Nagara Architecture of Himachal Pradesh: Form, Geometry, Construction

The hill regions along the Western Himalayan Range―today politically divided into the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand―constitute one of the border regions of the Brahmanical cultures. Despite its peripheral geographical location, the belt which borders the Tibetan cultural sphere holds a central position within the Brahmanical cosmology. Its religious importance as testified by the Kinnaur Kailash as the abode of Shiva and Parvati as well as the holy rivers of Ganga and Yamuna emerging from the Western part of the Himalayan Range. Beyond its mythological and religious relevance, the region‘s cultural heritage in material art is significant. Its significance is based on two factors: First, the remoteness of many of the religious sites has saved them from the widespread destruction by military campaigns that severely hit the cultural centres of the Ganga Plain, the heartland of North Indian Brahmanical currents. Second, as a border area it has been in permanent exchange with its neighbours on one hand while on the other the remoteness enhanced the fusion of local cults resulting sometimes in very specific forms of religious practice.

The history of the religion and the related art has been studied widely. This does include to some extent the architecture of the major monuments. While the historical and art historical aspects of architecture―or to be more precise: stylistic features and aspects linked to textual studies―have been studied in detail as well as on a comparative level, the situation regarding accurate architectural studies is remarkably incomplete. So far, not a single complete study of any monument has been undertaken or published in an adequate form, i.e. no complete set of architectural plans has been published (i.e. site map, floor plans, elevations, sectional drawings, details of portals). Accordingly, the architectural forms with their structural characteristics, building methods and, above all, their proportional systems have not been studied. This concerns all forms of temple architecture such as nagara temples made of stone as well as wooden temples. As given in the title of the current project, its focus is on the stone temples of the Nagara Type with its typical curvilinear shikara tower.

Publications on nagara temples of Himachal have so far been limited to textual descriptions, sketch drawings and proportional studies of the floor plans. In contrast, the lack of accurate data on the elevations, in particular of the upper parts, has limited proportional and structural studies to the ground floor level, i.e. the footing of the monuments. This has left the picture in the field of architectural studies in an incomplete state.

The current project sets out to fill that gap. As a consequence of the absence of accurate data on the upper portions of the monuments, the focus of the project is on the over-all architectural forms. Accordingly, the first step is the production of accurate elevations and sectional drawings. The crucial part in the workflow is the survey and the study of the monuments in situ. Modern state of the art digital methods of documentation are being applied within the documentation process. Photogrammetry based on photographic footage is the key as it provides the data for the production of models and exact plans which―in the next step―can then be used for proportional studies and the analysis of the paradigms of compositional aspects through detailed and accurate drawings. Regarding details, the major interest is on the portals which do not only frame the entrance into the sanctum, but serve at the same time as a frame for the main idol in the centre of the respective monument.

When it comes to the quantity and completeness of the number of monuments, it has to be noted that a number of smaller or broken temples have not received much attention so far or have even escaped notice completely. Therefore, the current project does include those minor monuments whenever found in order to complete the current state of knowledge both in terms of the quality of documentation as well as quantity of monuments.

Regarding the processing of the collected and analysed data a major focus of the project is on the digitalisation process and archiving. The project is thereby embedded in the field of Digital Humanities, in particular Digital Cultural Heritage. It is actually this website which is at the core of the final stage of this process as it is conceptualized and designed as an open access archive for the study of the cultural heritage of Himachal. Unlike other websites, it is primarily based on models while textual descriptions and photographic images are subordinate to the visual representations of the objects and the architectural plans. The information is primarily accessible through a visual directory rather than key words and textual chapters. Visuals are not used as illustrations to the text but understood and presented as the major source for the understanding of the material culture.

In the course of the project different methods of digital presentation are being tested including the programming of an app for smart phones and tablets which allow for the presentation of selected monuments or objects (sculptures) to a wider public.