INDIA

India is a country with rich religious histories and a diverse cultural landscape. For
this project, we are focused on the mountainous areas of northwestern India located
primarily in Uttarakhand, along the borders of Nepal and Tibet. This area of
northern India has been an important religious pilgrimage site for millennia, with
religious aesthetics, priests, sadhus and ordinary Indians undertaking arduous
journeys through the mountains to holy sites across the Himalaya. Many of these
travelers have followed ancient pilgrimage routes that still exist today, and along
the main route leading through our project area (Kailash Sacred Landscape) in
Uttarakhand, the Indian Government’s Kumao Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN)
manages a series of pilgrimage hostels and guest houses. Many of the travelers on
this path are heading to Mount Kailas and/or Lake Manasarovar. As the KMVN
website notes in regard to Kailas:
According to Hindu legends, Shiva, the god of devastation and rebirth, resides at
the pinnacle of this famous mountain named Kailasa. Mount Kailasa is considered
in many sects of Hinduism as heaven, the ultimate destination of souls and the holy
center of the world. The narrative in the Puranas, Mount Kailash’s four faces are
made of crystal, ruby, gold, and lapis lazuli. Refereed as the pillar of the world
that rises 84,000 leagues high. From it flow four rivers, which stretch to the four
quarters of the world and divide the world into four regions.

Uttarakhand alone has many important religious sites, including being home to one
of the major Char Dam Yatra or “four abodes” sites of Badrinath (the other three
being Dwarka, Jagannath Puri and Rameswaram). According to legends in the
classical Hindu Sanskrit texts that form the Mahabharata, the Char Dam Yatra sites
were believed to have the power to cleanse people of their sins. Uttarakhand is
home to the important Chota Char Dam “four small abodes” Yatra sites, which
besides Badrinath includes Haridwar, Kedarnath, Rishikesh, Jageswar, Devprayag,
Gangotri, and Chitai (more tourism info).
 
This is a view from the trail along the Kailas Yatra route just north of Narayan
Ashram near the town of Darchula. Narayan Ashram is an important local site
associated with this part of Uttarakhand, and also with the Kailas Yatra. You can
learn more about Narayam Ashram and see photos here.
The Sacred Landscape of Braj, India:
Imagined, Enacted, and Reclaimed
Sinha, A.. "The Sacred Landscape of Braj, India: Imagined, Enacted, and Reclaimed." Landscape
Journal 33, no. 1 (2014): 59-75. DOI: 10.3368/lj.33.1.59
Keywords: Visualization, Sacred Landscapes, Place, Pilgrimage, Phenomenology, India
Hinduism, Enactment and Cultural Heritage

The cultural heritage of the sacred Braj region in Northern India is assessed
within the framework of phenomenology of place experience in ritual
enactments involving visual and haptic engagement with the landscape. The
imagined landscape of Braj consists of visualization at the site of imagery
centered on the Hindu god Krishna, influenced by representations of the deity
in texts, paintings, and popular culture. The experience is enacted via
circumambulation wherein places are inscribed in the body in movement and
at rest. Two sacred sites in Braj with a significant role in Krishna mythology
—Govardhan Hill and Yamuna River—are studied as imagined and enacted
landscapes. The environmental degradation caused by disappearing wetlands,
neglected water bodies and denuded forest cover is leading to a physical,
mental, and spiritual disengagement with the cultural landscape and loss of
place-based collective memories. The proposed remediation approach seeks
to promote environmental values through restoration of water bodies and
groves on the Yamuna Riverfront and Govardhan Hill.
The vision thing: the origins of
India’s sacred landscapes
BY PETER FRIEDLANDER

