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Urban Design as a Frame for Site Readings of Heritage Landscapes: A Case

Study of Champaner-Pavagadh, Gujarat, India
Amita Sinha a; Yuthika Sharma b
a
Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, IL, USA b Department of
Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, NY, USA

Online Publication Date: 01 May 2009

To cite this Article Sinha, Amita and Sharma, Yuthika(2009)'Urban Design as a Frame for Site Readings of Heritage Landscapes: A
Case Study of Champaner-Pavagadh, Gujarat, India',Journal of Urban Design,14:2,203 — 221
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 Journal of Urban Design, Vol. 14. No. 2, 203–221, May 2009

Urban Design as a Frame for Site Readings of Heritage

Landscapes: A Case Study of Champaner-Pavagadh,
Gujarat, India

AMITA SINHA* & YUTHIKA SHARMA**

*Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, IL, USA;
**Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, NY, USA
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ABSTRACT Conservation of heritage sites in South Asia should be guided by a new post-
colonial paradigm of thinking about cultural landscape. This paper proposes an urban
design approach drawing upon Kevin Lynch’s concepts regarding representation of time in
place and visual perception of urban form such that cultural heritage landscapes are
experienced not as artefacts but as places. Using Champaner-Pavagadh in Gujarat, India
as a case study, the paper shows that urban design interventions can provide a framework
for thoughtful and imaginative site reading and interpretation. The interventions use
a different medium of expression than reproducing historical precedent—the attempt is not
to mimic the past but to evoke it through a visual and spatial vocabulary of design.

Introduction
Conservation of heritage sites in South Asia presents many challenges that can
only be met by creative responses generated by recent paradigms of thinking
about heritage landscape. Colonial efforts at heritage preservation have been
widely criticized as ‘monument-centric’, i.e. they concentrated on historic
buildings to the exclusion of their context, in part because the connection between
buildings and their landscape was poorly understood (Baig, 2003; Menon, 2003;
Singh, 2004). The historic structures were separated from their surroundings in a
bid to protect them from vandalism and despoliation. Their immediate environs
were cleared off from human habitation and walls and fences erected to prevent
further encroachment.
Another and perhaps more important factor was the European concept
of preserving structures in a picturesque setting—the English landscape park.
The ‘Archaeological Park’ in India, based upon this model, managed to erase
landscape remnants from the past and bury them in the ubiquitous lawn that
allowed clear views of the historic structure set in a neutral, undifferentiated
ground plane (Sharma, 2005). Since the Park was created in the European image
of the picturesque aesthetic, it had little relevance to the form or functions
associated with the historic landscape in India. It obliterated the intricate
Correspondence Address: Amita Sinha, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of
Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 101 Temple Buell Hall, 611 Lorado Taft Drive, Champaign,
IL 61801, USA. Email: sinha2@illinois.edu

1357-4809 Print/1469-9664 Online/09/020203-19 q 2009 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/13574800802670440
 204 A. Sinha & Y. Sharma

relationships among buildings and between the built structures and the landscape
and focused exclusively on the protection and restoration of the buildings.
The monuments were thus objectified, devoid of any use except tourism, with
their immediate context recreated as a landscape park from where picturesque
views could be obtained.
In post-colonial India, the institutions responsible for protection and
restoration of the nation’s built legacy—the Archaeological Survey of India and
its provincial counterpart, the State Archaeology Departments—have continued
colonial practices as more historic structures continue to be brought within their
purview. Historic buildings are cleaned up, their further decay arrested through
partial restoration, and a fence erected to protect them from encroachments,
inside which a lawn and shrubs are planted as a horticultural exercise in site
beautification. In 1992 the Archaeological Survey of India mandated that historic
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structures should be protected by no-building (100 metres) and regulated building

