Cultural Astronomy and Cosmic Order Sacred Cities of India

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This pioneering book is distinct in its kind and coverage of the field of cultural astronomy. There is great depth to the sacred landscape, which is generated by many levels of meanings, many sources of energy, and many centres of attraction. Here, the Cosmic Order is illustrated with studies of Khajuraho, Gaya, Vindhyachal, Kashi, and Chitrakut. The entry of the science of self- organization into the discussion does not diminish the profound mystery and grandeur of the pilgrimage experiences as exemplified in this book.

This work re-awakens within us a sense of sacredness and the holy that makes wholeness in holy-heritage cities of India. It provides insights from the disciplines dealing with cultural landscape studies in the frame of multidimensional perspectives.

The author has also brought out the larger issues of understanding the city planners and temple architects, original intentions, and the planned experience of pilgrims moving through the sacred landscape.

Prof. Rana P.B. Singh (b. 15-12-1950), MA, PhD, FJF & FIFSS (Japan), FAAI (Italy), FACLA (Korea), 'Ganga-Ratna', & 'Koshal-Ratna', has been Professor of Cultural Landscapes & Heritage Studies, and Head of the Department of Geography (2013-2015), Banaras Hindu University.

He was the President: ACLA-Asian Cultural Landscape Association (Korea-India-Japan), 2018-2023: and serves as President (Asia): RWYC- Reconnecting With Your Culture (-a charter Euro. Comm. & a member UNESCO); Contributing Member: ICOMOS-IFLA ISC 'Cultural Landscapes'; Chief Coordinator: ICOMOS India NSC 'Cultural Landscapes'. Presently, he is a Visiting Professor, Centre of South Asian Studies, Gifu Women's University, Japan.

Over four decades, he has been involved in studying, and promoting heritage studies, sacred geography & cultural astronomy, in the Varanasi region, and did field studies in Japan, Sweden, Italy, Korea, and China; and delivered seminars and lectures in 25 countries 78 times. His publications include 342 papers, and 43 books and anthologies.

The cultural astronomy and cosmic order that framed the cityscapes and sacredscapes described in this book of thematic essays cover a time of over thousands of years, from the sites of the Ramayana period (e.g., Chitrakut) and later Vedic period (e.g., Gaya) to the cultural capital city of India (Varanasi Kashi). These sacred sites and pilgrimage places display varying geometrical order and planning (cf. Malville 2000, Singh 2011, Singh and Malville 2000). By their respective geometries, each of these places establishes an interior cosmos with order and meaning. Geometries utilizing lines, triangles, rectangles, and circles were used to couple interior spaces with those of the larger cosmos, The geometric connection between microcosm and macrocosm that has always been easiest to construct and interpret is cardinal orthogonality. Space within the city was designed to mimic the geometry of the larger cosmos by creating a gridwork of mutually perpendicular lines aligned to the true north,

All my life, I have felt close to place. Place speaks. Place talks. Place communicates. The place is a growing organism, a form of being. The place is an interrelated community, playing between Man and Cosmos. The presence of place was real to me long before I knew anything of the energies by which this works. I remember that since my childhood, I have sensed "something" in and around a place, placeness, and placemaking. The visible and invisible messages have been a source of real meaning in my life. I have moved from one place to another; however, I carried the memories and mythic sentiments attached to the place. I don't know how and why this is always with me. Somehow later in life, I learn that place attachment is a human quest for understanding and also a feeling-the immanence and transcendence of a force linking Man and the Cosmos.

I have always thought that several invisible spirits behind the landscape and the built environment make the environment alive, meaningful, communicative, and visionary. I also believe that as our understanding of sacred cities improves, we will become wiser and more compassionate about how we interact and communicate in this world. Keeping this quest in mind, I occasionally wander along the stairways of the riverfront Ganga in Varanasi (Banaras/Kashi) at Asi Ghat. While passing several decades of sitting and walking in the sandy and muddy areas, one day (on the 13th of January 1993, Wednesday: Magha Krishna 6th Samvata 2049), when the sun was going down, and the radiance of sunlight was being transferred into the gloomy shining darkness having rest in the cosmic rhythm, I met a tall, distinguished-looking person who was seriously reading my old essay on 'pilgrimage mandala of Kashi' (1987) and was in search to meet the author for observing the astronomical happenings, correspondences, and alignments of light and sites. His name is John McKim Malville [an emeritus professor at the Department of Astrophysics and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA]. The following next day was a festival and one of the most auspicious days for bathing and oblation of sacred water to the Sun god, i.e., the 14th of January, Thursday, Makara Samkrānti-the day considered the closest day to the winter solstice (21 December) when human beings perceive the effect of long day time and change of the season.