1

Aditya Barve

Ritual and City Form

Temple Towns of South India

Theory of City Form 4.241 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Spring 2012

Shrirangam

Madurai

Suchindram

1. Temple Towns of South India

Cities are the products of social interaction, which also shapes them into finite urban forms. Rituals form a key part of social interactions. Rituals require communal participation and often appropriate the space in which they are performed. Rituals can be divided into two categories -- static or dynamic -- and they shape the urban form around them accordingly. This paper will examine the relation between the urban form and rituals by focusing on three historic cities in South India: Shrirangam, Madurai and Suchindram. It will focus on the changing nature of ritual and its corresponding urban form in order to arrive at conclusion as to how the rituals have shaped the urban patterns.

One can define a ritual as a specific social action of symbolic importance requiring communal participation. In every culture, rituals are a key part of social interaction. An individual, group or community can perform a ritual and invariably they are initiated by demarcating the space in which it is performed. Rituals sustain societys equilibrium and strengthen the solidarity among its members. Rituals can be political or religious in nature; they can also be characterized based on their appropriation of space. This appropriation can be seen as either dynamic or static. Dynamic rituals like processions or parades are linear in nature. In contrast to, static rituals like fairs, festive gatherings, and even games are central or nodal in nature. Rituals influence the way urban form develops, and they are the expressions of values that the particular society holds dear. In the words of philosopher Henry Lefevbre,every society offers up its own peculiar space [] as an object for analysis and overall theoretical explication.1 For example, linear rituals like parades, often force axiality on the urban form. Fairs and
1 Henry Lefebvre, The Production of Space (Cambridge: Blackwell, 1991), 47

gatherings give rise to open civic spaces like plazas and squares. The scale of these spaces can also be linked to the scale and importance of the rituals, which can play a more important role in the size and shape of that space than the built form around it. Both sociologists and anthropologist have studied the role of ritual extensively; however, less work has been done in the field of urban design to understand the effects of rituals on the production of space. This paper attempts to understand the processes influenced by the rituals that are involved in the creation of urban space. The understanding of the temporal nature of space is meaningful for designers and planners, for it enables them to design more humane spaces. This paper will examine the influence of rituals on urban form, specifically in the case of Temple towns in South India. In all cases the nature of ritual is similar and has yielded an urban form that is commensurate with it. In the temple towns of Madurai, Suchindram and Shrirangam the religious ritual of circumambulatory procession around the central shrine has produced a city with concentric rings of development. Yet the urban morphology of these cities is not the same. These

cities, with different urban morphologies but similar societies, offer the opportunity to investigate some aspects of rituals that shape the urban form. This paper will try to analyze how the differing nature and type of rituals produce differences in the urban fabric. It will identify which components of built form are required for particular ritualistic types; and it will trace how the city adapts to the changing nature of rituals. Ritualistic processes and their nature Before we can study the examples of cities and rituals, we need to define the scope of the word ritual as it applies to the field of urbanism. The word ritual has many subtle meanings and shades. It comes from Latin word ritualis, which means relating to rites.2 The distinction between mere action and ritual is not clear, for instance, eating a meal is a normal action, but saying grace or a prayer is a ritual. Ritual has been discussed at length in anthropology and sociology. British cultural anthropologist Victor Turner defines ritual as prescribed formal behavior for occasions not
2 Online Etymology Dictionary. (2012, April 27) retrieved from http:// www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=ritual

given over to technological routine.3 To explain this further, tying ones shoelaces is a routine, but tying the laces of specific foot first can be a ritual. Rituals often reveal the beliefs of a person or a society. They exalt the participant beyond the everyday functional plane. Time is also important a factor while considering ritual. Ritualistic process is a cyclic process, and is performed in specific cycles of time; for example, Olympic games comprises of a sports ritual that takes place every four years. The word ritual is often used interchangeably for religious, ceremonial or customary actions. Rituals almost always serve to revive the memory. Thus, as Turner puts it, rituals and symbols are storage systems where memory and the past are linked and stored.4 Ritualistic processes often serve to revive myths by recreating symbolic actions that are linked with the mythical setting. Rituals in a society can then be categorized based on the intent or on the form of their space appropriation. Rituals can be political like parades, religious such as processions or civic, such as Olympics.
3 Victor Turner, The forest of symbols: aspects of Ndembu ritual (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1967), 19 4 Ibid ,