zones (ranging from 200 – 500 metres). While this measure controls new
development in the vicinity of monuments, it proscribes rather than prescribes
how spaces around and between them should be treated.
The lack of connect between monuments and their wider urban context
ensures that the most famous of them become tourist enclaves, isolated from their
surroundings, with increasing pressure from visits concentrated within their
boundaries. Lesser known monuments have fewer chances of being visited as they
are not part of a larger historic district or fall within the tourist circuit. For the
tourist, visiting a heritage enclave can be a mixed experience—wonder and delight
with the monument inside and bewilderment at the chaos of contemporary
landscape outside its walls. Cultural tourism, under these circumstances, does not
have much of a chance to flourish.
A century since the idea of protecting archaeological sites came into existence,
it is clear that a new conservation design paradigm is needed, one that fully
acknowledges site exigencies (Thakur, 2001, 2007). Given the complexity of
heritage sites that often contain historic structures spread over a large area,
squatter settlements, and recently constructed roadways and buildings, the
concept with its association of historic structures as follies in verdant settings
should be discarded in favour of a new model that would not only guide
conservation policies in historic core of cities but would also encompass ex-urban,
abandoned sites that have nevertheless attracted over time new uses and small
communities. Expanding in scope beyond the monument, the new model would
spur new categories of heritagescapes—heritage streetscape, corridor, zone,
precinct, district and city.
The majority of heritage sites in India are characterized by structures from
different periods in history awkwardly juxtaposed in a layered landscape, the
result of many accretions over time to which are added the pressures of present
day realities. The landscape presents a jumbled, confusing picture where the past
and the present co-exist uneasily. It lacks a clear identity—historic or otherwise.
There are few clues for the visitor on how to negotiate the terrain, and accessibility
is often limited. Lack of environmental legibility discourages exploration and
discovery of historic remnants while absence of interpretive aids—signage,
displays and information centre—leaves the tourist unsure of his or her bearings
and totally dependent on guidebooks and touts.
Heritage conservation can and should be an exercise in urban planning and a
tool for social and economic development.1 This papers focuses on one aspect
 A Case Study of Champaner-Pavagadh 205

of urban design that will improve legibility and promote a strong identity—urban
qualities—which are crucial for a complete, rather than fragmentary experience
that is currently afforded in the Archaeological Park. Determining heritage site
boundaries, designing heritage trails, developing an open space system, and
preserving significant views, should be guided by the idea that the urban
interventions can provide a frame within which heritage buildings can be viewed,
made accessible, and understood to be part of the larger cultural landscape.
An urban design approach is proposed, drawing upon Kevin Lynch’s
concepts regarding representation of time in place and visual perception of urban
form such that cultural heritage landscapes are experienced not as artefacts but as
places. Lynch’s insight in his seminal book What Time is this Place (1972) was that
the physical environment can be designed to communicate an “image of time that
celebrates and enlarges the present while making connections with past and
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future” (Lynch, 1972, p. 1). Since “to preserve all the past would be life-denying”,
a “temporal collage” with the “juxtaposition of old and new that speaks of the
passage of time and occasionally the contrast” is a better design strategy
(Lynch, 1972, p. 168). If conservation truly speaking is management of
environmental change, the insertion of the present into a ‘historic’ landscape
appears less problematic. Lynch’s urban image studies in The Image of the City
(1960) gave urban designers a tool to shape cities such that their visual perception
is vivid, meaningful and legible. Imaginable and legible landscape design, could
be applied towards heritage sites in creating a temporal collage and enunciate a
sense of the past existing in the present. Can the experience of the site be an
interactive one such that the actual reconstruction of the historical landscape is left
to the imagination of the viewer? Using Champaner-Pavagadh in Gujarat as a case
study, the paper shows that urban design interventions can provide a framework
for thoughtful and imaginative site reading and interpretation.

Multiple Realities of Champaner-Pavagadh

Unlike other World Heritage Sites in India, Champaner-Pavagadh in Gujarat can
be read in multiple ways (Figure 1).2 Its hyphenated identity rests upon two
religious and cultural traditions that flourished in the last millennium—as a
sacred landscape for the Hindus and Jains and the stronghold of the Islamic
Sultanate of Gujarat between 1484 –1535 CE. The sacred Pavagadh Hill has been a
pilgrim destination even since the Rajput rulers began building their forts and
temples to the goddess around the end of the first millennium, and continues to
attract pilgrims to this day.3 At its foot lies the magnificent Champaner city, now
mostly covered by dense overgrowth with a few extant mosques, mausoleums
and the inner citadel of the Sultans (Figure 2).4 Topographically Pavagadh Hill
and Champaner, the city on the plain, are distinct yet need not be seen as
disparate. There are panoramic views from Pavagadh Hill of the plains and
the Islamic ruins of Champaner city down below, that in turn form a backdrop,
always framing the hill. The experience of one entity is incomplete without the
other. The topographical dynamics of Champaner and Pavagadh are comp-
lementary and evident in the built environment created by Islamic and Rajput
eras, consisting of an elaborate system of fortifications and water channels that
continue from the Hill down below.
At present a highway divides the sacred Hill from the ruins of Champaner,
physically rupturing the historic site and driving home the perceived separation
 206 A. Sinha & Y. Sharma
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Figure 1. Location of Champaner-Pavagadh in India.

