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Addressing Myth and Reality

Part 2 Project 2009
Priyadarshi Shrivastava
 Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute Mumbai | India
Project Statement

Varanasi: (Benares or Kashi) is a famous Hindu holy city situated at the banks of the river Ganges in Northern India. It is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world.
The culture of Varanasi is deeply associated with the river Ganges and the river's religious importance. The city has been a cultural and religious center in northern India for thousands of years.
Regions near the banks of river Ganga are extremely crowded and house several Hindu temples, narrow winding lanes and road-side shops. Varanasi has nearly 100 ghats, most of which are bathing ghats, while some others are for cremation.
Hindu religion believes in life after death and reincarnation. Hindu religion also talks about the ultimate goal of life as moksha (salvation) by which you will be out of this cycle and become a part of the god himself.
Death is of utmost importance in Varanasi, as if one dies here, MOKSHA is achieved. Old people from across the India come to Varanasi and wait for their death, for which the city inhibits hundreds of Old Age Home. Today these homes are islands cut off from the rest of the city.

Proposal: My project is basically to imbibe the moksha feeling, connecting the experience of the inmates to the everyday life of the city wherein, the old people experience life as it ends and its transition from humans to god.
The project is to do justice with the sentiments of old people and strengthening the belief system with which they come to Varanasi and also to give them a dignified life with peaceful death which they aspire in their last days.
In this project addressing ‘myth’ and ‘reality’, both were important as the belief system in supernatural is so intense here that it affects everyday life of the inhabitants. The project took place at, and in such a way, where the mythical and the everyday intersected. The experiences designed were to allow the different stages of life to interact with one another evoking the journey of a person’s life as they wait for their death.




There are few cities in the subcontinent as immersed in myth as the city of Benares. There are legends emanating from every part of the city creating rituals marking the land with an aura that deeply affects the everyday lives of its inhabitants. Thus, space in Benares cannot be understood in conventional terms. It constantly oscillates between the mythical and the everyday. Priyadarshi’s project attempted to come to grips with these oscillations by exploring one such institution that was unique to the geography of Benares.
It is said that if one dies in Benares one is released from the eternal cycle to life and death. This has led to the development of many old age homes whose sole purpose is to provide shelter to those who come to the city specifically to die. Today these homes are islands cut off from the rest of the city. Priyadarshi wanted to transform this relationship and to connect the experience of the inmates to the everyday life of the city.
To locate his intervention Priyadarshi carefully studied the imagination of the city within historical and mythological maps. He also studied how these imaginations of the city had led to certain values associated with different parts of the city leading to particular rituals and practices. He then went about overlaying these imaginations to locate places where the mythical and the everyday intersected.
He chose a site on the banks of the river Ganges which was surrounded by spaces loaded with meaning in Hindu religion. In his project he incorporated these and also added new functions that represented the five stages of a person’s life according to Hindu philosophy.
The building was planned as a complex series of courtyards that cascaded down to the river, each programmed in different relationships with each other and the old people’s home. In some you could see the sun rise over the holy river, in others you could watch young men exercise in the morning light or hear the ritual chants of holy men celebrating the birth of a child or hear children playing in the school yard.
The experiences of these spaces were to allow the different stages of life to interact with one another evoking the journey of a person’s life as they wait for their death.


