Pilgrimage and Religious Tourism in India - JISCMail

[361.11]. Singh, Rana P.B. 2011. Pilgrimage and Religious Tourism in India: Countering Contestation and Seduction; in, Singh, Rana P.B. (ed.) Holy Places and Pilgrimages: Essays on India. Planet Earth & Cultural Understanding Series, Pub. 8. Shubhi Publications, New Delhi: pp 307-334. <chapter 12>. © Rana P.B. Singh. Hb, ISBN: 81-8290-228-2. Price Rs 1495.oo/ US $ 55.

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Pilgrimage and Religious Tourism in India:

Countering Contestation and Seduction Rana P.B. Singh

Banaras Hindu University, India ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Abstract. The essay examines the merger of Hindu pilgrimages and pace of religious tourism in India by critically appraising the reflection of radiant glories (mythologies) and also the on-going practices and happenings that flourish side-by-side in the gloomy way. The interacting and counteracting two sides of human life, sacred and profane, consequently turn into contestation, seduction and difference; however they meet at different levels in the formation of ‘wholeness’ where earth based humanity meets with the terrestrial divinity. Sacrality of pilgrimage is sometimes threatened by profanity of tourism after passage of time, which also results to concerns for representation, belongingness, control and power, dissonance and contestation ― the issues refer to seducing tradition. In India the greater value accorded tourism as an avenue for development reflects a perception that the marketing of pilgrimage sites and religious buildings offers a means of preserving and enhancing the value and visibility of the endangered residues of the past, but having little consciousness of historical value and its transformed relevance today. The growth and importance of pilgrimage-tourism may be related to an increased desire among Hindus to assert their identity against an ever more visible Muslim population. As ecology of being pilgrimage-tourism can also be purveyed into larger reality in search of interconnectedness what was evolved in the ancient past. Keywords. sacred places, holy cities, contestation, seduction, ritual suicide, secularism, religiosity, religious tourism, pilgrimages.

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Flower-like the heels of the wanderer, His body growth and is fruitful; All his sins disappear, Slain by the toil of sacred journey.

— The Aitareya Brāhmana (Rig Veda), 7.15.

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1. Introduction & the Context

Probably the most popular of all forms of tourism is the pilgrimage to a sacred place; however, it is little understood. One of the functions of pilgrimage is that it allows us to understand our cultural heritage while searching for a harmonious relationship between man and the sacrality of a given place. To its central objectives, like many ritual actions, pilgrimage is a simple, easily understandable ― travelling activity (often meaning walking) to a sacred place ― which is well suited for political action. The mixture of religious and political elements captures popular imagination and also suits to the common masses (cf. Ross 2007: 74-76). Pilgrimage can fuse culture and politics in particular explosive ways as leaders manipulate it and use as means of emotional blackmailing in pursuit of their own goals. Pilgrimage can be viewed as both a religious and political activity. In a way sometimes pilgrimage promotes cultural contestation in ethnic conflict. Mahatma Gandhi’s march to Champaran (Bihar) in 1930 against British rule, and Martin Luther King’s 1965 Selma to Montgomery march against American racialism revealed the minds of masses against malpractices and evils in society. In Indian mindset such marches called ‘yātrās’ (sacred journeys) are propagated as a means to upgrade and revive higher identity and a cultural awakening to strengthen the historical links that would lead to promote strong social networking.

Religion had played a role for controlling power in Indian monarchy in the ancient past, and in contemporary India too it played a role in the formation of Hindu nationalism and corporate identity, through commonly using processions, pilgrimage, religious assemblies, and religious fairs (melā). Religious performances were used as means during British colonial rule for mass consciousness that united people. In the western model religion has desperate identity, while in India it is more like a cultural symbol that fully fits to Hindu psyche and mindsets what politicians use for their own vested interest and stronghold through emotional blackmailing. This mostly turns to be an issue of contestation and also seduction of history. The common and innocent masses rarely thought critically, in stead they accept religious happenings as phenomena that maintain its continuity since ancient past. Nevertheless, there exist differences in opinions about the degrees and intensity of relationship between religion and politics in the cultural arena (cf. Sax 2000).

Using the ancient strategy of digvijaya (‘conqueror of the quarters’) that was used earlier to fulfill desires of kings to conquer by auspicious and powerful parikramā (circumambulatory movement), the religious processions (and associated pilgrimages) have been used as a means for

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religious awakening which used as means to get political support to the organisers. The connotation of pilgrimage is used for political motives in 1990 by a procession of Rāma’s chariot (a decorated Toyota van, called Rāma Rath Yātrā) by BJP leader L.K. Advani in Somnath, the site of famous episode of Hindu temple destroyed in 1026, and ended at Ayodhya, covering about 10,000 km (cf. White 2011: 295-296). This ‘patriotic’ journey succeeded in invoking a range of emotions and getting support for their political agenda of re-constructing a Hindu temple at the site of the 16th century mosque. Of course popularly they projected the main objective of this yātrā was to “preserve the old symbols of unity, communal amity and cultural oneness”, in fact, this was a well-planned move to get support of common masses for their own political power. After completion of this yātrā, L.K. Advani expressed his experiences that: “It was during the Rāma Rath Yātrā that I first understood the truth of Svami Vivekananda’s statement that ‘religion is the soul of India and if you want to teach any subject to Indians, they understand it better if it is taught in the language of religion.’ It was the Rath Yātrā that made me realise that, if I were to communicate the message of nationalism through the religious idiom, I would be able to transmit it more effectively and to a wider audience” (for details, cf. Jaffrelot 2007: 279-301).

The growing pressure of tourism and consequential development of built structures are a testimony to consumerism and to current economic gain which ignores the sustainable approach. All these institutions have their own agendas for promoting sustainable development in their own ways, obviously there appear a week co-ordination among various organisations (private and public) dealing with tourist industry. Lack of mass awakening and inactive involvement of public hurdle the progress of “civic culture: civic sense”, while this is the vital aspect of conservation and preservation programme. Remember, ‘a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the heritagescape as living organism of our culture’. There is an ethical gap somewhere in the promotion of (cultural) tourism too. Tourism should have been carefully developed and promoted in the light of a spiritual perspective, where tourists become pilgrims, and issues like heritage preservation, religion, and sustainability are emphasised as part of the pilgrim’s visitation.