between the Rajput and Islamic buildings. It is tempting to conceive of the

heritage site in terms of duality—Islamic and Hindu/Jain—embodying traditions
and cultural practices that have historically been in conflict with each other. But
this construction would be a political position, rather than an essential quality of
the site and destructive to the efforts in creating a hybrid identity (Upton, 2001).
The current political realities in Gujarat demand that the past be not interpreted in
factional terms, giving rise to religious polarization.5
The layered historical past of the site contributes to its cultural diversity, yet
the palimpsest is barely discernable—the ruins are spread over a large area
of about 6 kilometres with the fragmented sites giving no visible clue to the
settlement forms and historic contexts that they were once part of. The historic city
of Champaner lies buried under the forest; indeed Goertz called it the ‘city lost in
 A Case Study of Champaner-Pavagadh 207
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Figure 2. Gateway of the Royal Enclosure in Champaner with Pavagadh Hill in the background.

the jungle’ (Goertz, 1951). The mosques and the shell of the Royal Enclosure are
the only clues to the landmarks and nodes of a once thriving, bustling city that the
jungle took over once it inhabitants fled. On Pavagadh Hill, the ruins of Rajput
settlements lie scattered on its many plateaus—those on the lower ones covered by
thick vegetation while those on the grassy uplands of the upper plateaus are
exposed to the elements. It is difficult to discern that they were once upon a time
lines of successive retreat in the face of the approaching enemy.
Although the historic urban infrastructure that supported Rajput settlements
on the Hill and a city of 50 000 at its foot is not completely obliterated, its workings
are lost to public consciousness. Even though the systems of water harnessing and
management such as underground channels and large reservoirs that supported
the neighbourhoods, pleasure pavilions, gardens and orchards have not vanished,
the absence of water today is a poignant aspect in the landscape—these remnants
stand as mute reminders of a time when they had flourished and rendered the
landscape verdant.
The landscape of Champaner-Pavagadh is a quilt made of myriad forms and
colours of the past and present. Its terrain has been in a state of continuous
transformation through a process of physical modifications to its historic
footprint. What is visible is an incomplete historical landscape in the buildings
and pavilions in various stages of preservation, building ruins and footprints of
numerous reservoirs. A surge of local migrant population in the vicinity of the
monuments has resulted in a virtual appropriation of historic Champaner in the
last century. Modern commercial and residential settlements abut the buildings
within the historic Royal Enclosure and else and in various pockets within the
walls of historic Champaner. Some of the historic streets and paths that served as
arteries of circulation through the site are now in use as asphalt roads. Together
with residential development, a substantial portion of the land around the Royal
 208 A. Sinha & Y. Sharma

Enclosure in Champaner is cultivated. Continuous tilling practice has rendered

the archaeological remains irretrievable and has erased much of the historic fabric
of the city.
On Pavagadh Hill, the bulk of the tourist and pilgrim traffic heading toward
Kalika Mata Temple has resulted in satellite growth along the major and minor
pilgrim routes leading to the hilltop. The pilgrim path acts as a corridor for
temporary commercial and residential establishments that cater to the pilgrim’s
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Figure 3a. Pilgrim Path on Pavagadh Hill.

Figure 3b. Pilgrims and tourists.

 A Case Study of Champaner-Pavagadh 209

needs and are permanent unlawful tenants. They have become an integral part of
the cultural landscape of Champaner-Pavagadh and contribute yet another layer on
the site. However, increasing commercialization and unplanned growth threatens to
appropriate and inundate parts of the historical landscape (Figure 3a and 3b).
The site has only 5700 permanent residents but 2 million pilgrims visiting
annually.6 The residents cater for the pilgrim needs, herd livestock and farm their
small landholdings. They appear to have little or no interest in history that
heritage structures embody, nor do they have a clear sense of historical time and
space encompassed in the ruins. Visitors to Champaner-Pavagadh have diverse
physical and psychological experiences. Pilgrims climb the Hill to visit the Kalika
Mata temple at its crest while others including tourists, archaeological buffs,
hikers, history students and those looking for a recreational picnic spot, seem to
inhabit two different mental worlds—one of timeless, eternal mythology and the
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other structured by a linear sense of time that the historic ruins convey. Pilgrims
ascend and descend the Hill in large numbers yet never seem to possess the time
and inclination to explore the remnants of forts, gateways and palaces on its
plateaus. Similarly other visitors do not feel compelled to visit the temples and
shrines that dot the hilly landscape, preferring to hike, picnic, and sightsee.