Generally most rituals fall in-between the spectrum of being political or religious with varying degrees of either condition. Rituals that need community participation are often guided with some authority and controlled by some belief system. The Political side of ritual then acts as a control system of social behavior. This aspect of a ritual is important for sociologists and anthropologists; however, for urban designers and planners, the second nature of ritual, its appropriation of space, carries more promise. Ritual, be it political, religious or civic, appropriates the space in some or the other way. Festivities, political rallies, parades, and religious processions mark the spaces in which they are performed in one or more ways. This space appropriation can be categorized as linear, circular or nodal. Furthermore, there is a strong link between the ritual, which revives memory, and architecture, which acts for its appropriation of space. It is important to note that memory, as intended here, is distinctly different from history of the place; moreover, memory can even be mythical and carries some enshrinement of the act. Architecturally this act of claiming the space is often signified with the

monumentality. This link between space appropriation and memory is reflected in the works and writings of architect Aldo Rossi. He makes interesting linkages between monument and ritual:
() The importance of ritual in its collective nature and its essential character as an element for preserving myth, constitutes the key understanding (of) the meaning of monument, and moreover the implications of the founding the city, and of the transmission of ideas in an urban context. () If the ritual is the permanent and conserving element of myth then so too is the monument, since in the very moment that it testifies to myth it renders ritual forms possible.5

Thus, monument is a built equivalent of the ritual. But ritual is far more than just a memorial service. It constitutes festivities and fairs; and the spaces in which those take place are of extreme importance; moreover, the nature of the ritual dictates the nature of the space. This relation of ritual and space can be observed at all scales, from the scale of a small shrine to the scale of an entire city. During rituals, the most mundane of
5 Aldo Rossi, Architecture of the City ,(Cambridge : MIT Press) 24

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2. Vastu Purusha Mandala 3. Conceptual city plans prescribed in Mayamatam based on Vastu Purusha Mandala

urban spaces can be transformed to an unrecognizable degree and elevated to the place of the supernatural. The processional streets of all the Temple towns discussed here are a perfect example of this. The diagram of the city and its importance. At this point it is important to understand the roots of south Indian temple towns. These towns were founded in pre-industrial times; thus, as with all pre-industrial cities, religion has been central to these cities. Many have religious symbolism embedded in their design. These cities emerged in medieval ages as declaration to the political power of the king, backed by the religion. One can trace the beginnings of this process in the adoption of the king as the mediator between divinity and his subjects. This divine kingship with throne, palace and royal temple as its attributes were then enclosed in a holy city. As a symbol of his power, the king built the city with the central shrine; often according to the ritual formulas in the sacred texts like Mayamatam or Shilpa Shastras. The City thus became a tool to connect the divine to the earthly. In ancient India, religion and architecture

evolved in parallel, often influencing each other. Traditional texts on architecture state that the towns, especially capital cities, require a major temple to house the protective god or goddess. This divine connection was responsible for the well-being of the citizenry. The layout of these cities was guided by a strict geometrical system known as Vastu Purush mandala. The word mandala literally means circle but can imply any enclosed and symmetrically divided figure of ritual and religious significance. A vastu purush mandala, often a complex subdivision of a square, is a diagram representing the divine connection of architecture. It is a way to define space through means of a cosmic diagram. The relationship of the square and the circle can be explained in the interpretation of the circle as a cyclic representation of time and square as an unequivocal and absolute form. If one considers just the bare earth, it is represented as a circle but when the earth is regarded as the manifestation of the supreme principle, Brahmn, it is rendered as a square. Man and earth correspond to each other in this diagram.6 Ancient Indian architecture and town planning was based on this idea of the mandala.
6 Volwahsen Andres, Living Architecture : Indian , 44

The mandala diagram was a symbolic representation of the ideal pattern of cosmic order. This cosmic connection is woven in the city through placement of religious markers at specific points in the mandala. Cardinal points in the square grid were assigned to a protective god or goddess. The more detailed use of these diagrams is prescribed in hilpa hastras the traditional texts on architecture. A mandala can be drawn in 32 ways according to scriptures and besides myths and ritual, architecture is most pronounced representation of this cosmic order. The mandala is further defined by the presence of the vstu purusha the spirit of the site. Art historian Stella Kramrisch in her monumental treatise on Hindu architecture argues that the central shrine is the vertical realization of the vstu purusha mandala. Because of the purely diagrammatic nature of mandala it can be used in any scale, without loosing its symbolic integrity. A ritual procession through the city traces the same mandala, which in its miniature scale is traced by circumambulation around the central shrine. This representation even goes down to the scale of ritual diagrams Kolam, drawn by women in front of houses

