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M.Arch Thesis synopsis 2015

TRANSLATING NEW DEVELOPMENTS AT SRIRANGAM TO

ITS OWN ANCIENT URBAN DESIGN DIALECT
Gayathri Gopinath
Fourth semester in Urban Design, Department of Architecture, College of Engineering, Trivandrum
BACKGROUND
The historic urban areas in India evolved through processes of ancient town planning and cultural exchanges,
leading to a townscape, that in many situations visually attractive, ecologically sustainable and culturally, historically
identifiable. (Gopalakrishnan, 2014).Among them, most of the temple towns were designed according to the Vedic Town
Planning theories. Vedas - the major in the Indian Traditional knowledge systems are highly accepted worldwide and
referred by all fields of Sciences. The need to look into Vedic town planning theories is because they are course-corrected,
built upon the human-nature link, human attachment to the spaces of such cities are intense and they are most happening
places also, they form part of Indian urbanism and are multidisciplinary.
Keywords: Indian urban town planning, Vedas, Indian urbanism
CONCERN
1.

The current style of building Indian cities

Indian cities are now designed either by following foreign models of planning or built up separately matching
with the architects connected with each plot- ignoring a holistic view of a city- but this cannot answer Indian urbanism. This
would lead to a city where people can no longer relate to the space built around them and where it causes threat to nature.

2.

The 'what comes from the west is Science and what comes from the east is superstition' attitude.

Even though we have our own deep rooted traditional systems describing city planning - they are not included in pedagogies,
very less studies are done and are scarely updated, instead western ideas which came later are followed and taught
worldwide.
My thesis is a search into Vedas for the town planning and urban design solutions which would answer both
the above concerns and understand how can they attend to answer current needs of an Indian city.

Figure 2

Following Foreign concepts in

Indian context (Chandigarh sector 17)

Figure 2

Following Indian concepts of planning (Jaipur)

source : www.unp.me

source: www.harshbusservice.com

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M.Arch Thesis synopsis 2015

THE SITE
Srirangam is an island, bounded by Kaveri River and Kolladan river, 8.8 km north of Thiruchirappally city,Tamil
Nadu. The core of Srirangam is a fortified temple town which is in Sarvathobhadhra plan, around of which newer city
grows.

THE PROJECT CONCERN

The old core has seven prakaras, in which first 3 inner prakaras
are completely temple area, in which the area except the Sanctum
Sanctorum one acts as a public realm more than a purely religious one people sit and hang around the mandapam in solitude or groups lost in
deep thoughts, sleeping, chit-chat, brain storm, chant bajans or preach.
There are typologies of such mandapas and they are composed with each
other to create spaces within and among them. Play of light from the
unexpected skylights prinkles of the mystery to it too. It seems to be a
tightly packed happening spaces. A person entering this realm relates to
this artistic space so much that he comes out from a religious level to a
spiritual one, he tends to meet his SELF. For the same reason this space
is the heart of the city around which the lives of the people in Srirangam
revolves. The traditions, culture and lifestyle of a Srirangam inmate is
always linked with the Ranganathaswami temple and a network of other
small 'coils' visiting Lord Ranganathan is in their daily routine. The city
with a history of 2000 years still works in this routine because it's built in
the way it happens so. Moving out from the 3rd prakara to the outermost,
came across three residential streets faced by Agraharams, namely
Chitra, Uthira and Adayavalanjar streets which also uninterrupted
network of happening space and built enclosing in it is responsible for it.
The same street stages variety of activities from walking, driving, sleeping, chatting, drawing colom, procession, festivals
(Rathem vali) vending pet spaces - an example of pluralistic space in Indian urbanism.

