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.