Touring is an outer journey in geographical space primarily for the purpose of pleasure seeking or curiosity. Pilgrimage in the traditional sense is an inner journey manifest in exterior space in which the immanent and the transcendent together form a complex phenomenon (Singh 2006: 220). Generally speaking, human beings need both — outward and inward journeys. Hinduism, or more appropriately Sanātana Dharma (‘the eternal

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religion’), has a strong and ancient tradition of pilgrimage, known as tirtha-yātrā (‘tour of the sacred fords’), which formerly connoted pilgrimage involving holy baths in water bodies as a symbolic purification ritual. Faith is central to the desires, vows and acts associated with pilgrimage, and pilgrimage is a process whereby people attempt to understand the cosmos around them (cf. Singh 2006). The number of Hindu sanctuaries in India is so large and the practice of pilgrimage so ubiquitous that the whole of India can be regarded as a vast sacred space organised into a system of pilgrimage centres and their hinterlands (Bhardwaj 1973: 7).

In lack of concerns for contemporaneity, contextuality, participatory observations, experiences and revelation, most commonly in Indological and classical Indian studies, it is believed that the ancient glorious literary representations and rhapsodies (mythic and mystic) of places, routes and environment are static, ‘timeless’ and ‘unchanging’ entities that form the core of traditions. With the preconceived notion followed studies continued that promoted seduction of history (cf. Henderson and Weisgru 2007: xxix). Of course the innocent and illiterate pilgrims follow the tract in way like superstition or just to follow on the ways what their ancestors once did, without having quest of historicity, inherent messages and present context. Such contradictions generally promote contestation, conflicts and encourage seduction of history. In this paper such examples from holy centres of north India are illustrated, with a hope that these observations be taken as diagnoses for making sustainable planning for pilgrimage-tourism and sacred places.

2. Holy cities in India: Historical context

There is a strong tendency in Hinduism to follow the ancestors and predecessors without any critical observation, rationality, contextuality and contemporary relevance in serving the humanity. This turns into belief systems of ‘strict’ faith/s, also promoting and consisting therein superstitions. This also includes addition of modern rituals, performances and side-shows that are only to promote exotic tourism taking religious happenings as major attractive events. The built architecture and environments of the temples, shrines and monasteries associated with different gods, divinities and local godlings (loka devatā) are the major objects those suffered in maintenance of the ancient traditions, grandeur and conveying the ecospiritual messages for which once India led the whole world. Tuan (1974: 146) has rightly remarked that “While the development imperatives have taken precedence, many religious adherents


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in fact conceive of their religious places as sacred places that should not be destroyed, irrespective of their architectural or historical merit”. In passage of time the difference between religious/ritual performances and spiritual awakening has been lost; in fact, rituals superseded the spiritual. This development process led the adherents believe that religious places are intrinsically sacred and possess spiritual values from where the devout Hindus charismatically get their wishes fulfilled.

In spite of the message of communal harmony and brotherhood, after the death of Prophet Muhammad in CE 632, Arab raided outlying settlements in the northwest of India that marked the religiously intentioned destruction of Hindus’ religious builtup like temples, shrines and monasteries. From the 8th to the 15th centuries successive waves of ethnic Muslims entered the subcontinent – Arabs, Turks, Afghans, Persians, Mongols raiders came to loot the palaces, treasuries, and temples, but it was the settled merchants and other colonists who slowly spread the new religion (Knipe 1991: 64). The Arabic Qur’an, as revealed through his messenger, the Prophet Muhammad; the only aim of Islam has been to establish a single community with a single law and the notion of an abode of Islam (dar al-Islām) in which religion and polity are one; a doctrine of the unity of God that has no place for iconography, let alone myths, symbols, and rituals celebrating the dynamic multiplicity of the divine.

The Mughal dynasty (CE 1526-1707) in South Asia has tactfully and brutally tried to fulfil the dream of a dar al-Islām through destruction of Hindu monasteries, temples, pilgrimage sites, and iconography and transplanting there own built structure, traditions and culture. The bigoted and fanatic emperor Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707) was a ruler by confront-ation who declared Islam as the religion and constantly destroyed the Hindu temples, including the major temple at Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi. But by 1800 the Mughal empire had all but collapsed, and with it the dream of a dar al-Islām too.

The World Hindu Council (Vishva Hindu Parishad, VHP) extends their agenda for getting under their control several disputed mosques, strongly arguing for the important mosques in the holy cities of Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi (Banaras). Historian Eaton (2000) clearly shows that cases of destruction of places of worship were not restricted to Muslim rulers alone. He recounts numerous instances of Hindu kings having torn down Hindu temples, in addition to Jain and Buddhist shrines. He says that these must be seen as, above all, powerful politically symbolic acts. All other Hindu sacred places too equally suffered destruction in the rule of Aurangzeb in the 17th century, with mosques

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built on them, like Krishna’s birth temple in Mathura and the rebuilt Somnath temple on the coast of Gujarat. The neo-Hindu revivalism and awakening of Hindu identity with vested interest are getting inspiration by the VHP and making their mind to destroy those Muslim monuments built on the razed site of ancient Hindu temples.

Travel for pilgrimage purposes is an important part of Hindu doctrine and millions of adherents travel throughout India and from abroad each year to participate in enormous festivals, pilgrimage circuits, and ritual cleansings. Likewise, thousands of people of other religions visit India each year to admire its ancient and beautiful Hindu architecture and important historical sites that are associated with the religion. With the revival of traditional Hinduism during 1950s pilgrimages became more popular. Of all domestic travel in India, over one-third is for the purpose of performing pilgrimage. The growth and importance of pilgrimage-tourism may be related to an increased desire among Hindus to assert their identity against an ever more visible Muslim population. Such competition emerged more actively after the destruction of Babri Mosque at Ayodhya

on December 6th 1992, by conservative nationalist Hindu groups who wished to build a temple on this sacred site, which is assumed to be the birth place of Lord Rāma. This act of aggression resulted in civil disturbances throughout the country. Since then large numbers of Hindus have become more conscious of their Hindu heritage, resulting in increased participation in traditional rituals, celebrations, the construction of temples, and of course pilgrimages (cf. Singh 2006).

2.1. Allahabad

Allahabad, culturally known as Prayāga, is eulogised in puranic

mythologies as the “tirtharāja”, the king of all sacred places. Situated picturesquely at the confluence of the rivers Ganga, Yamuna and the invisible Sarasvati, it is one of the three holy cities symbolising pillars of the bridge to heaven; the other two are Varanasi and Gaya. People from different parts of India come here especially during the month of Māgha (January-February) to bathe in the sacred waters of the confluence (sangama) and every twelve years they come by the hundreds of thousands to the World’s greatest religious bath-fair, the Kumbha Melā. The greatness of Prayaga is eulogised in Vedic literature, in the puranic mythologies, in treatises, epigraphic records, Buddhist and Jain literature and foreign accounts. The land between the rivers Ganga and Yamuna is said to be the mons veneris of the Earth Goddess, and Prayaga is regarded as its generative organ (cf. Mahābhārata, III.87.71; Matsya Purana, 105.19). This is a cosmogonic allusion to the place, suggesting that


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Prayaga is the symbolic centre (axis mundi) of the creation of the universe (cf. Singh and Rana 2006: 287-288).