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M.Arch Thesis synopsis 2015

Moving from the centre to the outermost prakara, one can

see varied happening spaces one tends to place themselves as
one among the natives and totally connect to the close-knit
temple town. But, the beyond the 7th prakara, stepping out
of the Raja gopuram, the link with what was just experienced
is lost and get pushed to the 'vehicle dominant' - global
pattern. Even the spaces adjacent to the temple town don't
show connection with the Architectural marvel one gets out
off. The concerns like pedestrian conflicts, accessibility,
permeability, imageability, safety etc which wasn't an issue
till the Rajagopuram starts rising. The immediate
surrounding at least has a backdrop of the temple town
gopuram further which even that is lost, spaces loose the
Srirangam signature - its context, and gets unfamiliar, less
safe etc.The massiveness of the Temple town urban form has
a strong influence over Srirangam inmates much to make
them create 'koils' where they stay, say it be the luxurious
Shankar Abode or gated communities like Banker's colony.
Otherwise there is no significant influences from the Temple
town architecturally or planning wise. Expected outcome of
this thesis is to create solutions to the above mentioned
differences among the old and new settlements in
Srirangam.

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M.Arch Thesis synopsis 2015

AIM
To understand and adapt the ancient town planning principle and the new developments at Srirangam.
OBJECTIVES
1. To study the Vedic the town planning theories.
2. To understand the urban design component of the
ancient temple town of Srirangam.
3. To apply the Vedic town planning principles in the new
developments at Srirangam.
LIMITATIONS AND SCOPE
City Planning principle in Vedas are a region
where constant studies and updates are not made unlike in
Ayurveda etc. The Vedic city planning principles are
scattered in different sections. The Vedic planning was done
based on the social classification then existed, translation of
which into present scenario is confusing one because now
classifications are mainly economic and social. Being a
democratic country, improving a holistic idea to a city is
not possible as in Jaipur, done during the reign of Raja Jai
Singh.
DESCRIPTION OF RESEARCH WORK
An in depth study is needed to find out the vedic
city planning principles. Since this thesis is done in
Srirangam, the Mayamata and Mansara are considered for
the study. From the principles understood from it, cities
like Srirangam, Madurai and Jaipur are studied. Jaipur and
Madurai are case studies because they are also vedically
designed. From these UD components of a vedic city will
be considered.
In parallel, a city study on Srirangam will be done
where the city will be understood in its historical,
ecologicalm, morphological dimensions. Analysis of which
would give the issues and potentials from which project site
would be identified and detail study will be done. A vision
will be formulated from the understanding of the project.
Vision will be detailed out by cutting it down to aim and
objectives, through which the project will be carried out.

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M.Arch Thesis synopsis 2015

METHODOLOGY

MAYAMATA
&
MANASARA

VEDIC CITY
PLANNING PRINCIPLES
CITY STUDIES

VEDIC PLANNING
AT JAIPUR &
MADURAI

CASESTUDIES

SRIRANGAM

VEDIC
PLANNING
PRINCIPLES AT
SRIRANGAM

URBAN DESIGN
COMPONENTS OF VEDIC
CITY

PRESENT CONDITIONS OF
SRIRANGAM
ISSUES AND POTENTIALS

VISION

URBAN DESIGN
COMPONENTS OF VEDIC
CITY

aim &
objectives

DESIGN
LIST OF CASESTUDIES
1.
Jaipur
2.
Madurai.
IDENTIFICATION OF PROJECT SITE
_______Not yet fixed________

CONCLUSION
Expected outcome of the of the work would be design demonstrations of a particular new development area at Srirangam
developed with Vedic Urban Design components.
LIST OF REFERENCES

Behari Dutt Binode (1984), "Town Planning In Ancient India", New Asian Publishers, Delhi
Bubber D K (2005), "The Spirit Of Indian Architecture", Rupa Publishers,New Delhi.
Sachdev, V., & Tillotson, G. (2002). Building Jaipur: The making of an Indian city. London: Reaktion.
P, Gopalakrishnan, and Dr.Srinivas T (2014). Study of views and visual relationship of sacred monuments, settings
and people: a case of srirangam.Thiruchirapally.
Second semester students, (2013-2014 Batch). College of Engineering. Trivandrum [Urban design studio work].
Second semester students, (2013-2014 Batch). NIT, Trichy [Urban design studio work].

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