Traditional Indian Religious Streets: a Spatial Study of the Streets of Mathura

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RESEARCH ARTICLE Traditional Indian religious streets: A spatial study of the streets of Mathura

Meeta Tandonn, Vandana Sehgal

Faculty of Architecture, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University, Lucknow, India

Received 4 May 2017; received in revised form 18 September 2017; accepted 3 October 2017

KEYWORDS Abstract Street; Streets determine the spatial characteristics of a city and are its most important element. They Spatial qualities; retain their unique identity by depicting their own sense of place and provide psychological and Religious precincts; functional meaning to people's lives. Traditional streets, located in the heart of a city and Physical where religious buildings are situated, are visited by numerous pilgrims daily and should be characteristics assessed for their physical features and spatial qualities. This study aims to investigate the character of one of such streets, Vishram Bazaar Street, which is a commercial street where the famous Dwarkadhish temple of Mathura is located. This study, therefore, aspires to uncover the spatial qualities of the street in terms of its physical characteristics based on the tool given by Reid Ewing, Clemente, and Handy, which includes imageability, enclosure, human scale, transparency, and complexity, and to establish the relevance of these qualities in Indian religious streets. The methods used for data collection are literature reviews, on-site documentation (ﬁeld notes, photographs, and videos), visual assessment, and questionnaire surveys. & 2017 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction Urban spaces comprise two basic elements: streets and squares (Krier, 1979). Streets form the backbone of any city with two main functions: movement and place. They are “Streets should be for staying in, and not just for moving linear three-dimensional spaces that are enclosed on oppo- through, the way they are today.” (Alexander, C., site sides by buildings and are different from roads whose Ishikawa,S., Silverstein, M., 1977) main purpose is movement. Unlike squares, where the degree and nature of enclosure generally provide a visually static character, streets are visually dynamic, with a strong nCorresponding author. sense of movement and direction. E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Tandon). Peer review under responsibility of Southeast University. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2017.10.001 2095-2635/& 2017 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Please cite this article as: Tandon, M., Sehgal, V., Traditional Indian religious streets: A spatial study of the streets of Mathura. Frontiers of Architectural Research (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2017.10.001 2 M. Tandon, V. Sehgal

Indian streets are vibrant public spaces that are used not Dwarka. Located on the banks of the Yamuna River, Mathura only for commuting but also for performing various activities, has a long history and traditions associated with the birthplace such as sitting, eating, sleeping, communicating, or hanging and life of the Hindu deity, Lord Krishna. Mathura is central to out. For streets in India, Appadurai (1987, p. 14) asserted that, Brajbhoomi. Brajbhoomi has two distinct units: the eastern “With the possible exception of the railroad, streets capture side of the Yamuna River, which covers Gokul, Mahavan, more about India than any other setting. On its streets, India Baldeo, Mat, and Bajna, and the western side, which includes eats, sleeps, works, moves, celebrates and worships.” Indian Vrindavan, Govardhan, Barsana, and Nandgaon. streets bring people together socially and provide a physical The myth associated with the city dates to 3000 B.C., setting for socioeconomic activities (Jacobs, 1993). Tangible when Mathura was ruled by Yadava rulers. Kansa, who (i.e., the physical environment) and intangible (i.e., the belonged to the Bhoja dynasty, siezed the kingdom from ambient environment) features add values to street quality. Surasena of the Yadu dynasty. Kansa was the maternal uncle Furthermore, if streets are located in religious precincts, then of Lord Krishna. He was a tyrant ruler. He subjected the another dimension is added. The strong elements of religious Yadus to great tyranny. Ultimately, Lord Krishna, with the spatiality are added to social functions. Streets are commer- help of his brother Balaram who grew up in Vrindavan, killed cial in nature, with shops selling goods that are directly or Kansa in an epic encounter and relieved the masses from his indirectly related to temple rituals and serve as a link between tyrannical rule (Jayaram, n.d.). the sacred and the profane. Traditional streets, which are Mathura became a popular learning center in the 6th mostly narrow, are designed for pedestrians and are perceived century B.C. Lord Mahavira, the last Jain Teerthankar, and as humane, warm, intimate, and personal.Inaddition,having Gautam Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, commonly been developed over the years, they are culture specific visited the city of Mathura to propagate their pious teach- (Rapoport, 1990a, 1990b). ings. Buddhism and Jainism flourished in and around Apart from being active during the entire day, these Mathura for several centuries. Mathura emerged as a streets are busy and lively at specific times of the day when prominent center of trade during the Mauryan rule. Brah- the darshan of deities is performed in the morning and manism flourished prominently during the rule of Nagas and evening, with numerous people gathering inside the temple. Guptas (Jayaram, n.d.). Moving toward the temple and the garbagriha, people Muslim invaders plundered Mathura during their rule. perform the rituals associated with prayers, which include They amassed massive wealth and discredited native reli- buying Prasad and flowers to offer to the deities, removing gions. Aurangzeb (17th century) plundered several temples footwear, and washing the hands, either inside the complex in Mathura and changed the name of Mathura to Islamabad. or on streets and shops. During the processions held on After the decline of the Mughal era, Marathas tried hard to special occasions, many people gather on the streets and restore the Hindutva character of Brajbhoomi. Several new relive the memory of the past. Filled with religious fervor, temples were built during this period. Under the British the spaces become immensely sacred and the movement rule, Mathura once again became a popular pilgrim center considerably experiential. With distinct activities and reli- (Jayaram, n.d.). gious rituals, the character of these streets should be studied and analyzed. In the following section, a street of Mathura is evaluated 3. Temple and the street on the basis of street qualities. Mathura retains the relics of its myths, legends, and historical tales in numerous temples and shrines located in 2. Historical background of Mathura and around the city. Dwarkadhish Temple is one such religious shrine of Mathura and is one of the most important Mathura is one of the seven holy cities of Hindus, with the shrines. Seth Gokul Das Parikh, the treasurer of the Gwalior others being Haridwar, Varanasi, Ujjain, Kanchi, Puri, and Estate and a great devotee of Lord Krishna, constructed the

Figure 1 Vishram Bazaar Street, Mathura. Source: Google Pro

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