Fig. 12.1. Allahabad: The Kumbha Mela City; the nexus was the Fort.

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The Mahā (Great) Kumbha Melā is the largest gathering of humanity on planet earth. The last at Allahabad in 2001 (9 January - 21 February, Hindu Samvata 2057) set world record for the largest human gathering, recording about 33 million people those took bath in the sangama, the confluence place of the three rivers, viz. the Ganga, Yamuna and invisible Sarasvati (cf. Fig. 12.1). Every 12-years, at one precisely calculated moment based on astronomical conjunction, all the pilgrims splash into the water, an act that is believed to undo lifetimes of sins. This moment is determined by the alignment of the planetary movement that generally happens in an eleven or twelve year cycle, at the entering of the planet Jupiter into Aries or Taurus, or the entering of the Sun and Moon into Capricorn. At every 6th year at the combination of Jupiter-Scorpio, or Sun-Capricornus there happens the Ardha Kumbha (“half Kumbha”). Columns of charging ascetics (sādhus), often naked and smeared with ash, are among the most zealous bathers. The Chinese pilgrim, Hsüan-tsang who attended the 6th quinquennial assembly organised by the king Harshavardhana at Prayaga in the month of Māgha in CE 644, supplies the first historical reference to Kumbha Melā (Ardha). In the CE 9th century Shankaracharya started an organised form of celebrating the Kumbha Melā, and transformed it into a pan-Indian meeting of ascetics, devout pilgrims and Hindus of various sects. In fact, the Kumbha Melā represents the microcosm of Indian civilisation and multiplicity of Indian culture.

Till 1830s there was a tradition of Muslim melās (religious fairs) at the confluence point (sangama) and the fort, however since 1840s persistent resistance by the local Hindu priests (Prayāgawāls) continued till 1880s when the Muslim participation was stopped (Maclean 2008: 122-123). Thus sharing of sacred ground in Allahabad became a story of the past. In 1905, Prayawalas ceased eating at a charitable feast (bhandārā) due to proximity of a Muslim police officer. In 1941 Mahanirvani Akhara sent a petition to the Governor of the united Province for stopping presence of non-Hindus (missionaries as well as Muslims). This ground successively became popular place for propagandalists protecting Hindu interests. Christians has also used the Kumbha Melā for their own interest, but could not succeeded under the strong threat by the Hindus.

2.2. Ayodhya

Situated on the bank of the Sarayu (Ghāghara) River, Ayodhya is one of the seven sacred abodes (puris) and places of pilgrimage that give liberation from transmigration. Considered to be the birthplace of Lord Rāma, it is also connected with many events in the Rāmāyana. According to puranic tales, Manu, the first traditional king of India, founded this city


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in ca 3100 BCE. Ikshvaku was the eldest of Manu’s nine sons, by whose name the race and clan is known. In the early period of development in and around Ayodhya (ca 500 BCE - CE 500), Buddhism and Brahmanism alternatively dominated the landscape and culture.

Fig. 12.2. Ayodhya: Religious Landscape.

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By the turn of the 2nd century CE, the city of Ayodhya was well established and known as a pilgrimage centre, and by the turn of Gupta period (4th-6th centuries) many temples and ghāts along the Sarayu River were made. With its general decline all over India from the 6th century onwards, Buddhism lost its position in Ayodhya too, and appears to be virtually extinct there after CE 1000. It is evident through literary and archaeological evidence that in the 12th century there were five important Vishnu temples located one each at Guptar Ghat, Chakratirtha Ghat and Janmabhumi, and the western and eastern sides of Svargadvara Ghat. Three of these temples were demolished and replaced by mosques and one was swept away by the Sarayu River. The fifth one is perhaps occupied by Chakrahari temple. In 1193 Muhhamad Ghori invaded north India, including Ayodhya. His army officer Makhdum Shah Ghori came to Ayodhya and destroyed the famous Jain temple of Adinatha in 1194. Since then under the Sultanate rule at Delhi and the Mughal rulers, the city of Ayodhya was invaded and destroyed many times. By the order of the Mughal invader Babur, in 1528 his army chief Mir Baqi Tashkandi demolished the famous Rāma temple of Pratihara from the Gahadavala period at the birthplace of Rāma, and in the following period of 15 months he built a Muslim monument (mosque) using the debris of the temple (cf. Fig. 12.2). Since its inception this has been so controversial and sensitive place that for centuries now, Muslims have never performed prayer (namaz) there. Since then it has been centre of Hindu-Muslim riots, but the main site was always opened for devout Hindus till 23 February 1857 when the East India Company (Britain) made a separating wall and prohibited the entry of Hindus through the mosque. Since 5 January 1950 under the law, only restricted entry was permitted (cf. Singh and Rana 2006: 300-301).

On 6 December 1992 a mob led by a rightists group of Hindus from World Hindu Congress (VHP), ultimately in their last attempt succeeded in razing the sixteenth-century controversial Muslim monument/mosque, Babri mosque in Ayodhya. However, some leftist historians opine that on the basis of available evidences proving the existence of Hindu temple at this site is doubtful. A stone slab of about 5’x 2.25’ recovered from the debris on 6 December 1992, records the construction of a magnificent gold-topped temple of Rāma during the reign of Gahadavala emperor Govindachandra (CE 1114-1154) by King Naya Chandra and Ayush Chandra. This certainly proves the presence of a temple that was demolished to make way for a mosque. During last four hundred years there had been several attempts to remove the mosque through court, direct action, or planned attacks. In the mid 18th century Nirmohis, a local


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Hindu sect laid their unsuccessful claim over the Babri Mosque. But these claims led to the violent conflict of 1853-55. Again in 1885 Mahant Raghubar Das filed a suit with the Sub-judge at the district headquarters for permission to build the temple, but it was turned down, but it resulted to a battle, recording casualties of some seventy-five Muslims. The mosque was listed as a protected monument under the Indian “Ancient Monuments Preservation Act of 1904,” and courts continued to protect the mosque as an historic landmark. After India’s independence in 1947 the different religions and their monuments had largely co-existed side by side, as in Bosnia. Taking the controversy of installation of Lord Rāma’s image inside the mosque on 22 December 1949, the administration has ordered to stop entry by any group of the people. In October 1984 the VHP tried to make the mosque-temple question a national issue through their newly form organisation for getting the Rāma’s birthplace liberated from the control of Muslims, and ultimately they succeeded in their mission on 6th of December 1992. The Ayodhya crisis must also be seen within the climate of increased tensions between India and Pakistan over the last few decades, and the fundamentalist groups between Muslims and Hindus within India itself (see Elst 2002, 2003). Says Bevan (2006: 137), that:

“The demolition of sacral buildings has become a key proxy through which post-Partition inter-communal strife is now expressed. Ayodhya is India’s Twin Towers – a ground zero from which the waves of violence are spreading to engulf thousands and potentially millions of people”.