Local legends and beliefs in parts of India often have their origins in the
broader Indic tradition, writes PETER FRIEDLANDER.
What makes a landscape sacred? To explore this question, in
2014, I visited three sacred sites in the central Indian state of
Madhya Pradesh—the town of Maheswar and two sites around
the nearby ancient city of Mandu.
Maheshwar, a small town on the shores of the river Narmada, about 595 kilometres
miles from the sea, is thought to have been continuously inhabited from as early as
1500 BCE.  The city was entirely rebuilt by Rani Ahilyabai Holkar (1725–95),
who shifted the capital of the Holkar dynasty from Indore to Maheshwar. In
constructing her new capital, she overwrote the city’s earlier history and built a
sacred landscape within it, linking some sites to other places in India where she
had also funded building works.
Maps at her palace connected Maheshwar to 52 other sites around India where she
had funded religious works—such as many of the riverside ghats in the sacred city
of Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh. She also funded the rebuilding of Varanasi’s famous
Kashi Vishvanath temple, one of the holiest sites for Hindus.

In Maheshwar, the Rani is said to have had a vision of Kashi Vishvanath, a

jyotirlinga, or devotional object, representing the god Shiva, at a site by the river, a
short stroll from the palace, and then funded the construction of another Kashi
Vishvanath temple (pictured ) at that site.  Even today, every Monday her painting
is put into a palanquin and accompanied by musicians and a priest as it tours the
temples along the waterfront and makes a sacred circumambulation of the local
microcosm she created of the macrocosm of India, by visiting the temples she built
and making offerings at them.

North of Maheshwar, the Vindhya mountains form an escarpment on which lies a

plateau, known as Mandu. Like Maheswar, this site has been inhabited since
ancient times, but today is mostly associated with the Hoshang dynasty and the
15th-century ruler Hoshang Shah, who shifted his capital from Dhar to Mandu in
1401. Mandu is a major centre of the Adivasi tribal communities—considered the
aboriginal population of India—in Madhya Pradesh, who form the majority of
those living in Mandu today.

The Reva Kund at Mandu.

A major feature of the adivasi religious geography of Mandu is a pool of water,
called the Reva Kund. Legend links its construction to the romance between a local
shepherdess, Roopmati, and the last local ruler, Baz Bahadur, around 1500.
According to legend, the king was out hunting when he was smitten by the sight of
the local shepherdess. She agreed to marry him on condition that he lived with her
in a pavilion looking to the Narmada River, and if Reva—another name for the
Narmada—blessed the union by emerging as a spring at the site of Reva Kund.

The local Adivasi communities use Reva Kund as a site for religious rituals, in
particular as a shamshan ghat—a burning ground. In Hinduism, the waters of the
Narmada River have the power to grant liberation from the cycle of rebirth, if a
person’s ashes are deposited in them. By equating the waters of Reva Kund to
those of the Narmada River, the Adivasis believe the kund’s waters also have the
power to grant liberation.

When I first visited Mandu in 1989 and talked to the Adivasis about their world
views, they told me that, although they were Adivasi, they replicated the Brahmin,
Rajput, Vaisya and Sudra castes—the four main Hindu castes—in their own caste
divisions. Recalling those discussions now in this context, I am struck by the way
that the process of mirroring—linking the local microcosm to the Indic macrocosm
—is so pervasive in India.

The second site I visited at Mandu—Ravidas Kund—is outside the walls of the
fort, on the main north road from Mandu to Dhar, on a ravine called Kakara Kho.
The site of the Ravidas Kund today is a small pond, which is part of a stream
flowing down the ravine. It is now a popular roadside stop, with drink and snack
stalls, views down the ravine, and a recently built temple (pictured) constructed
over the sacred pool. The main enclosure includes images of Ravidas—a 15th-
century guru from a leather-working community from Varanasi—and the Hindu
deities Vishnu and Shivalinga.

The guardian of the site, a local villager, said the main events at the temple
occurred when visitors from the Ravidasi communities, who follow a monotheistic
religion based on the teachings of Ravidas, visited from the nearby towns of Indore
and Dhar to celebrate occasions such as Ravidas Jayanti—Ravidasis birthday.

