Jörg Gengnagel Visualized Texts Sacred Spaces, Spatial Texts and the Religious Cartography of Banaras 2011 Harrassowitz Verlag . Wiesbaden ISSN 1860-2053 ISBN 978-3-447-05732-5 Contents Acknowledgements 7 Illustrations 9 Abbreviations 12 1. Introduction 13 1.1 Survey of the Collected Cartographic Material 16 2. KāśīkhaŘĞokta–Kāśī in Texts 23 2.1 Aspects of PurāŘa Studies 26 2.2 Spatial Texts on Banaras in Sanskrit Literature 28 The Oldest Version of the SkandapurāŘa 29 Bhažžarāī’s Edition of the AmbikākhaŘĞa 30 The KāśīkhaŘĞa 32 Other Puranic Sources 33 2.3 Manuscripts on the Sacred Topography of Banaras 43 2.4 The KāśīdarpaŘam, or the Interrelatedness of Text and Map 50 3. Kāśīyātrā–Maps and Processions in Banaras 55 3.1 The Debate Concerning the Pañcakrośīyātrā 55 The Booklet Pañcakrośī ke Mārg kā Vicār 58 The Search for the “Old” and “New” Pañcakrośī Route 64 Right or Wrong? Spatial Texts and Pilgrimage Practice 71 4. Kāśīdarśana–Kāśī in Maps 73 4.1 The Stylised Map of VārāŘasī 73 The Central Structure Around Viśveśvara 79 The Eight Circles Surrounding the Central Structure with Viśveśvara 82 The Outer Circle 89 The Temples Outside the Square 94 The Shrines and Temples Inside the Square and Outside the Area of the AntargŬhayātrā 97 The Stylised map of VārāŘasī: Visualizing Centrality 104 4.2 The Pictorial Map Pilgrims in Banaras 106 The River Front Panorama 110 The Yoginīs 110 Inscriptions on the Map Pilgrims in Banaras 112 Objects and Places on the Map Pilgrims in Banaras 116 6 Contents 4.3 The Saptapurīyātrādiprakāśapatra Printed in 1873 149 Early Printed Maps of Banaras 149 On the two Versions of the Map 150 The Structure of the Map 151 The Agents: Mapmakers, Printers and other Specialists 155 The Processions Indicated on the Map 157 4.4 The Mirror of Kāśī (KāśīdarpaŘa) by Kailāsanātha Sukula 162 The Title of the Map 164 The Cardinal Directions and the Orientation of the Map 166 Protecting Sacred Space: The Outer Circle 169 The 96 Śaktis According to KāśīkhaŘĞa Chapter 72 171 Water Places Along the River 173 The Textual Content of the Map 174 The KāśīdarpaŘa and the Depiction of Processions 178 Visualizing Sacred Spaces 179 5. Conclusion 187 Plates 195 Appendices 1. List of Religious and Topographical Maps of Banaras 219 2. Processions According to Kedarnāth Vyās 233 a. The Names of the 57 Processions b. List of the Nitya-, AntargŬha-, Pañcakrośī-, Avimukta-, Nagara- pradakŴiŘā-, Chapannavināyaka-, and AŖgayātrā 3. General Index of Names Indicated on the Analyzed Historical Maps 249 Bibliography 321 Index 335 Acknowledgements This book presents the results of my research carried out as a member of the VārāŘasī Research Project at the South Asia Institute in Heidelberg. In December 2005 it has been submitted as habilitation thesis to the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Heidelberg. In the present form minor changes as well as corrections and additions have been incorporated. It is my pleasure to thank the following people who contributed to this book: In Heidelberg, the members of the VārāŘasī Research Project at the South Asia Institute. I am especially grateful to Axel Michaels for his constant support, en- couragement, and patience while supervising the project. Niels Gutschow for sharing his extraordinary spatial knowledge, for the stimulating exchange, and the maps and drawings prepared by him and Anil Basukala for the present study. Martin Gaenszle for numerous discussions regarding the social and historical con- text of religious cartography. Joachim K. Bautze with whom I was able to discuss art historical aspects of the collected material. Birgit Mayer-König for her contributions to the “Benares Arbeitskreis”, and especially the study of the map KāśīdarpaŘa. Stefan Schütte for sharing the material collected in Banaras, as well as his experiences on the road there with pilgrims. Michaela Dimmers, research assistant in both Heidelberg and Banaras, who has taken much more interest in the content of my research project than I could have hoped. In Banaras Rana P. B. Singh for sharing, from the very beginning, his vast scholarship on the sacred topography of Banaras. Kedarnāth Vyās for allowing us to profit in countless ways from his extraordinary knowledge of sacred places and pilgrimage practice. Shashank Singh for showing us his collection of treasures and allowing us to photograph and photocopy them. Bettina Bäumer and Sadānanda Dās for their constant support in my attempts to locate sources in Banaras. Ramā- pada Carkravartī for his assistance in the search for manuscripts at the Sarasvatī- bhavana Library. The director and staff of the Ramnagar Palace Library for all- owing me access to the library. Hemant Sarna and Beat Niederer for their assistance in Banaras. Finally, my friend Rakesh Singh for his companionship and encouraging interest in vexing issues such as old and new roads. My thanks to Susan Gole, who from the earliest stages of the project, shared her vast experience in the field of Indian cartography. She has generously provided the references