Ayodhya for a period of over 2000 years has borne witness to the

presence of Jainism, Buddhism, Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Islam, as well as sects and cults which transcend sectarian identification. On the other hand, its pluralistic and reconstituting religious identity is subject to shorter temporal rhythms determined by sect, caste or annual festival cycles; and unfolds within a cultural landscape which embodies in varying degrees an interplay of memory and delusion, politics and religion, faith and fanaticism (Shaw 2000: 698). Mere facts and interpretations of archaeological remains would not solve the problem of contestation and conflict. In Thakurta’s words, ‘the solution lies less in the reiteration of science, and the staking of its separate boundaries, and more in its re-alignment with a new historical imagination that can recover for Ayodhya the variety and multiplicity of its pasts’ (Thakurta 1997: 42).

Remember what Metcalf (1995: 964) opines, “Histories will always be rewritten. One reason is the relatively straightforward one that new material will be unearthed ― the scent of untapped source materials that makes historians salivates. But a second reason is that the world changes.

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History is ultimately a pragmatic science: in a wide variety of ways we write and read history precisely because at some level it is used to make sense of the past for the present.”

2.3. Bodh Gaya

The Mahabodhi temple is the most sacred place and sanctuary for Buddhist adherents, numbering 376 millions all over the world (including 8.2 millions in India). The Buddhist monastery and temple (Mahabodhi) at Bodh Gaya was built by the king Ashoka in ca 232 BCE and remained an active site till CE 1192 when Muslim invaders destroyed it. Some of the railings are dated to 150 BCE. During the rule of Mughal King Akbar, from 1590, the temple was under the control of a Shaiva Hindu priest who managed to set Shiva Linga in the inner sanctum, which after passage of time turned into religious conflicts. Even in the British regime attempts were made to resolve the conflicts between Hindus and Buddhists for possession and ownership. In 1872 under the patronage of Burmese king the temple was renovated and re-built. After independence, since 1949 through an Act both Hindus and Buddhists got authority for worship and joint control. But Buddhist have not accepted this arrangement, thus a continuous movement to liberate this temple from the interference of Hindus is noticed, including peaceful march of around half-million Buddhists from all parts of the world in October 1992 and November 1995. This contestation is still in continuance. The main temple too is a sacred site and it has been enlisted by UNESCO in its World Heritage list on 26 June 2002. Every year, at this site one can witness magnificent ‘Prayer Festivals’ attended by thousands of devotees. Here, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, His Holiness the Karmapa as well as a number of other outstanding Buddhist Teachers sit from the early hours of the morning till noon, and again from mid-afternoon till dusk, for a number of days in continuity, chanting or delivering discourses. During the Shaiva Hindu control it has been recorded that some of the original statues of Lord Buddha have been defiled and stolen from the Mahabodhi temple, idols of some of the Hindu Gods have been smuggled inside the temple including Shiva linga to dilute and defame Buddhism, and all sorts of Hindu rituals and rites are being followed inside Mahabodhi temple to defame and bring impurity in Buddhism. In the present century, the Buddhists are peacefully raising their voice to get their possession nationally and internationally.

A contesting issue of sacrilege of the holy seat of Buddha’s En-lightenment is the offering of pinda (pinda-dāna, oblation of rice-balls) within the premises of the Mahabodhi Temple by the Hindus who go to Gaya for performing shrāddhas (ancestral rites) on the name of their


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ancestors. All such unacceptable rituals by outsiders naturally spoil the serenity and aesthetic beauty of the Great Mahabodhi Temple (Ahir 1994: 156). This is directly an example of seducing the historicity at such a sacred place only for the political empowerment and diverting the main focus. The first incidence of conflict and mass movement to handover the control of Mahabodhi temple to Buddhists started in 1891 when there were only 50,000 Buddhists in India; but their number at present crossed 8.2 millions (2001 census). Unfortunately even today the management committee of the Mahabodhi temple is overall dominated by the Hindus.

Quite natural, for international visitors Mahabodhi temple, and for national and local people Sujata Kuti (lying in the encroached space behind the Shiva temple) are the main attractions; according to a recent survey together recoding 40 per cent of responses (Singh and Kumar 2011: 271-272). This is an indication as to how ‘locality’ is projected in the frame of ‘universality’ with pride, seduction of history, and media projection to promote marketing and alternative choices by such process of place-making. Both of these places are not only varied and multivocal, they are often ambiguous or sometimes contradictory that results to contestation, tension and even conflicts where Buddhists and Hindu adherents interfere and cross their boundaries to show their power and control. At Sujata Kuti groups of local mafias rooming there always cheat and loot the visitors, especially foreigners through making false-and-funny stories about great reconstruction and renovation plan underway!

After India’s independence in 1947, the Congress government tried to build a fairer and more democratic society, under which stream early in 1949, was introduced the Bodh Gaya Temple Bill (later Act) into the Bihar Legislative Assembly. The Act transferred control over the running of the temple to a nine-member committee comprised of the district magistrate of Gaya (as chairman), four Buddhists, and four Hindus (including the incumbent mahant of the math). It also decreed that in the ease of irreconcilable disputes, the government of Bihar would have the final say. But the tension and conflicts continued even today (cf. Copland 2004, esp. p. 542). The supports and contestants of both the groups have their own claims and blames that sometime turn into collapsing situations and devout pilgrims have to tolerate them.