every morning.7 Rituals: Temple Towns of South India In India, the relationship of ritual and space is nowhere as pronounced as in the temple towns of Tamil Nadu. These cities were least affected by the Muslim invasions compared to cities in northern India, and that is why they offer undisturbed connection with traditions of Hindu architecture. In the words of art historian George Michell the interaction between sacred space and urban space is a prominent feature of Tamil Nadus temple towns8. In these temple towns, the mandala diagram is palpable in the city plan. It is also important to note, that these temple towns follow the exact same rituals since the early medieval ages. These rituals are thus distilled in their respective urban patterns. While this paper focuses on three towns, scores of other towns, small and large, exhibit the relation of the characteristic diagram formed by ritual procession in their plan. One can find two typologies of religious order in the city plan. First and most prominent is the regular geometrical configuration, governed by a mandala with
7 Volwahsen Andres, Living Architecture : Indian, 45 8 Michell George, Temple Towns of Tamil Nadu, 7

a central shrine. The other is a street layout, dominated by independent shrines, which forms the focal points of city fabric. The towns of Madurai and Shrirangam are examples of the first, whereas Kumbhakonam and Kanchipuram are examples of the second. To understand the effects of ritual and space in Temple towns, we must first understand the nature of ritualistic procession in these towns. Temple rituals may be characterized as private and public. Pj, which is daily, is performed in front of the deity and is generally more private in nature. On the other hand, festivals, which are occasional, form the most visible and public events. Festivities -- tiruvil royal feasts in local Tamil language -- are based on the lunar calendar. The most important of these is the great feast (Bramhstsava), which takes place in the month of cittirai (April-May) over ten days. On each of the first nine days, two daily processions take place in mornings and evenings. For these processions, a smaller version of the deity is placed on a wooden chariot. This chariot then is taken on a prearranged route; the route involves visits to specific temples outside the city boundary and circumambulates the city in specific directions.

Another important factor that links the diagram of the city and the ritual is the identity of the deity. In Hindu belief, the god triad of Brhma, Vihnu and Shiv is related with the generation, regulation and destruction of the world. The worship of last two, Shiv and Vihnu evolved in specific cults of Shaivites and of Vaishnavites, based on veneration of specific god. Each god also commands fixed number of circumambulations.9 Often, one can link the plan of the temple town and number of its concentric rings with the deity of the city. The Majority of the towns with central shrine dedicated to Shiv have one concentric ring; those dedicated to the Vihnu have three. This observation, though helpful in symbolizing the deity in town-plan does not always hold true and the exceptions like Kumbhakonam, Uttiramerur or Kanchipuram can be attributed to different historic models. Spatial manifestation of Processions In these cities, the role played by the deity is singular; the god here is not just an idol or a symbolic presence but is considered as a person and a sovereign
9 Arun Ganpathy, Why We Circumambulate, Times of India, Aug 11,2011,http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

extending his power over the city. Presence of the deity as a person in these cities is further strengthened by their entitlement to the most human of things-- marriage, desire to take holidays, willingness to engage in playful quarrels and conquest with other temple deities in the region10. The rituals make little sense unless viewed with the perspective that they are homage to a sovereign. With this symbolism center of the cosmic diagram becomes the most sacred place, and is assigned a temple. This symbolism generates essential elements for the city that is based on strong geometry, and is directed inwards to the center. The ritualistic movement in the form of processions is in turn governed by the citys cosmic diagram. According to architectural historian Andres Volwahsen, this tradition is analogous to Vedic rituals of venerating the altar by carrying it in the clockwise direction in the procession.11 This evolved into the chariot processions of south Indian temples. Processions are also the way to extend the religious and ritual presence of the divine outside the temple walls. These
1 ppadurai rjun and Breckenridge Carol, The south Indian temple: authority, honor and redistribution, 19 11 Volwahsen Andres, Living Architecture : Indian, 44

processional rituals follow prescribed routes, which depend upon time, season and the nature of a ritual. Not only do gods follow these cosmic diagrams but the ritual path is also traversed at the time of last rites on the dead. The body is carried out on certain specified paths tracing the mandala diagram in space and time. Cast and rank of the dead decide the path that this procession takes; thus it even anchors the deep structure of society to the diagram (see fig.6). It also governs the habitation patterns; prescribing the location for specific casts to live in specific parts of the diagram.12 Water in the form of tanks with Kulam -shrines and other smaller temples -- is also an important part of formal repertoire of urban elements. In most cases it forms the boundary of a town. There are usually eight tanks in eight cardinal directions with one in the center. These tanks not only play important role in ritual bathing but also are the meaningful components of a ritual as once a year the deity travels on water in an important festival ceremony. For this ritual, the temple towns have at lest one large tank. Square in shape, this tank is often located at one end of the main axis, and is
12 Piper an, The spatial structure of Suchindram, AARP 17 (London, 190)