Urban Design: A Frame for Site Reading

The large expanse of the site, its heterogeneity and fragmented nature makes for
mutually isolating and often fragmented experiences of the site. Champaner-
Pavagadh appears to suffer from ‘image’ problems and split identity that is not
likely to be resolved in planning with the generic Archaeological Park model
followed by the Archaeological Survey of India. This model, as pointed out earlier,
is monument-centric, surrounding the historic buildings with landscaped grounds
that obliterate their socio-urban context. It is suggested that landscape design of
the site should be considered as a ‘frame’ that facilitates reading and interpreting
historical sites. Such an approach does not cut off heritage structures from their
surroundings as a fenced Archaeological Park does, nor does it result in a theme
park that recreates a fantasy world based upon fake reconstructions.
If it is up to the viewer to reconstruct the historical landscape in her
imagination, how can design interventions reclaim or recover its remnants such
that collective identity and meaning are successfully established (Corner, 1999)?
How can the much-vilified ‘tourist gaze’ be employed not towards visual
consumption of a marketable commodity that is the tourist site but sensual
engagement with a living landscape so that a vivid and coherent cognitive image,
a base for memories, can develop (Urry, 1999)? Lynch’s studies (1960) showed that
the environmental image can be strengthened by clarifying the pathway system,
making nodes prominent, developing district or zones, strengthening edges and
preserving the singularity of landmarks. Environmental legibility meaning the
“ease with which its parts can be recognized and can be organized into a coherent
pattern” would thus be improved (Lynch, 1960, pp. 2 –3).
The site reading by a visitor based upon a well-structured and memorable
image would be informed by landscape design that uses a different medium of
expression than reproducing its historical precedent—the attempt is not to mimic
the past but to evoke it through a visual and spatial vocabulary of design.
The approach is one of minimal intervention, yet there is an emphasis on rebuilding
a heightened perception of the site with respect to its past heritage. Interpretation of
 210 A. Sinha & Y. Sharma

meanings in a heritage site, the most significant of which would be an experience of

the past in the present and the passage of time, is ill served by freezing time in a
simulacrum. Instead, highlighting the temporal collage through spatial design and
creating a participatory ambience by hosting festivals, exhibitions and theatrical
re-enactments would spur the viewer to reconstruct the past in imagination.

Journeys in the Landscape

Movement and vision together constitute the primary means of apprehending the
entirety of the cultural landscape and when carefully orchestrated in design, yield
an image, rich in details, dense and whole. Journeys of all types are undertaken in
this landscape—for spiritual merit, for carrying out daily tasks such as herding
livestock and fetching water, visiting monuments, hiking, photographing and
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many others. Pilgrimage at Champaner-Pavagadh, called parikrama yatra, is

an archetypal act upon which other journeys undertaken to gain a better
understanding of history (archaeological) and the environment (water systems,
botanical specimens, geology) can be modelled. The long arduous climb up the
mountain and circumambulations around sacred sites and structures are part of
the visceral landscape experience in this yatra. The journey is undertaken with
intense faith, sincerity of purpose and summoning of will power to overcome the
physical obstacles. Other journeys, although not faith-based, can be revelations of
the outer environment rather than the inner self.
A vast network of dirt tracks, paths, streets and roads already exist at the site,
but their conditions vary. The most trodden path is the 5.28 kilometres long historic
pilgrim path that winds its way from the base to the top of the Hill. Recently rebuilt,
it threads through heritage sites and gateways of historic forts. The only clue to the
street network of historic Champaner is the dirt paths that lead to the mausoleums.
The newly constructed asphalt road slices through the site and carries the visitors to
Machi Plateau on the Hill from where they have to reach the goddess temple on
foot. There are innumerable trails (in varying conditions of upkeep) throughout the
site made by animal and human movement over hundreds of years.
Proposals have been made to restore, connect and extend the existing path
system that will be “identifiable and continuous” and have “directional quality”
(Lynch, 1960, p. 54). Subtle design interventions will interpret the site for the
traveller so that movement is not just for reaching a destination but experiencing
the landscape through all the senses, engaging the mind and leading to a
complete, not fragmented cognitive image. Sacred sites and fragmented ruins
within Champaner and Pavagadh would be strung together with pathways to
form a loop of cultural heritage sites in the landscape (Figure 4).
The historic pilgrim path can be thought of as a spine and although parts of it
were restored and repaved in the last decade by a private benefactor, its complete
restoration and connection with secondary trails is proposed that would link it to
adjoining Atak, Bhadrakali and Mauliya plateaus on the Hill and to Champaner
city below where spectacular remains of historic palaces, mosques, mausoleums
and water structures can be visited. These loops would be reminiscent of
the circumambulations around the Hill, tanks, temples and shrines made by the
pilgrim. Wherever the pilgrim path intersects with the historic gateways on the
Hill a 50-metre no development zone and low-density commercial zone beyond
for 100 metres are advocated so that the fragile structures are protected and views
to the surrounding landscape are unobstructed (Figure 5).
 A Case Study of Champaner-Pavagadh 211
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Figure 4. The Trail Network in Champaner-Pavagadh.

