Banaras
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BENARAS a sacred city
Benaras – A City’s forms "city of temples and learning" Situated on the banks of the holy river Ganges; in the state of Uttar Pradesh
One of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, dating back thousands of year
As with other ancient Indian cities, Benares developed a range of urban sequences, witness to succeeding dominations which have shaped its urban space by their structuring lines or the monumental buildings – in reference to succeeding dominating ideologies of space ( the Hindu city, the Muslim city and then the colonial city of the British rule )
At first, the observable urban forms can be localized s follows: The distinctive urban fabric situated in the part of the city at one time called PAKKA and nowadays called CHAUK • The urban hand developed along the river, composed of representative buildings of the states of Hindu princes (mainly palaces) and GHATS
• The surrounding districts • On the outskirts of 18th century city – rural accommodation of the hinterland and extensions of the historical centers in the form of gardens and “pleasure residences” of the rich merchants copying the garden of the Moguls cities.
• The present segment of the ancient urban fabric, which is
morphologically divisible from the city, is situated in the quarter of Chauk.
A FRAGMENT OF THE CHAUK Being served by the gali which joins the silk
market to the Manikarnika Ghat, it is inscribed in a part of the city which is intensively lived and worked in by the Banarasis, and also by pilgrims. In addition it is used by accompanying their deceased to the major cremation ghat.
The GALI as an interaction and gathering space Just beyond the ghats is the incredible world of labyrinthine lanes that constitutes the heart of this ancient city.
T H
The Banarasi term for these lanes is
E G
GALI
A
The various aspects to these lanes :
L
• They are so narrow that the only possible mode of transport is one’s own feet
I
• The funeral processions are carried out in these narrow lanes as shown above.
Shops are lined on sides of the gali
With all their cultural wealth, the primary importance of the galis remains economic : the entire commercial activity of the city is conducted within these lanes.
T H E G A Bulls move freely in these lanes. As they are considered to be holy, one has to turn back if a bull comes from the opposite side. When 2 of them lock horns, as they often do all hell brakes loose and people fling themselves into safe corners.
L I
Go anywhere into the lanes and you will hear the sound of musical instruments like the table or the sarangi or the strains of someone practising vocal music.
For centuries now the galis have been alive with the sound of music. The infinite variety of everyday human life, with its essential concerns of health and sickness, work and recreation, its intellectual preoccupation with philosophy, music and poetry, its commercial pre-occupation with buying and selling and its emotional preoccupation with sympathies and antipathies is to be seen at its richest within these lanes.
The narrowness of these galis has successfully kept modernity at bay and long a long way towards creating and preserving the distinctive identity of the city.
T H E G A L I
The Vishwanath Gali The most famous lane in Benares Buildings 3-4 storey high line the lane on both sides, effectively shutting out sunlight. The gali is full of temples, maths, dharamshalas, lingas and images. Most of the shops occupy the outer sections of temples or religious institutions and they are so small and narrow that no customer can step inside. Since the famous Vishwanath temple is located in this lane, a large no. of shops sell objects of ritual and worship.
T H E G A
The religious, cultural and economic life of Benares merge in this gali as nowhere else.
L I
• It comes alive well before sunrise. Devotees go to the ghats for their
ritual morning bath and then come back for a darshan at the Vishwanath temple. • By 10 a.m. the crowd of devotees begins to diminish and the gali takes on a different aspect : shopkeepers and office-goers heading for their place of work, student on their way to schools and colleges. • Shops open by 11 a.m., but real business starts only in the evening. • From 3 p.m. onwards the preoccupation of the gali is strictly secular. Sales are brisk, most of the customers being women. • Later in the evening, everyone in the city seems to move towards the Vishwanath Gali – writers, students, poets, government servants, politicians, all congregate here, and paan shops and tea stalls come into their own. • This crowd disperses over the evening, and by 10 p.m. only those interested in witnessing in witnessing the aarti at the temple remain.
T H E G A L I
The analysis of the buildings shows that, over the result of shares historical origins, there exists a spatial structure which is common to all the architectural types. It is astonishing to discuss that all the buildings – and gardens – in Benares share a common structure : that is, a rectangular enclosure, surrounded by a
wall with door openings, creating an interior space which always emphasizes the geometric centre.
