Cultural resource management plan for the jain Histroric town of Shravanabelagola Karnataka

Abstract

The town of Shravanabelagola, a Jain historic town in the state of Karnataka, encompasses numerous cultural resources (tangible and intangible) intact in their state of authenticity and integrity. Despite being a well-received pilgrimage town among the Jain followers, the potential cultural resources of the site are still lacking an appropriate protection and source Management Plan for the historic town of Shravanabelagola performed to ensure safeguarding of values of the cultural resources in the Jain historic town, based on the survey and analysis of issues impacting the cultural resources. Herein, the understanding of the Jain religion and its architecture would be conducted first with the help of case-studies primarily, so that the understanding of the connection between the two and that of the town at macro level can be developed. The next immediate objective of this thesis would be identifying all the cultural resources within the town and areas of the immediate surrounding having associations with the town tangibly or intangibly so that a listing can be prepared which will guide us in understanding the town at micro level as well as that of its cultural resources and management. Further, analysis of these cultural resources in isolation and holistically with each other would tell us the nature of the issues coming up as being a town of utmost significance in terms of architecture and religion. In this context, we tried to understand the activity pattern in the town by dividing it in zones and then list the issues and potential of each, which will help in developing a priority list based on the cultural resource. The findings will later help in developing the proposals which will be conducted on the priority level of the cultural resource and will follow the matrix by projecting the strategies and guidelines for the isolated entities by escalating the cultural landscape from macro level of the town to the whole. Of note, the thesis concerned will not be limited to the study of the Jain historic town and its cultural resources but also will focus on developing a framework for the culture resource management for the other sites.