Down below where the path merges into the asphalt road that brings visitors
from Halol, Baroda and beyond is redesigned as a ‘medieval highway’ by reducing
the width of the vehicular lane and adding shaded walkways. From this highway
trails would lead to various heritage buildings of Champaner into a continuous
loop that is in part based upon the historic street network. One segment will link
Nagina Masjid, Amir’s Manzil and Iteri Mosque; the other will weave through Rani
No Mahal in the southeastern part of the city linking smaller excavations. In the
northeast, the trail reaches as far as Wada Talao, into the proposed gardens around
Khajuri mosque. The visitor can circumambulate its edge by traversing on a bike or
a pedestrian pathway shaded by an avenue of trees.
The buried city of Champaner was excavated in the late 1960s, but was
reburied due to lack of resources for maintaining the building remains for public
viewing. At present visitors can see only the excavated remains of a large mansion
and have no understanding of its urban context. Parts of the urban
neighbourhoods can be re-excavated in stages, especially along the trails, and
viewed as outdoor museum spaces displaying relics from that time. Together the
trails and the excavations would then evoke an image of the habitat of medieval
Champaner, bringing the visitor closer to experiencing the past (Figure 5).
 212 A. Sinha & Y. Sharma
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Figure 5. No-building zones around historic gateways on the pilgrim path.

Overall Champaner and Pavagadh would be interconnected physically by

interpretive trails and visually a more integrated experience would be provided
through site markers. Also instrumental would be the signage that plays a crucial
role in creating visual continuity within the site. At present the only signs are
those of the Archeological Survey of India outside the protected monuments.
A system of directional and informational signage would guide the visitor to the
many heritage trails that can be taken to pursue one’s specific interest—whether it
is follow the fort walls that straggle from the edges of plateaus down the hill to
Champaner, to trace the sources of water that fill up the tanks and talaos (ponds) of
Champaner-Pavagadh, or to hike in the mountain in search of medicinal plants
that are part of the rich flora of the site (Figures 6a and 6b).

The Landscape Interpreted

Nodes are “convergence of paths, events on the journey”. They “may be simply
concentrations, which gain their importance from being the condensation of some
use or physical character” (Lynch, 1960, p. 47). Memorable nodes have a strong
physical form and sharp physical boundaries. In Champaner-Pavagadh, historic
nodes such as South Bhadra Gate of the Royal Enclosure that is across the street
from where the pilgrim path begins its ascent on the Hill, and Machi Plateau
beyond which vehicles cannot go, can be interpretive foci, providing important
visual and informational clues about reading the site and traversing through it.
They can function as junctions for accessing the heritage trail networks with
a carefully designed sequence of entering, planning a journey and then embarking
upon it. They can serve as key drop-off points for vehicles from where the visitor
 A Case Study of Champaner-Pavagadh 213
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Figure 6a. Archaeological signage.

Figure 6b. Water signage.

may either walk or take a smaller vehicle that will be less damaging to the
environment.
Interpretation Centres proposed at these nodes are contemporary interpret-
ations of the historic and timeless vernacular landscapes, rather than recreations
of historic styles. The relationship between architecture and landscape is
such that boundaries are blurred between inside and outside. In Champaner, the
Interpretation Centre sits in visual proximity to the Royal Enclosure and Jami
Mosque, the core of the historic city. In one alternative it has been designed as a
series of interlinking courts that function as outdoor classrooms for learning about
the religious and cultural history of the site. One such court is the Court of Islamic
learning, an outdoor space for sermons and discussions on the cultural heritage
of Islam, with a west wall edging the retention basin to emphasize the cardinal
 214 A. Sinha & Y. Sharma