The movement to save and handover control of Mahabodhi temple to Buddhists has recently turn in another way on the line to preserve the serenity and sublime beauty of the Buddhist landscape by the drastic superimposition and threats by the five-star based tourism. A Buddhist monk narrates it that: “the threaten pace that sells its soul to the developers of a tourist ‘paradise’ whose main object is to generate wealth for a few

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through their utopian urban planning and so called heritage tourism and spaces for posh tourists ― in fact, they are not concerned to have experience of the spirit of the Buddhist landscape, in stead want to have amusement and recreation through exotic and religious happenings”. Through personal dialogues and interactions with monks it is obviously noted that they feel themselves insecure and pessimistic about the future planning. Let Bodh Gaya not be transformed into a Buddhist theme-park, a kind of spiritual Disneyland for mass tourism consumption! Let UNESCO and the recently launched JNNRUM City Development Plan serve as the glue that holds the culture of peace, compassion and global humanism, together recognizing the needs of local communities and other interest groups in a more harmonious way! (Singh and Kumar 2011: 284).

Like in case of Lumbini (the Buddha’s birthplace), in Bodh Gaya also differences in values, interests, expectations and priorities among stake-holders, a major source of dissonance, may create conflict in heritage and can be a challenge for its preservation and management. Here currently experiencing “latent dissonance” can be reduced through communication, cooperation and collaboration among various stakeholders

2.4. Sarnath

In order to help living beings gain control of their minds, the Buddha began the first turning of the Wheel of Dhamma at Sarnath. He taught the middle way that avoids the extremes of pleasure and austerity, the four noble truths, and the eight-fold path. Among the five disciples Kaundmya was first to understand and realise the teaching; Ashvajit was the last. The rest three were Bashpa, Bhadrika and Mahanaman. All eventually became arhats. The teaching included in the collection known as the first turning of the wheel, which began here, extended over a period of seven years. Other teachings, such as those on the Vinaya and on the practice of close placement of mindfulness, were given elsewhere, but the Wheel was turned twelve times at Sarnath. From the time of the Buddha, monastic tradition flourished for over 1,500 years on the site of the Deer Park.

Sarnath and its archaeological site is considered as special sacred place for the Buddhist adherents where the Buddha gave his first sermons, “Turning the Wheel of Law”, in 529 BCE, that is how this is one of the most venerated and compulsory places of pilgrimage. However a special fee of Rs 100 (or US $ 2) is changed for visitors in the archaeological site. Moreover, the pilgrims are not allowed to perform their rituals like lightening the candles and incense in the nearby environs since 2005. To a great surprise that no one neither complains against it, nor support the Buddhists those agitating against such charges and rules. This decision and


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control by the Archaeological Survey of India has persuades conflicts and humiliation to the Buddhists. In fact, the trend to charge an entrance fee to Buddhist sites began in South-East Asia and it was only after India’s immediate neighbour Sri Lanka made it compulsory for devotees to pay an entrance fee that India too followed suite. But the Buddhists feel that such charges are against the basic ethics and philosophy of “peace, justice and equality among all beings” that the Buddha gave to this world. On the name of secular policy the government of India has threatened the emotion and cultural traditions of a group. While the Constitution of India (Article 25-28 of the Fundamental Rights), as well as the Declaration of Human Rights, specifies that adherents of all religions have the freedom to worship unconditionally without any restrictions whatsoever. There is an urgent need the Government of India should review its Archaeological Laws and make suitable changes in respect to its sacred sites, especially the Buddhist. For this they can used the guidelines under UNESCO World Heritage Site that refers to ‘cultural heritage’, ‘cultural landscape’ and ‘intangible resources’ – all these recommend for continuity of traditions and performances that evolved in the historical past. The case of Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya is an example that promotes cultural integrity and honour to the Buddhists. All one can see at Sarnath are busloads of tourists being given a guided tour. At most they may spend an hour or two chanting on the name of religion, however lacking the spiritual experiences while setting themselves in the serene and sacred environment. Sarnath has been deprived of its spiritual relevance by a very short-sighted Governmental Administrative System through their political vision. On 9 October 2007, a petition and movement already started that mentions: “We demand that the Government reconsider its total dominance on the site and share administration by way of creating a Managing Committee comprising of Indian Buddhists as well offering the Buddhists pilgrims from all over the world the liberty to perform their rituals over a period of days or weeks and to stop charging an entrance fee”.

2.5. Varanasi

Varanasi: the city that is a prayer. On the banks of the river that is almost a faith, the flowing Ganga, stands Hinduism’s greatest city: Varanasi. For several thousand years, pilgrims have cleansed themselves of their sins here and sought release from the cycle of rebirth. Hinduism, deep and mystical, is perceptible everywhere here: in a decorated doorway, in a glimpse of glittering temple, in the sound of a sacred bell, in the chant of the priests and in the fragrance of flower oblations.

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Fig. 12.3. Varanasi: Socio-Cultural space (linguistic).

The sense and spirit of holiness embedded in Banaras has attracted people from various sects and religions like Vaishnavites, Shaivites, Tantrics, Buddhists, Jains, and even Muslim Sufis. For many of the adherents, this is a special place of pilgrimage. In Banaras alone, there are over 3000 Hindu shrines and temples, about 1400 Muslim shrines and mosques, 12 churches, 3 Jain temples, 9 Buddhist temples, 3 Sikh temples (Gurudvārās) and several other sacred sites and places (cf. Fig. 12.3). This is the only place in the world where such a huge number of Hindu and Muslim sacred places co-exist, resembling to form cultural mosaic.


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Fig. 12.4. The ancient Vishvanatha temple in the early 19th century; front (east)

is mosque, the back (west) temple debris (after James Prinsep 1833).

The city is known as cultural capital of India and also as sacred most city for Hindus. Varanasi: the city that is a prayer. On the banks of the river that is almost a faith, the flowing Ganga, stands Hinduism’s greatest

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city: Varanasi. For several thousand years, pilgrims have cleansed themselves of their sins here and sought release from the cycle of rebirth. Hinduism, deep and mystical, is perceptible everywhere here: in a decorated doorway, in a glimpse of glittering temple, in the sound of a sacred bell, in the chant of the priests and in the fragrance of flower oblations.

