Reinvigorating sacred environment of religious precinct: case of Mathura

Abstract

Religion and Pilgrimage in India are as old as Indian civilization itself. India’s geography is nested with series of pilgrimage place with their hinterland, making it a vast area of ‘faithscape’. Therefore, India, being a multi-cultural and multi-religious country has a strong influence of religion on both the social aspects as well as physical aspects of the city. It has shaped Indian Cities for centuries and is an important element of their Genius Loci. The images, Built heritage sites, Public expressions of Rituals, Festivals and celebrations in India are all strongly associated with Religion, which does have a spatial implication on Built environment. Yet, the influence of religion has always been overlooked in our western-inspired planning systems, which was once an integral part of Indian city planning principles. Holy cities, in India have been planned on the principles of cosmology, having a sacred geography. But, with the increasing pace of urbanization, there has been a rapid transformation of Urban Form, which in turn affect the spirit of the place. The city of Mathura has been considered as the case for exploration, which is one of the 7 Holy cities among the Pan India Pilgrimage places, with a huge influx of Pilgrims every year. Mathura being the central point of the holy Braj Region gains much more religious importance among the other 73 sacred towns and cities of Braj. The Sacred geography of Mathura, is clearly expressed by the sacred territorial boundaries defined by the pilgrimage routes embedded with a series of religious nodes, which are under constant transformation in the advent of urbanization, globalization and religious tourism. Mathura being one of the most sacred city of India, the religious influence on the urban experience has resonances in all aspects of city form, yet it has not been given much consideration. The resultant inappropriate and incompatible modernization trends have affected the inherent spirit of the place, thereby affecting the religiosity of the place. Thus, this study focuses on establishing the relationship between urban space and its inherent religious spirit; which becomes the basis to understand how the urban transformation has changed the religiosity of the place and how its sacred environment can be strengthened.