conversely every story in the vast storehouse of myth and legend has its place”[1] and nowhere is this more evident than in the urban landscape of Varanasi, replete with myths and legends of gods, kings and sages. Stories have guided the finding and reclaiming of sacred sites (tirthas) and have played a significant role in the making of places. Kashikhanda compiled as a spatial text and incorporated in Skandapurana in the 12th c. to preserve the cultural memory of the sacred landscape is the most comprehensive listing of place narratives of Varanasi.[2] Narayan Bhatt’s Trishalisetu (16th-17th c) and Vardharaj’s Girvanapadmanjari (17th c.) are other significant texts on Varanasi’s sacred sites and temples. The description of varying symbolic forms of Kashi/Varanasi is unique in its spatial exposition; for example, the Nāgarakhaṇḍa of the Skanda Purāṇa describes the territories of Kashi as it existed in the four mythic eras (yugas in Hindu cosmology). Accordingly, the shape of Kashi is described as a trident (triśula)in Krita/ Satya(an era of 1,728,000 years), a disc (chakra)in Tretā (1,296,000 years), a chariot (ratha)in Dvāpara(864,000 years), and a conch‑shell (Shankha)in Kali(432,000 years) representing the territorial demarcation through symbolic forms. These mythological narrations indicate the evolution and expansion of the city that can be described with the help of cognitive cartography. The three forks of the trident are represented by the three Shiva lingas, i.e., Omkareshvara in the north, Vishveshvara in the center, and Kedareshvara in the south. These lingasrefer to the patron deities of their respective segments (khaṇḍas).The Ganga River is represented as the eastern base with pilgrimage routes demarcating the sacred territories in this form. The local mythologies (sthalapurāṇas) justify the obtaining of religious merit, and over time, they have become an integral part of the popular tradition. Furthermore, the manifested superimposition of various divinities occurred over a long span of history and continues to flourish even today.
Monumental temples were built to commemorate a cosmic event or divine revelation at specific sites. These are part of the grand narratives of the ‘great’ Hindu tradition; complementing them are folk myths and local legends, part of ‘little’ tradition.[3] The great and little traditions are expressed in and support place-making at various scales on sacred sites. Within the interstices of large temple building complexes and around them for example exist more humble shrines and traces of ritual practices on the landscape. The monumental and the vernacular more than co-exist, they are intricately bound through cultural networks and social dependencies. The panel will explore the connection between grand and folk narratives and monumental and vernacular places in Varanasi through three case studies–landscape of Ganga-Varuna confluence, ghats (steps and landings) and the old city on the Ganga Riverfront, and the historic Banaras Hindu University (BHU) campus. The cultural landscape in each of these case studies is constituted of sacred sites where stories of folk deities and supreme gods of Hinduism are enacted in ritual practices, thereby preserving and regenerating collective memories. Monumental buildings and urban spaces designed or having organically evolved over time are settings for rituals and narrative arts. The interplay between grand narratives and local legends provides the canvas for place-making to occur, expressed in monumental architecture and vernacular landscapes. The research tools for our case studies are ethnographic interviews and cultural mapping, appropriate for studying the relationship between narratives, cultural practices, and places.
Landscape Narratives of the Ganga-Varuna confluence
Hinduism attributes great value to the meeting of rivers and oceans, the most well-known being Prayagraj where the holy rivers Ganga and Yamuna meet the mythical Saraswati. The landscape of confluences known as sangam, especially promontories that signify the emergence of land out of watery chaos, are sites of pilgrimage and temple building. Varanasi is no exception – the confluences of Ganga with Assi rivulet on the south and Varuna River on the north are the vertices of its sacred territory. Ganga is a goddess and the holiest of rivers and Varuna is the Vedic god of sky and water—their meeting combines and enhances the significance individually attributed to them. One of the panch tirthas (five sacred sites) on the riverfront, this sangam landscape is replete with stories including puranic tales (myths complied in genealogical texts) and historic narratives of the last Hindu kingdom and its downfall with Islamic conquest of Northern India. The puranic myths are celebrated in devotional practices in Adi Keshav Temple on the northernmost ghat on the Ganga where Vishnu is worshipped and in Jau Vinayak Temple across the River Varuna, where pilgrims circumambulating the sacred region of Varanasi pause to worship Ganesha. History is told in the archaeological ruins of 11th century Gahadvala fort at the adjacent Rajghat Archaeological Park built over the remains of ancient settlements. The epic narrative of Ramayana is enacted in the annual Dusshera festival celebrated in a tree grove and the riverbank. Monuments and their remains are produced by grand narratives, mythic and historical; these co-exist with a vernacular landscape of makeshift sheds, pavilions, and fences, shaped by local practices of boat building, cremations, and farming which have their own stories. While the monuments seem to be stable and fixed, the vernacular landscape around them is dynamic, temporal and shifting. The cultural landscape of the Ganga-Varuna confluence will be interpreted by tracing how monumental and vernacular places are shaped by grand narratives and folk traditions and their re-enactments.