Tutor(s)
Prof Rohan Shivkumar
2009
• Varanasi is a famous Hindu holy city situated at the banks of the river Ganges (Ganga) in Northern India.One of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, with its culture deeply associated with the river Ganges and the river's religious imp
ONE'S ENTIRE LIFE UNFOLDS, MOMENTS BEFORE HE DIES. EVERY SINGLE STAGE OF LIFE IS ASSOCIATED WITH A PARTICULAR CHARACTER, NATURE, WEAKNESS, STRENGTH, ETC., AND ALSO DIFFERENT NEEDS AND DEMANDS. INTERACTION BETWEEN DIFFERENT STAGES OF LIFE EVOKES TH
MOST OF THESE OLD AGE HOMES ARE A SERIES OF ROOMS SURROUNDING A COURTYARD WHICH GENERALLY HAS A TREE OR A SMALL TEMPLE IN THE MIDDLE. ALL OF THESE STRUCTURES ARE EQUIPPED WITH A DEITY TO BE WORSHIPPED. THIS KIND OF ARRANGEMENT MAKE THEIR EXISTENCE C
THE ABOVE STUDY IS OF A PARTICULAR PATCH OF RIVER FRONT AND THE DOMINANT CHARACTER / INSTITUTION THEIR, SHOWING THE EXTENTS OF RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE INSTITUTIONS, MUTUAL INTERACTION AND DEPENDENCY OF THOSE ON WATER FRONT. THE STUDY HELPED
SACRED TERRITORIES AND SITES EXISTS ON THE 5 PILGRIMAGE MANDALA AND OTHER TWO SEGMENTS (KEDARESHWAR AND OMKARESHWAR KHANDA), IN A SPECIFIC NUMBER. THE SIGNIFIACNCE OF THE MAGICAL NUMBERS IS SHOWN ON THE NEXT PAGE. OUT OF ALL THE SACRED TERRITOR
different segments of the city are guarded by different deities on the eight cardinal points, showing the imporatnce of different mandala and the connection with the supernatural. the significance of total numbers of deity in different segments has been
ALL THE STUDY RELATED TO SACRED GEOGRAPHY OF THE CITY AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE DIFFERENT DEITIES ARE NOT JUST INTO THE SCRIPTURES, THE HOLY CITY OF VARANASI AND ITS PEOPLE LIVES IT EVERYDAY. ADDRESSING THE SUPERNATURAL AND ITS INVOLVEMENT IN A PERSON
THE ABOVE GIVEN DIFFERENT PROGRAMS HAS BEEN DECIDED NOT ONLY ON THE BASIS OF 5 DIFFERENT PHASES OF LIFE BUT ALSO TO KEEP THE ELDERLY PERSON IN FULL SPIRIT OF LIFE, GIVING THEM ENOUGH OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE AS WELL AS TO KEEP THEMSELVES ENGAGED IN DIFFERENT
OUT OF ALL THE SACRED TERRITORIES, KEDARESHWAR KHANDA HAS A SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE FOR DEATH, AS ONE WHO DIES IN THIS SEGMENT GETS MOKSHA DIRECTLY WITHOUT GOING THROUGH 'BHAIRAV YATNA' ( PUNISHMENT OF HELL GIVEN BY LORD BHAIRAVA FOR THE SINS
as the project is about sharing relationships between different actors of different programmes, the above diagrams show interaction between the old age home and different functions, which leads to generate an overall form to maintain the interaction betwe
AS EARLIER DISCUSSED, A TYPICAL FORMATION OF A COURTYARD LEADS TO FORMATION OF BACKYARDS ALSO MAKING THE SURROUNDING SPACES INERT. THE ABOVE DIAGRAM SHOWS HOW FORMATION OR UNION OF TWO OR MORE FUNCTIONS ALONG WITH THEIR COURTYARDS MAKE NO BACKYARD AND KEE
as the project is about sharing relationships between different actors of different programmes, the above diagrams show interaction between the old age home and different functions, which leads to generate an overall form to maintain the interaction betwe
FOR THE MICROSPACE DEVELOPMENT, IT WAS IMPORTANT TO STUDY THE HUMAN'S BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS EXISTING MICROSPACES. THE ABOVE IMAGES SHOW HOW DIFFERENT KIND OF SPACES AFFECT DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS, POSTURE OF BODY AND ALSO THEIR MUTUAL DEPENDENCE. THIS HAS LEAD TO
SHOWS THE BUILTUP FORM OF THE PROJECT, DIFFERENT NATURES OF COURTYARDS ALONWITH INTERACTION BETWEEN THEM.
THE DIFFERENT FUCTIONAL AREAS INTERACT WITHIN THE MICROSCOPIC PUBLIC SPACES CREATED WITHIN THE PROJECT.
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