Stories about Ravidas were first recorded in the Punjab and Rajasthan in the 17th
century. The most famous tells of the time Ravidas was working outside his house,
and donated an offering to a passing Brahmin to give on his behalf to the Ganges.
The Brahmin later tossed the offering into the Ganges, which then manifested
herself as the goddess Ganga, and gave in return a golden bracelet to the Brahmin.

The Ravidas Kund at Mandu – now a popular roadside stop.

Rather than giving the bracelet back to Ravidas, the Brahman gave it to the queen,
who demanded a second one to make a matching pair. The Brahmin then had to
admit to the king that the bracelet was not his to give, but was actually a gift from
Ganga to Ravidas.

The king and his entourage visited Ravidas to persuade him to go to the Ganges to
get a matching bracelet. But instead of going to the river, Ravidas summoned 
Ganga, who emerged from the pot Ravidas used for soaking leather and gave him a
second matching bracelet. The first time stories related to the Ravidas Kund at
Mandu were recorded was in the Vernacular Census of Marwar of 1891. In these
stories Ravidas was from Mandu, not Varanasi, and lived at the site of the Ravidas
Kund. The king becomes Raja Bhoj of Dhar, and the water vessel from which
Ganga emerges becomes the Ravidas Kund.

In another story recorded in the census, Ravidas had two daughters of famed
beauty. Raja Bhoj decided he would make them his wives, and arrived at Ravidas’
house, next to the Ravidas Kund, with a  party of soldiers to carry the girls away.
The girls then revealed themselves to be the rivers Ganga and Narmada, and
transforming themselves into goddesses, leapt into the kund, from which a great
flood emerged, sweeping away the king and his army.
The communities at the three sacred sites at Maheswar and Mandu employed
narrative strategies that linked local microcosms to Indic macrocosms—and the
mechanism for this linking is the power of darshan, or vision,which sanctifies a
site.
Ahilyabai built a Kashi Vishvanath temple in Maheshwar, at the site where she had
a vision of Shiva as he could be seen in Varanasi. The Adivasi community identify
Reva Kund as sacred, because of the vision of the goddess Narmada at the Kund in
Mandu. The community of followers of Ravidas sanctify the Ravidas Kund by
making it the site of the vision of the Ganga and Narmada.

Main photo:
The Kashni  Vishvanath temple at Mashewar.
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Sacred Sites, Places, & Landscapes:

All You Need To Know
September 18, 2020 by Hunter Old Elk
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Sacred landscapes are the foundation of cultural resilience. Stories of
sacred environments are weaved into the cosmologies, world views, and
cultural practices of Indigenous peoples.

For Indigenous groups, their religious, spiritual, medicinal, and cultural

practices are inherently linked to specific geographical locations.
Knowledge of these places and their meaning are passed down from
generations. These locations are places such as natural landmarks
(mountain ranges, bodies of water, etc.); areas where major events
happened (religious sites, battles, etc.); and landscapes that produce raw
materials and food (buffalo jumps). Along with the recognition of sacred
environments comes the need for respect, renewal, and preservation.

Q: How are sacred sites, sacred places, and sacred cultural

landscapes defined? Sacred sites are found within a larger geographic
landscape. Sacred Places are sites, areas, and/or landscapes having one
or more attributes that distinguish them as extraordinary or significant,
usually in a religious or spiritual sense. Sacred Landscapes are
geographic areas that have special meaning for people who have a
longstanding or historical association and relationship within a region.

Q: Can you give me an example of how sacred sites, places, and

landscapes are related? Sundance is a ceremony practiced by several
tribes in the United States and Canada. The ceremony brings community
members together in prayer and healing. A Sundance ground is a sacred
site. The hill where the Sundance ground is held is a sacred place. The
geographical area that the hill is a part of is a sacred landscape. All of
these are independently sacred and interconnected.