Place Myths, Architecture, and Climate Resilience: Varanasi Ghats
Gods and goddesses are a living presence on the Ganga Riverfront in Varanasi and worshipped in shrines and temples lining the ghats. Stories about their arrival in this holy city and their protective powers are inscribed in Sanskrit texts and narrated by priests and local residents. The iconic forms of gods and goddesses are worshipped in shrines and temples, some freestanding and others part of fort-palaces on the ghats. Around them evolved the urban landscape—lanes, shops, shrines, and houses– to connect them to the Ganga. The organic growth resulted in a tightly knit urban structure with narrow lanes opening into private courtyards of havelis (residential mansions), where shrines were built so as not to attract attention in perilous times of Islamic iconoclasm. The case study of Bengali tola, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the southern section of the ghats dating back to the seventeenth century, demonstrates these features. With as many 36 temples and shrines, ashrams (building complexes with shrines and pilgrim lodging), shops, hotels, and cafes, this is a layered, accretive urban structure evolving over time in response to social-economic changes and religious tourism. It represents the urban vernacular in contrast with the monumental architecture of the fort palaces above the ghats.[4] The design language, building materials, and construction technology of monumental architecture will be analyzed for understanding how it was built to respond to the river and withstand its flooding as well as being climate adaptive. The urban structure that evolved around fort-places and havelis will be interpreted as a culturally resilient vernacular landscape; its multitude of sacred shrines ensuring that it remains a magnet for religious tourism, with its sacred ambience attractive to international tourists.
The Sacred in the Temple of Learning
The Banaras Hindu university (BHU) in Varanasi is called a Temple of Learning, the term implying the pursuit of learning is a sacred activity and that the house of learning is a temple.[5] Established in the early twentieth century in the holy city of Varanasi, BHU campus architecture does indeed exhibit many features of traditional Hindu temples, for example spires, mandapa (pavilion) like porches, and vegetal ornamentation. Although it also has elements of palatine architecture, the overall effect is such that its architectural style has been dubbed as ‘Hindu-Saracenic’ thereby distinguishing it from the prevalent ‘Indo-Saracenic’ style of colonial buildings. This monumental architecture comprises the historic core of BHU campus, whose center is the Vishwanath Temple, the tallest building (until a few years ago), and visible from all directions. The monumental buildings co-exist with vernacular sacred shrines to place deities, known as beer babas, residing in boulders and vegetation, and worshipped by descendants of villagers who were displaced when the campus was built. These small shrines thus constitute the prehistoric sacred layer of the campus. Existing today in the interstices of monumental buildings, they are visited by devotees from within and outside the campus and are the meeting ground of many communities. Origin stories and ritual practices in Vishwanath Temple and local shrines represent the classical and folk worship traditions in Hinduism in which both transcendent gods and nature spirits are worshipped.[6] This cultural landscape will be interpreted for understanding how the sacred is represented in built form—monumental and vernacular—in BHU campus.
Conclusion
Place-making through monumental buildings and vernacular landscapes represents the interplay between grand and folk narratives in these case studies, keeping collective memories alive. The dualities of narrative traditions parallel those of building traditions, proving that there is a deep structure shared by stories and places. The dualism in the built environment is mediated though shared belief systems, and cultural networks of ritual practices and social dependencies; that of textual and oral traditions through shared plot structures. The sacred pervades the built environment and narratives that produced it in keeping with the Hindu belief that it cannot be limited to any one medium.
Figure 1. Adi Keshav Ghat
Figure 2. Small Shrine at Adi Keshav Ghat
Figure 3. Raja Ghat
Figure 4. Shrine in Bengali Tola
Figure 5. Vishwanath Temple, BHU Campus
Figure 6. Karmanveer Shrine, BHU Campus
[1] Eck, Diana. India: A Sacred Geography. New York: Harmony Books, 2012, p. 5
[2] Skanda Purana, Tr. & annotated by G.V. Tagare, vol. 4, Kasi- khanda. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 1950.
[3] Marriott, McKim. “Little Communities in an Indigenous Civilization”, in McKim Marriott and Alan Beals (eds.) Village India: Studies in the Little Community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955.
[4] Sinha, Amita, “Ghats on the Ganga in Varanasi, India: the making of a vernacular urban landscape and its conservation”, Kapila D. Silva (ed.) The Routledge Handbook on Historic Urban Landscapes in the Asia-Pacific. New York: Routledge, 2020, pp. 248-260.
[5] Renold, Leah, “A Hindu Temple of Learning: The Hybridization of Religion and Architecture”, in Michael Dodson (ed.) Banaras: Urban Forms and Cultural Histories. London: Routledge, 2012.
[6] Sinha, Amita. “Nature in Hindu Art, Architecture and Landscape,” Landscape Research, U.K., Vol. 20, No.1 (Spring 1995): 3-10.