Whichever type of building it is, it is always surrounded by a wall which has an essential relationship with its centre. Each building is therefore an
T H E
enclosed architectural element, autonomous and inward focusing.
H
It is clear that the wall, be it functional or symbolique – like the one which surrounds the sacred part of the city – derives its meaning from the fact that it defines its centrality, itself defines by the building’s medial axis.
O
• Although the 18th century facades were blank, emphasizing the inward focus towars a central interior space, this central space was in contrast, defined by its open character. • The centre of the house is occupied by a porticoed court.
U
S E
The major concept defining residential architecture in Benares thus seems to be
the presence of a central open space enclosed by a blank exterior wall which is lined with a continuous portico on the inside in the house, palace, dharmshala or math • Such is the case of the porticoed architecture lining, in a broken but repetitive manner, the royal reservoirs of the Hindu tradition
It is therefore the opposition between the closed character of the external wall and the openness of its internal side which constitutes the essence of the residential paradigm in Benares.
T H E H O U
• The porticoes were closed off by means of light curtains stretched between the columns, thus protecting the inhabitants from the sun while allowing the air to circulate.
S E
The extreme relativity of spaces and functions which could be related in the house is striking. According to the degree of occupation (the density), the family bonds between the inhabitants, the seasons etc…, the localization of objects in practices varies, as well as the relations of proximity, view or avoidance. Just as the proclivity towards nomads qualifies the relation towards geographical space, the same system defines the relation between the people and the objects in the house. The courtyard, for example, solidifies the habits and
T H E H
generates the boundaries in the house.
O
By solidifying, it is the place of passage and communion, the place around which kitchen activities take place. There you can find water and an opening towards the sky. In generating it signifies – by the handling of private activities in the kitchen or in the front space of the rear room – a border which the visitor to the house must envisage with care.
U
This border is represented by an empty space, the courtyard across which functions the demanded strategy of view – to see or not to see, as well as to be seen or not to be seen
S E
THE INDORE STATE Traditionally the BRAHMAPURI “city or Brahmins”, is the place of residence of the Brahmins and pujaris and their families.
T
• It is composed of 2 lines of houses, coming from a 2 m wide alley parallel to the course of the Ganges.
H
• Of all the houses, it can be noticed that the same principle concerning planification and division of inside space. Combined in a homothetic manner according to the size of the plot and its orientation, it adapts the dimension of the central courtyard to the plot.
E
• The central courtyard distributes several types of spaces, stairways – mostly of 2 flights, the façade wall serving as support – verandas – of which the no. varies according to the breadth of the house – and service rooms – storage spaces and washroom.
H O
• The courtyard ensures the ventilation of the house by an in-draught and serves as an exhaust element
U
• A first space of transition is organized, permitting the visitor to rest without entering the courtyard and without seeing the living room or kitchen. The courtyard leads to a second veranda, a transition space for the room opening onto the Ganges. This room opens onto the courtyard with 3 arches ; the central always the biggest and the other 2 symmetrical.
S E
It has several functions :
A ghat, pakka, is a brickwork – if it is referring to a natural bank, we call it kacca ghat
The most obvious one is the easy and neat access to the water from any waterlevel. An other function is stabilizing the bank situated upon it, generally constructed. • As a succeeding element, the ghat includes in general a supporting wall in its upper part . • Then a series
of
pavements descending to the water . •Finally, a circulating stairway relating the upper pavement to a street or to an occupied unity situated upon it.
T H E G H A
T
The most beautiful ghats also show octagonal raised platforms which are lined up on the shaft limiting the supporting walls. These are places of leisure or meditation.
T
Let us also note that the rectangular platforms – made of boards or stones , which are situated on the pavements, serve as access to the priests.
H E G H A
T
The ghats are the steps on the banks of the Ganges, built below the palaces. The are marked by octagonal platform for public use and smaller rectangular platforms for the exclusive use of the Brahmin. This
is where the ritual bathing of the pilgrims and the daily bathing of the local inhabitants take place. • It is also a place for sports and meditation, rest and recreation.
• The ghats give access to boats on the Ganges on which the pilgrims and the inhabitants of Benares can relax while contemplating the city.
T H E G H A
T
T The pilgrims are obliged to appear on the ghat where the religious ceremonies are conducted by the Ghatiya, a class of Brahmin employed by the state, who were at one time pilgrims themselves.