axis to Mecca. In another alternative, its immediate landscape is a community

agricultural co-operative for growing flowers and fruits for worship (Figure 7).
For the pilgrims at the base of the Hill, a Welcome Centre is proposed with
courtyards for vending and open-air exhibit.
At Machi Plateau, another major junction for pilgrims as they prepare to
climb to the top of the Hill for visiting the Goddess temple, design interventions
relocate parking to reduce congestion and make the circulation patterns more
legible. The two historic talaos on the plateau—Teliya and Annapurna—are
developed as major attractions. The ghats (steps) in Teliya Talao are extended with
picnic areas designed in the southwest and on Annapurna Talao, in which excess
water drains from Teliya, a bird sanctuary is proposed by converting the mostly
empty water body into a marsh area planted with native species (Figure 8). The
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architectural form of the buildings in these Interpretation Centres is derived from

the vernacular prototype of courtyard housing with sloping tiled roofs and
verandahs mediating indoor and outdoor spaces. Besides providing basic services
such as restrooms and first aid, they would also have models of the completely
reconstructed historic settlements and dioramas of the epic sieges and battles so

Figure 7. Interpretation Centre in Champaner.

 A Case Study of Champaner-Pavagadh 215
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Figure 8. Interpretation Centre on Machi Plateau of Pavagadh Hill.

that the visitor can comprehend the physical totality of the medieval urban form
and epochal moments that brought about its destruction.

A Memorable Environmental Image

Landmarks are easily identifiable, “typically seen from many angles and
distances, over the tops of smaller elements, and used as radial references”
(Lynch, 1960, p. 48). Their key physical characteristic is “singularity, some aspect
that is unique or memorable in the context” (Lynch, 1960, p. 78). Pavagadh Hill
suddenly rising out of the plains of eastern Gujarat is by far the most visible
natural landmark seen from miles around. With 114 listed heritage structures, the
site is rich with landmarks, indeed, it may have a surfeit of them. Of these, 36 are
protected by the Archaeological Survey of India as architectural monuments of
repute. The mosques and mausoleums of Champaner, no longer in active use,
derive their significance from their age, grandeur, intricate detailing and unique
design style. Their many domes and minarets would have made for an arresting
skyline in the medieval era, towering above the surrounding residential
neighbourhoods. Shorn of their urban context that is now buried underground
under forest scrub, they appear suddenly on a trail. While it may be impractical to
re-excavate the entire city and open it to the public as a gigantic open-air museum,
it is equally impractical to convert Champaner into a landscape park, the scrub
replaced with lawn, shrubbery and other plantings. The context of these
 216 A. Sinha & Y. Sharma
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Figure 9a. Naulakha Kothar.

Figure 9b. Khapra Zaveri no Mahal.

monuments at the base of the Hill could be working landscapes of farm fields and
orchards, ensuring the preservation of view-sheds, particularly along the path of
movement (Sinha, 2004).
Up on the plateaus of the Hill, there is a clear view of the mosques of
Champaner and the footprint of city also becomes visible through its walls.
These viewpoints play a crucial role in making the vanished city imaginable in the
mind’s eye, and should be integrated in designing heritage trails. New
 A Case Study of Champaner-Pavagadh 217
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Figure 9c. Patai Rawal Palace.

Figure 9d. Sat Kaman.

construction that obstructs these views should be disallowed and for that it is
necessary that no-development zoning regulation be put into place as a preventive
measure.
Climbing on the Hill on the pilgrim path, one comes upon the historic gateways
threading it (that are presently unprotected), but other heritage structures remain
unknown and hidden from view unless the off-beaten track is taken. Vegetal
 218 A. Sinha & Y. Sharma

growth, human encroachment and the weather are all taking their toll on the
visibility of these unprotected monuments, threatening their landmark status.
The goddess temple, destination to millions, is perched on the unusually shaped
crest of Hill (perceived to be Goddess Sati’s toe by the believer), beckoning the
weary pilgrim. Other dramatically sited structures include Naulakha Kothar on the
edge of Mauliya Plateau, Khapra Zaveri No Mahal overlooking the steep
Vishwamitri Valley, and Patai Rawal’s Palace on Bhadrakali Plateau (Figure 9a, b, c
and d). However, they do not receive the attention they deserve—their viewpoints
should be highlighted on trails, maps, and tourist guides.
In the past the elaborate system of rainwater harvesting, collection and
conveyance supported a residential population of over 50 000. It is largely intact,
although in a dilapidated state, and can be revived not only to benefit the people
living on the site now but also to demonstrate to the visitors the ‘water-
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intelligence’ of historic communities (Modi, 2002). The restoration of talaos, kunds

