On the occasion of Ashadi Ekadashi, a day where the sacred period of 4 months in the Hindu calendar starts, the blog interestingly highlights ‘Sacredcapes’ and the social impact of Pandharpur Wari on the urban form. Pandharpur wari is an annual pilgrimage trail that starts from ‘Alandi’ near Pune to the town of Pandharpur. The devotees' travel journey and visual experience through iconographic processions carrying deity sculptures, and ethnic attires—heightens the importance of Wari, while accommodating the function of tradition and rituals, within the sacred environment. This blog is written by Prajakta Ahire, an Architect and urban designer from Nashik. She has graduated Masters of Architecture in urban design from Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture and currently practicing in the city of Nashik. Her research addressed the religious and social impacts of Pandharpur wari through processional mapping and unique representational techniques in capturing the timely religious events along with their impacts on urbanization.
Wari as a discursive terrain produced by the interface of folk and Hinduised cultures, we focus on socio-religious interactions and divergences as crucial sites for the production of a discourse on the economy of worship, devotion and social equality.– Smita Pendharkar & D.Parthasarthy (IITB).
Indian cities are in constant motion. They consist of various layers. The multiplicity and dualities in the cities due to everydayness and temporary drives the idea of ‘Kinetic city’ (Rahul Mehrotra,2006) which states Indian cities are comprised of two components occupying the same physical space. The static city and the Kinetic City. The static city, built of more permanent materials such as concrete, steel, and brick, is perceived as a monumental two-dimensional entity on conventional city maps. Meanwhile, the Kinetic City—incomprehensible as a two-dimensional entity—is perceived as a city in motion, a three-dimensional construct of incremental development. The Kinetic City is temporary in nature. They occupy spaces in the city for a limited time frame, e.g., festivals, cultural events, processions, pilgrimage, and bazaars.
For centuries, religion has built cultures and their philosophies and is carrying forward them. For generations together, people have followed cultures, traditions and have faith in religious philosophies. Pandharpur wari(pilgrimage), an 800-year-old tradition is a form of the kinetic city where every year in the month of July. People come together and move in masses towards the religious centre for personal enlightenment. 8-10 lakhs of pilgrims walk 250 kilometers journey through a sacred network connecting towns/villages from Alandi to Pandharpur to seek the blessings of Lord Vitthala.
This act of pilgrimage consists of the movement of people across different geographies. Walkability is the key element. The journey takes eighteen to twenty days to complete. Pilgrims in heavy rains, scorching heat dance and enjoy the sounds of tals which creates an enchanting atmosphere. Unending chants of ‘Jnyaba Tukaram’, ‘Mauli’ are on the lips of pilgrims. There is joy, enthusiasm, energy, throughout the journey. It also involves hardships and sufferings,(Bhardwaj,1973) This brings up the question, What makes them walk so much? The aim to attain Moksha (peace) is what motivates thousands of pilgrims to set on this journey to a sacred place. In a way, this pilgrim event is a culture of the community performed across the route from past years.
The notion of intertwining temporary over permanent is challenging and interesting in this case because the event does not take place in a single town/village. An understanding of urban transformations under the forces of modernization across the route becomes significant. Looking at the changes of these sacred places over the years poses the question, What is our cultural reading of the wari which forms a greater part of urban reality?
A thought of how a city/village absorbs such a huge crowd and caters to their needs provided an insight to study spaces evolving during the event. Looking at the research inquiry, self-experience was important to study all the aspects. It is a complex process to understand and it was realized only existing literature would limit the overall understanding of the process of religious activity. I decided to study the overall networks of the wari through participant observation. The research method ‘Phenomenology’ which deals with the study of people's experience both individual and collectively was adopted. Physical mapping was done with the help of interviews, activity mapping, and the self-experience of the wari.
Spaces are activated, occupied, operated, used differently during wari and non-wari times. Streets, chowks are transformed by the presence of temporary structures, selling items of puja, sweets stalls, small pandals which serve water and food for pilgrims. Private spaces become public, the urban fabric becomes porous, creates new spaces that facilitate gatherings for celebration and worship. It restructures the system of movement of vehicles to prioritize the movement of people. An interface between local communities, space and the built environment starts to change.