The temple of the patron deity and the oldest temple, i.e. Vishveshvara (also called Vishvanatha) in Varanasi, was first built in ca. CE 490, which was destroyed by Qutub-ud-din Aibak the military governor of Ghazani empire in CE 1194 (cf. Fig. 12.4). Later at this deserted site Razia Sultana (1236-1240) had built a mosque. At different site in the nearby it was again built in ca. 1585 under the patronage of Todar Mal (?). Demolishment of the famous temple of Vishvanatha and replacing it by a mosque in 1669 by the order of Mughal king Aurangzeb becomes a subject of constant conflict between Hindus and Muslims. Aurangzeb did not just build an “isolated” mosque on “a” destroyed temple. He ordered all temples to be destroyed, among them the Kashi Vishvanatha, one of the most sacred places of Hinduism, and had mosques built on a number of cleared temple sites. Until today, the old Kashi Vishvanatha temple wall is visible as a part of the walls of the Gyanvapi (Jnanavapi) mosque which Aurangzeb had built at the site after demolishing the temple. However, part of the back portion was left as a warning and an insult to Hindu feelings. Panikkar (1994: 73) offers a more political variation on the theme that the Kashi Vishvanath temple was destroyed to punish the temple priests for breaking purely secular laws: “the destruction of the temple at Banaras also had political motives. It appears that a nexus between the sufi (Islamic mystics) rebels and the pandits (Hindu priests) of the temple existed and it was primarily to smash this nexus that Aurangzeb ordered action against the temple”. Unfortunately, the eminent historian quotes no source for this strange allegation, but it indirectly further help politicians to play the malicious role of promoting conflicts between the two religious groups.

A Muslim terrorist group has blasted twin bomb in the compound of Sankatmochan (‘Monkey-God’/ Hanuman) temple, the second most important temples of veneration, on 7th March 2006 resulting to 21 casualties. It was carefully planned to provoke the devotees and the devout, rationalists and others alike. By the next morning, residents of the city – Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians – demonstrated peaceful outrage against the acts of terror. And also, Burka-clad Women, Muslim traders and Muslim clergy were not only visible in their protest and grief but could also be seen offering prayers at the temple. This helped to re-


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establish and maintain the cultural harmony and brotherhood in the society. Note that conservative scholars commonly propagate that Muslims rarely join hands in maintaining social harmony and peace ― to be taken as example of seduction of history, of course exceptional. But in the above incidence the integration of Hindus and Muslims has shown a model. The analysis of this happening confirms the centrality of ‘civil society’ in minimising the potential for communal violence, but also significantly emphasise the vital role of human agency in understanding the processes by which peace is maintained (cf. Williams 2007).

The Old City and Riverfront Heritage of Varanasi underway, since 2001, to get enlisting in the World Heritage site is facing problem of contesting consensus among Hindus and Muslims. Muslims opine that under the international image of protecting heritage Hindus try to interfere in their sacredscape and again through mobilising Archaeological Survey of India interested to describe their live mosques as monuments. The five historical mosques (at Jnanavapi, Bindumadhav Ghat, Raj Ghat, and Koila Bazaar, and Chaukhambha) are built during Mughal period on the debris of famous Hindu temples. These all are architectural and historical treasures and defined as heritage resource that can be used in both the context, i.e. for rituals and as destination for other visitors. This conflict and desperate perspectives are used by local politicians for their own motives, what is compared with British imperialist policy of divide and rule.

2.6. Champaner-Pavagadh

Champaner-Pavagadh (a UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed on 7 July 2004), like other heritage sites in India, is both an historic and ethnographic landscape. It exhibits both the palimpsest of landscape layers inscribed over time and the juxtaposition of Hindu (ca CE 8th to 14th centuries) and Islam traditions (Sultanate period) in architecture and city planning (see Sinha 2004). The site is the only complete and unchanged Islamic pre-Mughal city in India. Both Hindu and Islamic cultures exploited the visual potentials of the topography. The sense of harmonic relationship between Hindu (like Kālikā goddess) and Muslim (like Jami and Shehri mosques) co-exists in maintenance of this heritagescape, which exists facing each other, but this may be questionable in future. The concept of cultural landscape as a heritage resource is a recent development on the line of old idea of historic conservation and certainly did not guide monument-centric colonial efforts at restoration (Sinha and Harkness 2006: 97). On this line the Yamuna riverfront around the Taj Mahal (enlisted in UNESCO WHL) Champaner-Pavagadh is suggested as

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‘cultural heritage landscape’. This also raises the issue of suspicion of tensions between Hindus and Muslims at some places. Defining heritage territory under the strict control of heritage law will help avoiding conflicts and contestation together with active public participation. However, the live and active rituals at mosque could not easily be stopped, either by law, or without common consciousness of Muslim community. The certification of UNESCO has encouraged a mass of tourists and even devout people to visit the side-by-side existing Hindu and Muslims shrines, but close up watch indicates conflict and tension that lead frustration among the visitors.

Fortification, siege, and conquest were major themes in the history of Champaner-Pavagadh, and they constitute important aspects of its cultural heritage. Its hybrid pilgrimage and tourist sites draw together diverse people from the region (Wescoat 2007: 71). It is sympathetically suggested that “providing safe places and spaces for people to reflect upon this heritage, advance it collectively, and enable all to participate safely and economically in it, would consciously privilege a heritage of peace over violence” (ibid.: 72).

3. Delhi: Political vs. Religious

In his challenging and critical essay on Delhi Yātrā, White (2011) proposes three premises and arguments, viz.: (i) in the ancient past the capital cities through the royal courts embodying divine images and portraying the king as representative of god, in course of time accepted as a sacred place (tirtha) and followed up developed pilgrimage traditions, like Pallava capital of Kanchipuram, Maharana Rajput capital of Udaipur, Gahadavala capital of Varanasi, etc.; (ii) through superimposition of vāstupurusha model of the temple precincts (of course in distorted form), Edwin Lutyen’s design of New Delhi as an intentional symbol of British imperial grandeur and power successfully attempted to propagate that British were conscious of Indian architecture model and that is how they superimposed the Western mode on Eastern base; and (iii) using emotional attachment of people to the old capital city of Indraprastha (modern Delhi), the place should also serve as tirtha (White 2011: 284-285). The BJP (Bhartiya Janta Party) under the leadership of L.K. Advani took lead to press their political agenda as they make “sacred” pilgrimage toward the tirtha that is Delhi: the epitome of ancient India’s capital-cum-tirtha, intentionally and unintentionally. This, after all, has been ultimately the goal of all such yātrās in India: to defeat adharma [chaos] and restore dharma [moral order] by returning to the sacred time and space that once


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was in mythical dominance. The recognition of the tirtha as embodying both significance as place associated with sacred natural elements like water or hill that gives revelation to the spirit of sacrality (pavitra

sandesha), a structural monument (like temple, mandira) where through auspicious glimpse (darshana) by devout visitors, and state of mind that posses promotes faith and belief systems.

