Resuscitating the Hindu funeral-scape and urban spirit of Manikarnika ghat, Varanasi

Abstract

The city of Varanasi since the past and in the present is an exceptional testimony to living traditions to be seen, performed and to be believed in religious faith, rituals and myriad festivals, traditional and ancient forms of lifeways that makes it the cultural capital of India (Rana P.B and Neelam, 2012). The Ganga and the sacred territory of Kashi together form the cosmic composition of Varanasi, where the river renders the architectural layout and stylistic connection between the two where one can experience life as an urban theatre. Manikarnika ghat the oldest firmly dated ghat constructed in 1302, famous for cremation symbolically represents the naval of this cosmic city. A source for liberation of souls, today with the half-forgotten philosophical knowledge of rituals is reduces to merely practices and taboos. The stigma attached to Manikarnika ghat has affected the spirit of the place transforming to an introvert space. The heterotopia at funerary space deserves more space devoted by its makers, dealing with the physical decay of the site generating a sense of transference to the cultural matrix similar to the transmigration of souls. The socio-spatial phenomenological relationship formulates architecture as the psyche of a culture. Historic urban areas are not only a sum of monuments and urban fabric, but also are dynamic organisms that continuously change according to the social, economic and physical changes (Bandarin and Oers, 2012). The thesis explores the Historic cultural landscape of Manikarnika Ghat as a vessel of spirit of place, its primordial values, urban degradation and seclusion, furthermore analyzing and suggesting preservation tools that can be applied to the rejuvenation. The addition of new design aims to revive the spirit of the place by embodying a contemporary spirit with an architectural language derived from the primordial geometries and rhythm present at the site and establishes humane connection absent today. The design aims to establish an innate connection between the act of thinking to act of doing or as Hegel says the abstract to the absolute through rites, rituals and collective consciousness towards the Hindu beliefs for death