The wari connects towns and villages to form an integrated sacred network. A large influx of population passes through these towns and villages. It is like a whole new city visiting another town/village. The collective rituals, the physical, ecological, political aspects and infrastructural arrangements take up a higher magnitude during this event. The movement of pilgrims has an impact on the surroundings(overcrowding, overdevelopment, pollution) through which they move as well as the individuals. Most of these places are small towns/villages with populations ranging from about a few thousand and hence lack the necessary infrastructure to cater to the large number of pilgrims visiting them every year. As a result, this has put a lot of stress on physical and ecological resources and there has been a steady degradation of the local environmental conditions,(Priyanka Patange,2013) In the annual traditional pilgrimage, effects occurred are for the long term while pilgrims are limited over time and space. They occupy spaces in the city for a limited time frame. The government has designated camping grounds along the route for the night stay of the pilgrims but lacks basic services such as a water line, toilets, shaded areas. The approach for the management of this event is a top-down approach. Local governing bodies have less role in the formal planning process of the temporary pilgrimage event. The tension between urban growth, on the one hand, and adapting city structure to the needs of pilgrims on the other hand is observed. This in return affects the experience of pilgrims and disturbs the public realm.
The study tries to examine overall issues and the challenges during wari at most stressed points through the analytical framework, by overlapping parameters such as physical, ecological and political to build strategies for the effective functioning of wari and thereby elevating the experience of pilgrims.
Culture is integral to human development. This pilgrim event forms a large part of Maharashtra’s cultural heritage and sacred sites like Alandi and Pandharpur are also a major part of its tourism, which contributes to the social, cultural and economic development of the particular area or region. Recent schemes and policy initiatives anticipate an increasing inclusion of cultural and heritage aspects in urban development but lack spatial research on such sacred places. Thus, a culturally sensitive approach through urban design tools is needed in development that will lead to new imaginations of the urban. Governing bodies think of providing absolute/permanent solutions to temporary events where the system fails. Hence, this temporary event should be considered in the formal planning process not as an absolute solution but as a catalyst that can establish mechanisms that ensure sustainable pilgrimage at the grassroots level without negatively impacting our cultural and environmental heritage. Insufficient guidelines of development are causes of haphazard development which are taking away the sacredness of the place. If appropriate studies are taken and guidelines for sensitive and integrated development considering the pilgrims and local communities of these places are formed it will enhance the spatial value of places and thus will enhance the experience of pilgrims.
Design strategies must integrate both temporary and permanent approaches for the creation of space. The strategy should be a combination of temporary and permanent taking into consideration various stakeholders involved, making wari more inclusive, engaging and efficient. City maps should include mapping of temporary events which will help to evaluate different layers. The temporal nature of such events and spaces needed for them should be considered while preparing a Development Plan.
The pilgrimage remains an important activity in the 21st century. Spiritual belief offers a way of seeing the world, giving sacred meaning to geography. Pilgrim events energize the cities. They help in making the city’s identity and enhance the public realm. It can be interpreted as an event of connection that connects pilgrims on one platform, and add meaning. In the Great Good Place, author Ray Oldenberg(1999) has emphasized the importance of third places. He describes the third place “as a generic designation for a great variety of public places that host the regular, voluntary, informal and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work”(p.16). Third places provide a platform for people to exchange ideas, as well as to connect with other people in communities. In the world of digitization, social media these pilgrim events act as a third place, which brings people together and helps in social interaction thus strengthens the public realm.
The city and its architecture are not synonymous and cannot contain a single meaning. The kinetic city is not perceived as architecture but in terms of spaces, which hold associative values and supportive lives. (Rahul Mehrotra,2006). Thus, the temporal dimension becomes very important to facilitate planning and development. Temporary urbanism challenges the city, how they are perceived and conceived. It is necessary to examine the city during events and changes the city goes through, for future development to be sensitive enough, which could retain a sense of place and identity of the place intact. We as urban designers need to understand these extreme conditions of cities, and how we can manage and negotiate different layers of the urban to elevate the experiences of the spaces associated with pilgrimage and the non-pilgrimage time leading to the sustainable development of towns/villages across the route. The study focuses on the Pandharichi wari. By analyzing the issues that occur in large-scale human gatherings, a pilgrimage or cultural events, the study can serve as an example of research that can be useful across other disciplines of urban design, urban planning and architecture of this nature.
I feel blessed as a part of my research, I had a chance to experience some great moments of the wari. Their bhakti for lord Vithhala is seamless. But for the first time, the annual pilgrimage didn’t happen for two consecutive years due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Lockdown has shown us that community is important and people need physical space as a platform to come together, to share thoughts, experiences. For all the warkaris out there THIS TOO SHALL PASS and once again we will feel the enthusiasm in the air, warkaris with smiling faces heading towards Pandharpur.
This is indeed a tribute to all the pilgrims who get mesmerized in the sacred journey towards attaining religious sanctity. Hope this blog brings awareness to the socio-cultural and sacred values along with their impact on the built environment in ever-increasing urbanized pressure. Do share the blog and comment to share your experience.
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