Madurai

Shrirangam

Suchindram

4. Plans of three temple towns showing the temple proper at same scale

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aligned with the temple gates. All the temple towns were and still are market towns of importance. Kanchipuram, dealing in exquisite textiles, provides an example of this growth pattern. It also highlights the simultaneous rise of political power, trade, and religious pilgrimages. Religious rituals in the form of festivals are also beneficial to trade. George Michell, in his analysis of Kumbhkonam, describes this phenomenon as:
Processions take place in the street, in full view of crowds of visitors, who pay homage to gods and goddesses before proceeding to the business of buying and selling. () Each of the religious complexes of Kumbhakonam, for instance, is approached by a long colonnade that functions as market.13

confirm and differ with the prescribed model. For the purpose of this analysis we will ignore the specificities of rituals in those cities and relay on the similarities. Shrirangam and Madurai Cities of Madurai and Shrirangam share many of the same ideals. In the case of Shrirangam, the spatial manifestation of the mandala diagram and its ritualism appears in its purest form. Shrirangams urban fabric is composed of seven concentric rings. Out of that, first four constitute the temple zone, while others are residential. In the regional scale, Shrirangam is the first of the four Vihnu pilgrimage sites. By visiting each of them in a prescribed sequence, one can circumambulate the entire Tamil region. Situated on an island, Shrirangam is also a part of the string of holy places along the Cauvery River. The Urban fabric of the town, with its several concentric zones, consists of specific markers like ritual bathing tanks, sites where three temple chariots are kept, and the temple proper. The figure of the city is fixed in relation with river by series of ghats or cremation and religious spaces. The ghats are linked by a north-south axis to the main temple and the axis mundi of the city

With this overview we can now look at examples that best represent some of these characteristics of a temple town shaped by ritualistic movement. There are scores of temple towns but we will consider Shrirangam, Madurai and Suchindram and will focus on how they
13 Vivek Nanda, Anna Dallapiccola, Michal George: The Ramasvami Temple (South Asian Studies 13:1, 1997) 1-15

5.The symmetric principal that dominates Shrirangams plan, walls and concentric zones

6. The social strcuture controlled by diagram with higher cast in NE-SW Diagonal

7. Shrirangam

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diagram. The city diagram is oriented around two axial streets that cross at right angles. Ritualistically, all these elements form the experiential space of the town. Nine tanks mark the innermost zone; eight are placed on the periphery and the ninth is at the center. By performing ritual baths in a specific sequence in all of these, pilgrim circumambulates the town three times, three being the number of circumambulations prescribed for lord Vihnu.
. View of Shrirangam Temple Complex with a Gopura in foreground

The concentric streets are named after the months in the Tamil year, according to the month when the deities were taken in procession around the city. Another dimension of the diagram of the city is its control of social structure. Brahmin or priestly cast exclusively inhabits the first two rings (Uttira and Chittira). They also take up the northwest and southeast corners of the city, leaving opposite corners for lower classes. With certain exceptions no car festival is allowed on this third street; circumambulation is limited to only Uttira and Chittira streets and has to be done in clockwise direction. Madurai is the most multifaceted example amongst the three. Architect ulian Smiths discusses it

9. one of the processional charriots in Shrirangam

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10. Madurai

at length for its relation with processions14. Due to lack of archeological evidence, the correct founding date of Madurai is unknown. The earliest mention of Madurai comes from Koutilyas Arthashastra. It was the capital of the Sangam dynasty from 300 B.C. to 200 A.D. Thus, Madurai presents a clear case as a divine connection between the God and the King. The city diagram, though not as precise as Shrirangam, still holds the same principals. It has five concentric streets, named after the months in Tamil calendar. Each month there are processions that correspond to specific street and thus by the end of the year deities trace out the map of the city. The main difference between Shrirangam and Madurai is that Shrirangam is a direct translation of prescribed diagram, and its concentric rings suggest the heightened importance to the pilgrim rather than to the city dweller. The concept of time is important in this ritual; it is not reproducible anywhere else in the same form. By tracing the city diagram in space and time, ritual acts as a mnemonic device. It is also infused with local conditions as the calendar on which it is based is related with seasons, and is thus associated with timings of agrarian, commercial
11. Tracing the sacred diagram : Sequence of procession throughout the year in madurai.