H E G H A
T
Benaras – A City’s forms "city of temples and learning" Situated on the banks of the holy river Ganges; in the state of Uttar Pradesh
One of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, dating back thousands of year
As with other ancient Indian cities, Benares developed a range of urban sequences, witness to succeeding dominations which have shaped its urban space by their structuring lines or the monumental buildings – in reference to succeeding dominating ideologies of space ( the Hindu city, the Muslim city and then the colonial city of the British rule )
At first, the observable urban forms can be localized s follows: The distinctive urban fabric situated in the part of the city at one time called PAKKA and nowadays called CHAUK • The urban hand developed along the river, composed of representative buildings of the states of Hindu princes (mainly palaces) and GHATS
• The surrounding districts • On the outskirts of 18th century city – rural accommodation of the hinterland and extensions of the historical centers in the form of gardens and “pleasure residences” of the rich merchants copying the garden of the Moguls cities.
• The present segment of the ancient urban fabric, which is
morphologically divisible from the city, is situated in the quarter of Chauk.
A FRAGMENT OF THE CHAUK Being served by the gali which joins the silk
market to the Manikarnika Ghat, it is inscribed in a part of the city which is intensively lived and worked in by the Banarasis, and also by pilgrims. In addition it is used by accompanying their deceased to the major cremation ghat.
The GALI as an interaction and gathering space Just beyond the ghats is the incredible world of labyrinthine lanes that constitutes the heart of this ancient city.
T H
The Banarasi term for these lanes is
E G
GALI
A
The various aspects to these lanes :
L
• They are so narrow that the only possible mode of transport is one’s own feet
I
• The funeral processions are carried out in these narrow lanes as shown above.
Shops are lined on sides of the gali
With all their cultural wealth, the primary importance of the galis remains economic : the entire commercial activity of the city is conducted within these lanes.
T H E G A Bulls move freely in these lanes. As they are considered to be holy, one has to turn back if a bull comes from the opposite side. When 2 of them lock horns, as they often do all hell brakes loose and people fling themselves into safe corners.
L I
Go anywhere into the lanes and you will hear the sound of musical instruments like the table or the sarangi or the strains of someone practising vocal music.
For centuries now the galis have been alive with the sound of music. The infinite variety of everyday human life, with its essential concerns of health and sickness, work and recreation, its intellectual preoccupation with philosophy, music and poetry, its commercial pre-occupation with buying and selling and its emotional preoccupation with sympathies and antipathies is to be seen at its richest within these lanes.
The narrowness of these galis has successfully kept modernity at bay and long a long way towards creating and preserving the distinctive identity of the city.
T H E G A L I
The Vishwanath Gali The most famous lane in Benares Buildings 3-4 storey high line the lane on both sides, effectively shutting out sunlight. The gali is full of temples, maths, dharamshalas, lingas and images. Most of the shops occupy the outer sections of temples or religious institutions and they are so small and narrow that no customer can step inside. Since the famous Vishwanath temple is located in this lane, a large no. of shops sell objects of ritual and worship.
T H E G A
The religious, cultural and economic life of Benares merge in this gali as nowhere else.
L I
• It comes alive well before sunrise. Devotees go to the ghats for their
ritual morning bath and then come back for a darshan at the Vishwanath temple. • By 10 a.m. the crowd of devotees begins to diminish and the gali takes on a different aspect : shopkeepers and office-goers heading for their place of work, student on their way to schools and colleges. • Shops open by 11 a.m., but real business starts only in the evening. • From 3 p.m. onwards the preoccupation of the gali is strictly secular. Sales are brisk, most of the customers being women. • Later in the evening, everyone in the city seems to move towards the Vishwanath Gali – writers, students, poets, government servants, politicians, all congregate here, and paan shops and tea stalls come into their own. • This crowd disperses over the evening, and by 10 p.m. only those interested in witnessing in witnessing the aarti at the temple remain.
T H E G A L I
The analysis of the buildings shows that, over the result of shares historical origins, there exists a spatial structure which is common to all the architectural types. It is astonishing to discuss that all the buildings – and gardens – in Benares share a common structure : that is, a rectangular enclosure, surrounded by a
wall with door openings, creating an interior space which always emphasizes the geometric centre.