and stepwells will improve the landscape infrastructure, add to the recreational
potential and aesthetic enjoyment, and enhance environmental legibility by
imbuing the water structures with landmark status.
Districts are characterized by “thematic continuities” discerned in building
type, uses, demographic traits etc. (Lynch, 1960, p. 67). Champaner-Pavagadh is
too large and diverse to be conceived of as a single district (although as a World
Heritage Site it needs a nomenclature such as ‘Archaeological Park’ or ‘Cultural
Heritage District’). However, there are clusters of archaeological sites in
Champaner city, Atak Fort and forts on Bhadrakali and Mauliya Plateaus, each
within easy walking distance of each other, that can be planned as heritage
districts with site details in planting, paving and signage that emphasize their
specific historic character. One could take a heritage trail that loops around the
district and come back to the primary trail.
Edges may be “barriers, more or less penetrable, which close one region off
from another, or they may be seams, lines along which two regions are related
and joined together” (Lynch, 1960, p. 47). Historically, Champaner-Pavagadh was
fortified by a series of walls and battlements nested within each other at increasing
higher altitudes for opportunities to retreat in face of danger. With the exception of
the southeast face of the Hill, steep insurmountable cliffs provide an impenetrable
edge. This topography and the built environment that it supported promoted a
sharp distinction between outside and inside, now gone. The crumbling fort-walls
and defunct gateways no longer defend a population or control its passage.
The edges of the World Heritage Site in the contemporary landscape are ill
defined, the old boundaries replaced with property lines of Forestry, Revenue and
Archaeological Departments. A strong visible edge is necessary to distinguish the
protected site from the surrounding farmland. Since edges are often paths, the
proposal here is to build a heritage trail along the remnant fort walls shaded
by flowering Champa trees after which the settlements were named. This design
feature, if repeatedly employed in the site, would create a unique visual
link through the entire landscape. Vegetation would serve to enclose, frame, hide
and reveal the edges of the archaeological remains (replacing the ASI chain-link
fence) such that its lost forms are figuratively recreated by drawing attention
to them.
Although Champaner-Pavagadh has over 2 million visitors a year, its historic
monuments lie neglected, off the beaten track of the pilgrim. The cognitive image
of the visitors is partial, incomplete and is structured around the pilgrim
 A Case Study of Champaner-Pavagadh 219

destination to the exclusion of the rest of the landscape. A complete image of the
physical environment, both sacred and secular, would result in attention focused
on conservation of historic structures and the overall development of the site.7
Although Champaner-Pavagadh is somewhat unique in being a living cultural
heritage landscape and a historic site of monuments from the medieval Islamic
past, there are many sacred sites in the Indian subcontinent that, in spite of
continuous rebuilding over time, have significant historic remains. Pilgrims vastly
outnumber tourists with the result that historic structures, even if protected by the
Archaeological Survey of India, are not visited by large enough numbers that
would significantly contribute to the local economy and make them loci of living,
collective memory.
To integrate history into the mythological worldview of the pilgrim remains a
challenge, as does appreciation of relevance of myth to modern life by the secular
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visitor. As Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (2004) points out, intangible heritage is

inseparable from the material and social world of people. Here at Champaner-
Pavagadh, it is contained in site mythology and its perception as a sacred
landscape; and is conserved in the ever-increasing pilgrimage to the goddess
temple on Pavagadh, festivals held twice a year to commemorate her victories over
evil forces, worship traditions, and the many shrines and ashrams that have sprung
up in the recent decades to facilitate worship (Modi, 2005; Sinha, 2006). Mythology
promotes the perception of time as ‘eternal present’, the goddess has neither
beginning nor end, she is eternal and so is her domicile on earth, the primeval Hill.
This history is not linear but cyclical, with historical events subsumed in a grand
mythic narrative that pays poor attention to real time and place. In this world view,
cyclical recurrence muted marks of change with the new yet another aspect of the
eternal, lessening the significance of age (Lowenthal, 1998).
The sacred hill that sustains the belief in the presence of the Great Goddess,
the repeated rebuilding of her temple, and supports the rituals of pilgrimage and
worship, also contains the now forgotten and neglected ruins of forts and palaces.
The material evidence of the historic past is invaluable in communicating the
passage of actual time measured not in cosmic terms but in centuries, years,
months and days. Exploration of the archaeological sites is a step that the pilgrim
will be persuaded to undertake through site design in the same way that the
casual visitor will be drawn to temples and shrines. A vivid temporal and spatial
image of the physical environment would then have a chance to be generated
through site readings.