activities.
14 ulian Smith, Madurai : the Architecture of a City (SMarchS Thesis, MIT,1969)

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12. Suchindram

The town of Suchindram is slightly different from the above-discussed temple cities model, where the role of axiality and water are more pronounced.
13. Main religious elements in Suchindram 1: Main Temple 2: Ganesh Temple 3:Water Tank

Suchindram Suchindram is a small town, located in southernmost part of Indian peninsula. Nayaka kings founded it in the 9th century A.D. Irrespective of its small size, kings of Travancore dynasty made Suchindram as their family shrine, and a major religious center. The functions of the city are limited to serving the temple and hence the urban elements are directly related to the religious activities. The temple of Suchindram is oriented off the cardinal axis by a few degrees. It orients towards the direction of the sunrise and sunset, as on the day of its foundation. This alignment is also a tool to evoke the memory in the subtlest way. In terms of urban fabric, the town consists of the temple, one processional road around it,

14. Four secondary temples in cardinal points fixing the xis Mundi

ceremonial path that runs east to west, a water tank and related religious structures. This is the assemblage of most essential elements in temple town. All the above elements are laid out to form a specific movement pattern

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in urban space. They are either to be circumambulated, moved through, across or out from. All the elements form markers in the space that is then appropriated with rituals. The symbolic role of water in Suchindram is slightly different from Shrirangam or Madurai. Instead of eight cardinal tanks, Suchindram has one large tank. ust like chariot circumambulating a temple, a ritual circumambulation by the ceremonial float is associated with this tank. This highlights an analogy between the tank and the temple. Anthropologist an piper portrays this particular aspect as juxtaposition of the solid and the void, of male upper town of Shiva around the temple and a female lower town with a temple of goddess parvati, in tank facing north.15 Another element that defers from Madurai and Shrirangam is the east-west street that forms an axis. This axis is ritualized in a procession that marks the end of almost all festive days. This is the path through which the idol returns to temple after the ritual
15 an piper, Spatial Structure of Suchindram AARP 17(London, 190), 75

circumambulation. On its way out, the procession halts before every household, it halts at corners and almost as a spatial response corners become wider than the street. During three major festivals there are 72 grand circumambulation and 216 less important ones16. The chariot procession takes place on the ninth day of grand festival. The fact the chariot takes more than 1000 men to move is significant of the space needed for this ritual. Dragging this seemingly immobile structure is the most haptic of urban rituals.

16 Ibid., 76

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Inferences the relation between the built form of the city and the ritual practices that generate it. The case of South Indian temple towns is a remarkable example for this study as it presents a clear cohesion between a prescribed theory of architecture, religion and the sociol pattern. While Looking

ancient rituals on newer and modern parts of these cities. its appropriation of form, modern day rituals however are more difficult to pinpoint and so are their effect on urban form. It is yet to be seen how these cosmic cores will respond to the new market forces, but even in their present form, they hint towards the possibility of a design process

The main aim of this paper was to understand Old temple towns present a very clear case of rituals and

at these examples from a modern viewpoint, it is difficult that strives to pull together all the strands of social life to fully acknowledge the intertwined nature of religion, into the mythical and ritualistic realm and gives it a finite built form and the myth; nonetheless in these towns, the presence of a strong bond that links the space with the beliefs of a society is palpable. These are the places where religion is still the dominant force and despite the impact of modern day changes, most of the rituals are still carried out with same orthodoxy, as they were centuries ago. Some of these cities however have expanded outside the boundaries prescribed by the original city diagram; the new growth has no relation with rituals of the old part and it reflects the aspirations of a newer generation. This paper discusses three towns in some detail but the same ideals are present in well over seventeen towns; it will be useful to examine these in more detail. Further studies also could be done focusing on effects of these urban form.

Illustrations Credits
5,6,13,14 : Pieper, an, ed. Ritual Space in India: Studies in Architectural Anthropology. Vol. 17. London: AARP, 190. 3,4,11: Smith, ulian S. Madurai, India : The Architecture of a city. unpublished thesis, MIT. 1976. 2: Volwahsen, Andres. Living Architecture - India. London: MacDonald and Co, 1969. 7,10,12 : Google Earth accessed on April 29,2012 1,8 : Michell, George, ed. Temple Towns of Tamil Nadu. Mumbai: Marg, 1993.

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