Q: How does Indigenous art represent sacred environments? Artistic

abilities were considered gifts, often acquired through dreams or visions.
Women were the creators of almost all items belonging to a family. Women
created art that depicted elements of the natural world such as sacred
sites, fauna, flora, and accounts of significant events. Art was integral to
men’s lives as warriors and hunters. Visionary experiences prepared men
for war and often inspired the designs of their shields and other equipment.
Petroglyphs and pictographs invoked the protective powers of nature,
animals, spiritual beings, and the constellations. Men also recorded their
achievements in war and hunting, as well as important tribal events,
through art and oral narratives. Art reminded the people of their spiritual
blessings.  

Northern Plains vest depicting elk

and horses. NA.202.606
Q: Are tribes protective of knowledge of sacred sites, places, and
landscapes? Tribes are fiercely protective of confidential information about
sacred landscapes. Disclosing specific details like location and significance
may be taboo. Tribes will work with federal agencies to guarantee that their
sacred knowledge is protected. In many cases, the knowledge of these
sites is also protected by law. However, knowledge of them is often passed
down through tribal cultural bearers within a tribe.

Q: Are Indigenous sacred sites protected in the United States? Tribal

religious and ceremonial practices are inseparably bound to ancestral
lands. Ceremonies honor the powers of the universe and promote health,
prosperity, and an abundance of nourishment. Several surviving religious
sites are located on federal lands. The Federal Government implements
protections for the preservation of sacred sites and guarantees tribal
members access to their sacred sites.

Q: What are some of the protected sites, places, and landscapes in

Wyoming? Wyoming is home to several well known sacred sites, places,
and landscapes.

Medicine Wheel; Photo

courtesy of Nathan Doerr

 Heart Mountain located in Park County, Wyoming, just mere

miles from the Center of the West. It was named by the Crow
 People for its similar shape to a buffalo heart. Heart Mountain is
considered a sacred place because it was used for spiritual
fasting. It is also home to several rare native plant species.
 The Greater Yellowstone ecosystem was a convergence of
Great Plains, Great Basin, and Plateau tribes. This landscape is
estimated to have human occupation for at least 15,000 years.
Used for its land and resources, at least 26 tribes are associated
with Yellowstone.
 Medicine Mountain, (formerly known as the Medicine Wheel) is
a protected national historic landmark. Located in the Bighorn
Mountains, this structure was created by ancient inhabitants and
is used by several tribes as a place of ceremony and prayers.
 Legend Rock located outside of Thermopolis, Wyoming, is a
sacred place with thousands of years of prehistoric history. The
more than 300 petroglyphs tell of the ceremonial and everyday
lives of tribes who lived in the Bighorn Basin. The rock depicts
images of humans, animals, and spirit figures. The earliest
figures date back to at least 10,000 BCE.
 Devil’s Tower, located at the foot of the Black Hills, is known as
“Bear’s Lodge.” The sacred site is named for several varying
accounts from tribes. One Kiowa story tells of seven girls
attacked by bears who were pushed into the sky by the rising
Tower to become stars. A Cheyenne history speaks of seven
brothers who rescue the eldest wife from a giant bear. Arapaho
oral traditions tell of a girl who morphed into a bear and attacked
her family, leaving scratches on a giant rock.

Information courtesy of the U.S Forest Service, U.S. National Park Service,
and Department of Interior websites.

Filed Under: Plains Indian Museum, StaffTagged With: sacred knowledge, Sacred

Lands, sacred objects
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About Hunter Old Elk

Hunter Old Elk (Crow & Yakama) of the Plains Indian Museum at the Buffalo Bill
Center of the West, grew up on the Crow Indian Reservation in Southeastern
Montana. Old Elk earned a bachelor's degree in art with a focus on Native American
history at Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland. Old Elk uses museum
engagement through object curation, exhibition development, social media, and
education to explore the complexities of historic and contemporary Indigenous
culture. She is especially inspired by the stories of Native American women who
lived and thrived on the Plains. Facebook/ Instagram: @plainsindianmuseum
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