The Svaminarayan Akshardham temple (36.5 ha area) in Delhi, consecrated and opened on 6 November 2006 is a modern grandeur of Hindu sculptural art and symbol of how the rich class can create the new world of religious scenario where old vision of darsana and pilgrimages meet the new kind of religious tourism. This temple may be compared to the three grand the biggest temples in India, viz. the Minakshi temple in Madurai (dated the 16th century CE, covering area of 6.9ha), Shri Ranganathasvamy temple in Srirangam (dated ca CE 19th century, spread over 63.0ha), Arunachaleshvara temple in Thiruvannamalai (dated ca CE the 9th century, covering area of 9.7ha), and Chidambaram temple (dated ca the 5th century CE, covering area of 1.6ha). The authorities and scholars attached to the four latter temples have argued that temples are places for worship and hence restaurants, boating facilities and other entertainment facilities cannot be part of the temple which predominate the overall scene in the case of Akshardham. Also to be noted that construction area of the actual Akshardham temple is much lesser than the four cited temples of the South India. In the latter temples people pay visit for spiritual gain, solace and reciprocal interaction with god. In case of Akshardham temple, of course people also go for spiritual merits but these are superseded by the modern tourists facilities like arrangement of specially designed peacock shaped boats where visitors sit and make their way around an artificial river, passing through a model of Takshashila, the world’s first university, chemistry laboratories, ancient hospitals, and bazaars, finally ending with a message expressing hope for the future of India. These arrangements fit to the present mindset of newly growing burgeon classes those using religious symbolism for their upward mobility of identity, changing their black-money into white on the name of god and getting respect by the common masses who see the inscribed name/s on marble plates of the donors and sponsors lying at the entrances.

Presently Akshardham temple is one among the top five places for site scene in Delhi. Through propaganda, media and advertisement now this places is considered to be a powerful temple; again to be noted that this is mostly for rich people, because poor masses cannot afford to pay entrance fee of Rs 200 and other fees at different places of amusement and food. However, now the temple has encouraged people for Delhi Yatra, and

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consequently used as resource by politicians through their tricks of emotional blackmailing. This is already evident by its inauguration by the president of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, presence of the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and leader of opposition, L.K. Advani, held on 5 November 2005 and attended by ca 26,000 people ― of course mostly politically inclined people or to have a fun and pleasure watching mockery of democracy and its religious envelop. By displaying centuries old traditional Indian and Hindu culture, spirituality, and architectures, the Akshardham temple succeeded in making an image that modernity also be accepted as a counter-chaining process that maintain and revive the age old traditions of ancient religious traditions of India. But one can think the other side that all such awakenings are at what cost and for whom? The people from countryside and the poor masses could no way afford to pay the entrance fees, and other payments for amusement and even food available there. In a way such huge and magnificent Disneyland and structure can help the rich to make their life better and make their identity higher; and at other end the poor people are moving far distant and unable to cope with the upper stream. This temple is also now used as a resource for politics and emotional blackmailing. This is further in corroboration with a recent remark that: “In the Indian psyche, there are two image views of society: (1) the very rich, who are considered to be like earthly gods as a result of their good karma in the past, and are perceived as happy people by others, and (2) the rest, who are poor, always trying to experience some pleasure through monetary gain. The first group donate a lot of money in the name of gods and to make their shelters (temples), while the second group worship there and always pray to the gods living there to be kind enough to bless them with wealth. Even the kingdom of God is controlled by rich and powerful humans” (Singh 2009 b: 398).

4. Towards Epilogue

With the growing consciousness to understand any problem from the multiple scales and also in the frames of multidisciplinary approaches, especially in the light of contemporary ideas like postmodernity, identity, globalisation and political economy, the old notion of pilgrimage-tourism has been considered vividly (cf. Edensor 2007: xv). It is the hard reality in life that good and bad go together, only the degrees and scale vary: contestation and corroboration, seduction and exposition, … and so on. From the ‘outsiders’ view many destination are assumed as homologous and peaceful, while from ‘insiders’ view they are subject of contestation, conflict and seduction (e.g. see case of Taj Mahal, Edensor 1998). Indian


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culture, which is made of culminating mixture of ancient glories, mediaeval Mughal encounters, and British colonial changes, has suffered long-way through the ‘Oriental’ image that in the west projected in mystic and rustic way. Says Edensor (2007: xvii), “There were a recycling of the mythic foci grounded in these earlier accounts which evoked an ‘Oriental’ imaginary of India, replete with moral judgements about the superiority of western ‘civilisation’, mixed with the desires evident in fantasies about romance, decadence, sensuality, cruelty, sex and the unfathomable”. Like other spheres of life, there always exist battles between institutionalised units (big and overseers) and commoners’ concerns (devout visitors), between ‘official’ (mostly Brahmins) and ‘outsiders’ (non-Brahmins), as part of broader regulatory and bureaucratic tendencies to close down tourists/pilgrims practices and experiences and confine the meaning of place that fits to their motives in producing more reliable, predictable representation and products. Above all, let hybridity and syncretism go together in maintaining the mosaicness of cultural whole. Additionally, several biased rules are imposed upon restricting visitors and the performances; however through the backdoor offerings of bribery (‘grease

money’), ubiquitous and compensatory fee, these rules are violated (cf. Segal 1965: 279). Politicians and influential rich group can easily get such unexpected benefits. In general sense there is a good rapport between sacred and profane, but in reality invisibly profane dominates sacred and mobilise it its way to get more profit.

The pilgrimage centres are subject to the threats of increasing pressures by constant increase of devout visitors that consequently demand more economic opportunities and supporting facilities, however rarely met and arranged by the local government or the organisation associated with pilgrimage centres. These pressures affect the environment in at least three interrelated ways: (1) stress on basic services (shelter, water supply, sewerage, and solid waste), (2) pollution (mainly air and water) and (3) degradation of natural resources (forests, groundwater, natural soil). The former two are almost directly related to the magnitude of visitation and therefore mitigated to a large extent by the adequate and sustainable management of the organization, like in case of Tirumal-Tirupati Delopment board. These are a few such organisations that concerned with the maintenance of the ecological ordering of the place, loss of biodiversity and nature conservation (Shinde 2007: 356).

The nature of environmental problems associated with pilgrimage calls for involvement of stakeholders such as religious institutions in environmental management on at least two premises, viz. (i) functionally, they engage in some way in the management of pilgrimage environment

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that promote harmonious relationship between nature and humankindness, and (ii) on the ethical and religious/spiritual basis (ecospirituality) that has always solicited reverence for nature and its protection, while linking the ethical domain that has contextual reference in ancient religious texts and still people use them as prayer (Shinde 2007: 359). The present ongoing scenario of sustainable ecological development programmes sponsored by religious organizations or the temple management boards (or monasteries) seems only remotely inspired by religious values (and more driven by financial resources, facilities and the available infrastructure). In fact, it does pave way for a meaningful realisation of the links between religious values and ecology through some of its activities such as tree planting schemes especially of herbal trees and plants that are infused with religious meanings (ibid.).