Acknowledgements
All photographs and drawings are from the Department of Landscape
Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign collection.

Notes
1. Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) formulated a Charter for the
Conservation of Unprotected Architectural Heritage and Sites in India in 2004 that goes beyond the
monument and focuses on urban heritage (Menon, 2005). Of the many issues to be considered,
paramount are those concerning the communities, often impoverished, living at the site.
Improvements in their living conditions and providing them with basic necessities should be a
primary objective, but the other constituency—tourists at heritage sites—whose economic
contribution to the site is vital, cannot be ignored in any planning exercise. ASI and Tourism
 220 A. Sinha & Y. Sharma

Departments need to work with local municipalities and development bodies to develop heritage
plans.
2. Champaner-Pavagadh was designated as a World Heritage Site in 2004. The first report Champaner:
Draft Action Plan for Integrated Conservation, was compiled by Nalini Thakur in 1987, and
subsequently three reports on its landscape management plan have been prepared by Department
of Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Sinha & Kesler, 2001; Sinha
et al., 2003, 2005).
3. Pavagadh is a Shakti-pitha, meaning seat of the Great Goddess and is believed to the site where
Goddess Sati’s toe fell when Shiva was carrying her immolated body in a frenzy of grief. Shrines
have been built since the 2nd century CE, not to Sati, but to another version of the Great Goddess—
Kali or Kalika (destroyer of time). Although goddess worship received a setback when Muslims
occupied the site, the 20th century saw its resurgence, with over 2 million pilgrims visiting Kalika
Mata temple annually.
4. The forgotten city of Champaner was ‘lost in the jungle’ until excavations by the Department of
Archaeology, Maharaja Sayajorao University of Baroda under Prof. R.N. Mehta between 1969–75
revealed mansions, houses, mosques, streets and fortification walls—components of a thriving
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medieval city—that lay buried and covered by a dense forest. The city was built by Sultan Mahmud
Begara in 1482 CE after he defeated the Rajput chieftains who had built their fortified settlements
on Pavagadh Hill to be in close proximity to the temple of their patron goddess, Kalika Mata.
Champaner was sacked by the Mughal Emperor Humayun in 1535 CE and subsequently
abandoned.
5. Protected monuments under the jurisdiction of Archaeological Survey of India can be virulently
contested sites as in Ayodhya and Bodh Gaya. The destruction of Babri Masjid, a 16th century
mosque (built at the site of Lord Rama’s birthplace where a Hindu temple had existed) by Hindu
fundamentalists in 1992 led to widespread communal violence in the Indian subcontinent, the
repercussions of which are being felt in Gujarat even a decade later as the riots of 2001 prove.
Political parties and religious organizations that want to rebuild a Hindu temple at the site marshal
archaeological evidence in support of their claims. See Tapati Guha-Thakurta (2004) for a detailed
analysis of how archaeology is a pawn in identity politics, particularly the chapter ‘Archaeology
and the Monument: On Two Contentious Sites of Faith and History’, pp. 268 –303.
6. The landownership patterns form a mosaic, with the biggest stakeholder being the Forestry
Department that owns 93% of the land. Historic buildings and their immediate surroundings are
maintained and controlled by the Archaeological Survey of India; Temple Trusts have jurisdiction
over the many temples and ashrams (hermitage) visited by over 2 million pilgrims annually; the
Revenue Department is in charge of agricultural landholdings; the Public Works Department is
responsible for building and maintaining the main roads; and the gram panchayat, a locally elected
body, administers the Champaner village with a population of 2000.
7. The conservation-based site development model should be based upon ‘second-order’ urban
design operating in the conceptual space of decision making that guides other professionals in their
activities to preserve, alter and add to the built environment (Varkki, 1997). This approach works
best in a turbulent decision environment in situations where multiple stakeholders/clients are
involved and where strategic decision making is distributed over a wide range of private and
public entities. It should make upgrading public infrastructure a priority, with an emphasis on the
improvement of the public realm through increased sanitation measures, traffic management to
protect the vulnerable heritage buildings, and provision of basic amenities such as electricity and
water. The conceptual planning and design framework that can guide these interventions needs to
be carefully thought out because representation of the cultural heritage to visitors and residents is
at stake.

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