Whichever type of building it is, it is always surrounded by a wall which has an essential relationship with its centre. Each building is therefore an
T H E
enclosed architectural element, autonomous and inward focusing.
H
It is clear that the wall, be it functional or symbolique – like the one which surrounds the sacred part of the city – derives its meaning from the fact that it defines its centrality, itself defines by the building’s medial axis.
O
• Although the 18th century facades were blank, emphasizing the inward focus towars a central interior space, this central space was in contrast, defined by its open character. • The centre of the house is occupied by a porticoed court.
U
S E
The major concept defining residential architecture in Benares thus seems to be
the presence of a central open space enclosed by a blank exterior wall which is lined with a continuous portico on the inside in the house, palace, dharmshala or math • Such is the case of the porticoed architecture lining, in a broken but repetitive manner, the royal reservoirs of the Hindu tradition
It is therefore the opposition between the closed character of the external wall and the openness of its internal side which constitutes the essence of the residential paradigm in Benares.
T H E H O U
• The porticoes were closed off by means of light curtains stretched between the columns, thus protecting the inhabitants from the sun while allowing the air to circulate.
S E
The extreme relativity of spaces and functions which could be related in the house is striking. According to the degree of occupation (the density), the family bonds between the inhabitants, the seasons etc…, the localization of objects in practices varies, as well as the relations of proximity, view or avoidance. Just as the proclivity towards nomads qualifies the relation towards geographical space, the same system defines the relation between the people and the objects in the house. The courtyard, for example, solidifies the habits and
T H E H
generates the boundaries in the house.
O
By solidifying, it is the place of passage and communion, the place around which kitchen activities take place. There you can find water and an opening towards the sky. In generating it signifies – by the handling of private activities in the kitchen or in the front space of the rear room – a border which the visitor to the house must envisage with care.
U
This border is represented by an empty space, the courtyard across which functions the demanded strategy of view – to see or not to see, as well as to be seen or not to be seen
S E
THE INDORE STATE Traditionally the BRAHMAPURI “city or Brahmins”, is the place of residence of the Brahmins and pujaris and their families.
T
• It is composed of 2 lines of houses, coming from a 2 m wide alley parallel to the course of the Ganges.
H
• Of all the houses, it can be noticed that the same principle concerning planification and division of inside space. Combined in a homothetic manner according to the size of the plot and its orientation, it adapts the dimension of the central courtyard to the plot.
E
• The central courtyard distributes several types of spaces, stairways – mostly of 2 flights, the façade wall serving as support – verandas – of which the no. varies according to the breadth of the house – and service rooms – storage spaces and washroom.
H O
• The courtyard ensures the ventilation of the house by an in-draught and serves as an exhaust element
U
• A first space of transition is organized, permitting the visitor to rest without entering the courtyard and without seeing the living room or kitchen. The courtyard leads to a second veranda, a transition space for the room opening onto the Ganges. This room opens onto the courtyard with 3 arches ; the central always the biggest and the other 2 symmetrical.
S E
It has several functions :
A ghat, pakka, is a brickwork – if it is referring to a natural bank, we call it kacca ghat
The most obvious one is the easy and neat access to the water from any waterlevel. An other function is stabilizing the bank situated upon it, generally constructed. • As a succeeding element, the ghat includes in general a supporting wall in its upper part . • Then a series
of
pavements descending to the water . •Finally, a circulating stairway relating the upper pavement to a street or to an occupied unity situated upon it.
T H E G H A
T
The most beautiful ghats also show octagonal raised platforms which are lined up on the shaft limiting the supporting walls. These are places of leisure or meditation.
T
Let us also note that the rectangular platforms – made of boards or stones , which are situated on the pavements, serve as access to the priests.
H E G H A
T
The ghats are the steps on the banks of the Ganges, built below the palaces. The are marked by octagonal platform for public use and smaller rectangular platforms for the exclusive use of the Brahmin. This
is where the ritual bathing of the pilgrims and the daily bathing of the local inhabitants take place. • It is also a place for sports and meditation, rest and recreation.
• The ghats give access to boats on the Ganges on which the pilgrims and the inhabitants of Benares can relax while contemplating the city.
T H E G H A
T
T The pilgrims are obliged to appear on the ghat where the religious ceremonies are conducted by the Ghatiya, a class of Brahmin employed by the state, who were at one time pilgrims themselves.
H E G H A
T