With the growth of global tourism and a widespread interest in seeing culture in the mirror of history and tradition, religious heritage resource management becomes a critical issue in two primary ways: protection and maintenance of sacred sites and the survival and continuity of pilgrimage ceremonies that preserve centuries old human interactions with the earth and its mystic powers. Fostering a rediscovery of forgotten (or, about so) common cultural heritage and practices at sacred places that centred on reverence to and harmony with the Earth as source and sustainer of life, the conservation and preservation of such holy sites would put a strong step in this direction (Singh 2009a: 183-184).

Journey, circulation, and sacred experiences are the three basic phenomena of pilgrimages, of course strongly in Hindu traditions. The popularity of religious travel can be seen not only in the increase of religiously motivated travel to sacred sites but also in the combination of New Age spirituality with pilgrimage travel (cf. Timothy and Olsen 2006: 4). Increasing impact of diasporas has also encouraged pilgrimages to Hindu sites, however such pilgrimages are often closely entangled with religious tourism. Similarly the increasing pace of heritage tourism is also promoting pilgrimages to sacred places having heritage sites. In spite of so many potential and varied phenomena, and the pervasiveness of religious tourism and spiritual connections to place, relatively few scholars have explored the other side (i.e. dark) of multitudinous and multifarious relationships between religion, culture, spirituality, tourism, especially heritage and religious tourism (cf. Singh 2009 a: 154). It is strongly expected that the nature of pilgrimages and religious tourism would go under significant changes as the world becomes more mechanised, modernised, and liberalised, but it will assuredly continue to expand (cf. Timothy and Olsen 2006: 276).


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The root of Indian mindset is Hindu tradition that possesses the inherent roots of tolerance, secularism and adjustability in the line of changing socio-economic conditions at global level. Says Bakker (1999: 10), “For the inhabitants of India it (Hindu tradition) is much more than that; the development of Hinduism do not take example by the bloody history that joins the three great Semitic religions”. This does not mean to return back to naive tradition or any sort of fundamentalism. One has to remember that “pilgrimage is a rhythm of awakening, a root pulse that carries with it the codings of all our becomings. It is a yeasting in the searching soul” (Houston 1993: 1). Pilgrimage is a journey into larger reality, an initiation that leads to a union, or continuity with powers and principalities beyond one’s little local self. As a pilgrim, one becomes part of an extended larger eco-system, a larger ecology of being ― experiencing a unified reality of nature-spirit and human psyche. The programmes and plan promoting pilgrimage-tourism should be in the light of experiencing Living Sacred Earth ― re-establishment and re-search of the values involved and revival of such traditions and festivities with the support of local and private stewardship (cf. Singh 1995: 206).

The indigenous Gandhian thought of ahimsa has shown us the right path to proceed (cf. Singh 1999: 57). Let the integrated frame of pilgrimage-tourism come across the tidy wall of seducing history and encountering contestation and make the world of happy, harmonious and peaceful places and spaces where variety of flowers bloom in the different fields and corners, borders and peripheries, routes and destinations, with distinct, beautiful and soothing fragrances that make environment congenial and spiritual.

Sustainable pilgrimage-tourism is a march of awakening (chetanā-

yātrā). Our bankrupt materialist vision of “tourism” has brought the practice of consumerism and individualism. Let us recognise the inherent qualities of heritage where lies the spirit of the Mother Earth or Nature. By the deeper sense of nature theology (ecospirituality) the approach to sustainable pilgrimage-tourism may be viewed as a sacred path where the True (Satyam), Good (Shivam) and the Beautiful (Sundaram) become inseparable and the One. Each one is rooted into one another, that is why no one can be separated. The revelation and realisation of this message of sustainability may ensure the supreme bliss of enjoyment (ānanda).

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Bakker, Hans T. 1999. The Hindu Religion and War. 13pp. Institute of Indian Studies, University of Groningen [a lecture].

Bevan, Robert 2006. The Destruction of Memory. Architecture at War. Reaktion Books, London.

Bhardwaj, Surinder M. 1973. Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India,

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(eds.) Raj Rhapsodies: Tourism, Heritage and the Seduction of

History. Ashgate Publ. Ltd., Aldershot UK: xv-xxi. Elst, Koenraad 2002. Ayodhya: The Case against the Temple. Voice of

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Prof. Rana P.B. Singh

Professor of Cultural Geography & Heritage Studies, Banaras Hindu University, New F - 7 Jodhpur Colony, Varanasi, UP 221005. INDIA. Email: [email protected]

§ Rana has been involved in studying, performing and promoting the heritage planning and spiritual tourism in the Varanasi region for the last over three decades as promoter, collaborator and organiser. On these topics he has given lectures and seminars at various centres in Australia, Austria, Belgium, China PR, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, USA (& Hawaii), USSR. His publications include over two hundred research papers and thirty eight books and two regional guidebooks for cultural tourism, like Banaras

(Varanasi), Cosmic Order, Sacred City, Hindu Traditions (1993), Environmental

Ethics (1993), The Spirit and Power of Place (1994), Banaras Region: A Spiritual

& Cultural Guide (2002, with P.S. Rana), Towards pilgrimage Archetypes: Panchakroshi Yatra of Kashi (2002), Where the Buddha Walked (2003), The

Cultural Landscape and the Lifeworld: The Literary Images of Banaras (2004), Banaras, the City Revealed (2005, with George Michell), Banaras, the Heritage

City: Geography, History, Bibliography (2009), and the eight books under ‘Planet Earth & Cultural Understanding Series’: ‒ five from Cambridge Scholars Publishing UK: Uprooting Geographic Thoughts in India (2009), Geographical

Thoughts in India: Snapshots and Vision for the 21st Century (2009), Cosmic

Order & Cultural Astronomy (2009), Banaras, Making of India’s Heritage City (2009), Sacred Geography of Goddesses in South Asia (2010), and ‒ three from Shubhi Publications (New Delhi): Heritagescapes and Cultural Landscapes (2011), Sacredscapes and Pilgrimage Systems (2011), and Holy Places and

Pilgrimages: Essays on India (2011).

Documents

Pilgrimage and Religious Tourism in India - JISCMail