Paper short abstract:

The paper presents some reflections about an early 18th century pictorial map from Mewar. The Tīrthayātrāpaṭṭa depicts the city of Varanasi in a unique way and has previously received little scholarly attention.

Paper long abstract:

This paper deals with preliminary explorations of the pictorial map Tīrthayātrāpaṭṭa which is displayed at the National Museum in Delhi (acc. no. 56 59/28). The map is most likely one of the earliest examples of pictorial depiction of the city of Varanasi, being dated around 1700; it is said to come from the Mewar region of Rajasthan.

Many of its features are completely different from other visual material and picture-maps of the city analysed to date. The city represented here seems to be highly idealized and, apart from the many shrines which belong to the city's known geography, other recognizable architectures appear to be absent. Strikingly as well, the river Yamunā, which is otherwise linked to other sacred centres of North India, appears in the map as well as the river Gaṅgā, thus conveying the idea that a unique mixture of traits and qualities is attached to this specific tīrtha.

The Tīrthayātrāpaṭṭa will be compared to other presumably almost coeval examples of Rajasthani pictorial depiction of Varanasi, in order to highlight possible common patterns as well as diversities and specificities. We will suggest that further comparisons of these works could profitably be made with manuscript illustrations; indeed, the depiction of sacred places developed as an important subject of representation in manuscripts of Mewar from around the second half of the 17th century.

Paper short abstract:

Paintings (paṭa) that map the Jaina site of Mount Śatruñjaya have a long and continuing history. This paper draws on empirical study and engagement with contemporary creators and users to explore the evolving iconography of Śatruñjaya paṭa and their use as visualizations and analogues of pilgrimage.

Paper long abstract:

Images of sacred sites, tīrtha or kṣetra, appear abundantly in Jaina art, reflecting the importance of place in mythology, devotion and identity. Large map-like paintings of Mount Śatruñjaya in Gujarat are prominent within the Śvetāmbara Mūrtipūjak (white-clad, image-worshipping) sect. These Śatruñjaya paṭa have been continuously created for ceremonial use or pilgrimage commemoration since the 18th century or earlier. The paintings depict scale, orientation and distance inconsistently, but effectively map the site through a composition roughly emulating the physical layout of architectural structures, paths and nearby towns. Animated by pilgrims, ascetics, townspeople, fauna, flora and celestial beings, the scenes are immersive analogues of pilgrimage that reinforce both the temporal activities of a Jaina religious centre and its allegorical associations. Darśana (seeing) of Śatruñjaya paintings allows viewers to mentally traverse the sacred landscape.

Empirical study of published and unpublished Śatruñjaya paṭa from Indian and international public, private and temple collections illustrated a degree of consistency in composition and imagery, as well as significant developments over time. This paper seeks to explore the changing iconography of Śatruñjaya paṭa, and implications for experiential efficacy. Along with the extended range of primary documents, the study will draw on field research to be conducted in early 2016, primarily interviews with paṭa artists working in hereditary guilds near Śatruñjaya, recent patrons and Śvetāmbara Mūrtipūjak adherents. Recording and analysing the views of contemporary producers and users, largely absent from existing academic discourse, will enable new understanding of the psychosocial mechanisms of Śatruñjaya paṭa and pilgrimage visualisation in India.

Paper short abstract:

The paper builds on intensive ethnography among Bengal-Vaishnavas, and aims to study different kinds of experiences of sacred geography: as externalised pilgrimage sites, and internalised affective spaces of the body and mind.

Paper long abstract:

The Vaishnavite devotional tradition in Hinduism is widely characterized by strong involvement with sacred geography and intense sensuous experience of deities. My aim is to show how these distinctive dimensions of devotees' experience overlap, that is, to document the remarkably diverse and politicized ways in which devotees experience sacred geography: not just in external pilgrimage sites but also in interiorised affective spaces of their bodies and minds. Building on fieldwork conducted among worshippers in the Navadvip-Mayapur sacred complex, Bengal's greatest site of guru-centered Vaishnavite pilgrimage and devotional life, my paper explores the distinctive ways in which resident ascetic-renouncers and householder devotees cultivate intense relationships with the sacred place. I argue that devotees embody distinct spatial practices, in sites including pilgrimage places, imagination, the body, and embodied places where musical utterance is enacted and experienced. I argue that a complex philosophy of substitutability of place informs the experiences of these different sites. Devotees refer to Navadvip and Mayapur as well as these different sites as gupta (veiled) Vrindavan. For devotees, Vrindavan is not only the north Indian Vaishnava pilgrimage place but more centrally, the celestial abode where the deity-consort, Radha-Krishna enact their love-plays. Referring to these sites as veiled-Vrindavan signifies that they conceal the spiritual/erotic essence of the sacred place, and are accessible to those who cultivate appropriate techniques. I document both the techniques and experiences of emplacement in these diverse affective sites, and analyse them from the prisms of the anthropology of pilgrimage and place, and the anthropology of affect.

Paper short abstract:

The map itself could be a practice or an instrument applied to a spatial dimension. The process of making reality by constructing the physical space seems to be the case of Trichur - the city where the legendary map of Śaṅkara’s life became re-created and inscribed in specific geographic location.

Paper long abstract:

Most of Śaṅkara's hagiographies feature his conquer of the quarters (digvijaya) as their dominant topos. During all-India journey, Śaṅkara was said to travel along with disciples to the four corners of Indian Peninsula. He supposed to establish four vidyāpīṭhas (seats of learning), each affiliated with one of the four dhāmas (sacred places of pilgrimage).

Alternation to this popular account remains in circulation in Kerala. According to the local hagiographic tradition, Śaṅkara has founded four Advaita Vedānta maṭhas in the city of Trichur only. These were Vadakke Maṭham ("Northern Maṭha"), Naduvil Maṭham ("Middle Maṭha"), Edayil Maṭham ("Maṭha In-between") and Thekke Maṭham ("Southern Maṭha"), each of them associated with one adjacent temple. Subsequently he attained samādhi in Vatakkunnathan Temple situated nearby. Three of mentioned monasteries have survived until today.

All those institutions were build in one city, next to each other, just few hundred meters away from Vatakkunnathan Temple. The physical space of Trichur was rearranged in order to actualize the ideological concept which gave it a symbolic meaning. Thus, the legendary map of Śaṅkara's life became recreated and inscribed in geographic location of Trichur.

Thereby, in analyzing this peculiar local tradition, the key concept seems to be the map itself. The map with its ability not only to represent the physical area but also to create and re-create the space along with the reality. Thus the literary cartography in this case may enable understanding the cultural process of "making the place" of pilgrimage, giving it an importance, function and symbolic values.