Paper short abstract:

In the paper I probe the intersection of intangible heritage of the migrant city dwellers and the displaced inhabitants of the Greater Hyderabad (GH). The wayside religious structures in the GH bear the ephemeral inheritance of the stakeholders who build, maintain and use these.

Paper long abstract:

The religious architecture in the city is a burning issue in the south Asian countries like India. The greater Hyderabad project of the state government, Andhra Pradesh transformed the natural heritage (rock-scape) and local settlement. What remained untouched in the budding city is the religious structure. Today these structures appear as 'urban totems'.

In my paper I propose that these kind of religious structures are like pandora's boxes that are filled with the intangible heritage of the local. The displaced people return to these structures as pilgrims to offer votive offering, perform ritual, and pray for wish fulfillment. The migrated residents associate themselves with such structures to heal their fear and anxiety of a new place. The local lords such as the political leaders, real estate dealers, and influential retailers are also stakeholders of these religious structures. They hold the controlling power on the land, the moved and migrated people. At the end of the paper I address the close encounter with the images and vernacular languages that transformed the reception of wayside religious structure.