for the painted maps at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London as well as the National Museum in New Delhi. I would like to express my thanks to the staff of the Picture Library of the Victoria & Albert Museum and especially to 8 Acknowledgements Rosemary Crill, Indian & South-East Asian Department, who provided invaluable assistance when I studied the Stylised Map of VārāŘasī. Andrew Topsfield made the printed maps of Banaras in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford accessible and at a later stage provided information regarding illuminated manu- scripts of Banaras. I would like to thank Aditya Malik for his assistance while I was searching for maps in New Delhi. I am extremely grateful to Dr. Daljeet Singh, Keeper-in-Charge of the Department of Painting at the National Museum, New Delhi, and the staff of the department for their assistance along with the time they gave me to sit and study the map Pilgrims in Banaras. I should also like to thank Vasudha Dalmia who was involved in my encounter with Banaras at various stages. Most recently she searched her collection on Bhāratendu Hariścandra for a copy of the Pañcakrośī ke mārg kā vicār. My thanks to David Whizin, as well, for editing this English manuscript and to Quoc-Bao Do for his invaluable technical assistance while finalizing the book. Jörg Gengnagel Tübingen / Heidelberg, July 2011 1. Introduction 1. Introduction The study of the history of South Asian cartography has long been interpreted based on Western cartographic traditions. Maps of the South Asian subcontinent were assumed to be produced by foreigners–not by South Asians themselves. Maps actually produced in South Asia were neglected as a category in their own right, thereby supporting the assertion made in 1992 by Joseph E. Schwartzberg that “the study of the history of [South Asian, J. G.] cartography is still in its infancy.” (Schwartzberg 1992: 509). The first monograph regarding South Asian carto- graphy, entiteld Indian Maps and Plans, was published by Susan Gole in 1989. Besides a brief introduction, the book contains many maps never previously re- produced. In 1992, Joseph E. Schwartzberg (1992: 295–518) published an “Introduction to South Asian Cartography”, which is partly based on Susan Gole’s collections, and forms part of The History of Cartography Project, headed by the late J. B. Harley and David Woodward.1 Since then a brief historical overview has been published by P. L. Madan (1997). The geographical and cartographical con- struction of British India in the context of colonialism has been studied by M. H. Edney (1997). Aiming at a “deconstruction of the map” J. B. Harley (1988, 1992) has greatly influenced and broadened the perspectives on cartography in general, and non-Western cartography in particular. Within the field of Critical Human Geography the theory of geographic visualization has bridged the way from the so- called single accurate topographical map to a view which emphasizes the import- ance of multiple perspectives and multiple maps; in other words, to perceive and study maps as social constructions (Crampton 2001). During the last decades the commonly held view that, aside from Western spatial and cartographical practice no independent indigenous traditions of South Asian cartography exist, has been called into question. As a result, Raj (2003) has criticized Edney for over- simplifying the processes involved in the construction of cartographical know- ledge. Raj views these processes as a joint Indo-British venture that resulted in a type of hybrid culture, emerging from the “asymmetrical relationship” (2003: 53) between the colonizers and the colonized. In spite of this broadened interest in research on cartography the available data on South Asian cartography remains scarce and even when cartographic material is —————— 1 In the series “The History of Cartography” four volumes have been published so far by Harley & Woodward (1987, 1992, 1994, 1998), and an additional four volumes are announced on the project’s homepage (see www.geography.wisc.edu/histcart). 14 1. Introduction at our disposal its study has generally been neglected by the relevant academic disciplines. For the art historian the visual elements on the maps are not of artistic interest, the geographer misses the geographical similitude and topographical exactness, and for the indologist the number of inscribed texts is insufficient and lack originality.2 Bearing in mind this desideratum of interdisciplinary effort in the study of South Asian Cartography, the VārāŘasī Research Project “Visualized Space– Constructions of Locality and Cartographic Representations in Banaras” at the South Asia Institute, in Heidelberg, has chosen the North Indian pilgrimage centre Banaras (VārāŘasī, Kāśī) for a survey and case study concerning one specific local tradition of spatiality and cartography.3 The present study is based on material collected in the sub-project, “Visualized Texts–Religious Maps and Divination Charts”, headed by Axel Michaels.