21
Shifting Pilgrim-Trails and Temple-Towns in India
Introduction
Religious heritage is common to most societies and includes both tangible and intangible cultural properties (Bumbaru 2003). Tangible properties comprise monuments, groups of buildings and sites, while the intangible encompasses ‘habitual activities that structure the lives of communities and groups’ such as social practices, rituals, traditions, and festive events (UNESCO 2003). Religious heritage is additionally complicated in that spiritual, socio-political, economic and cultural functions are rolled into multifaceted religious institutions including: places of worship such as temples, churches, mosques, ashrams and monasteries; religious personalities such as gurus, priests, monks, etc.; and performance and rituals (Bywater 1994; Raj and Morpeth 2007). There is considerable literature that describes how the religious importance and diverse range of cultural resources in religious sites attract various forms of cultural tourism, religious tourism and heritage tourism (Rinschede 1992; Shackley 2001). Scholarship on the subject has primarily focused on investigating the impacts of tourism on cultural heritage, and scholars have found that the increased flows of visitors to these places contribute to the commodification of religious heritage for tourist consumption (Timothy and Boyd 2003). While pressures to cater to tourists may negatively impact on religious ceremonies and rituals, religious groups are also instrumental in commodifying their doctrines, customs, and beliefs for economic gain from tourism (Olsen 2003), and as part of religious pilgrimage experiences. It is in this area that lines and agendas are blurred, and major problems for the conceptualisation and management of religious heritage sites arise.
In India, temple-towns have been at the centre of the heritage conservation movement: they constitute more than one-third of the twenty-three cultural properties declared by UNESCO as World Heritage sites in India (ASI 2008) and more than 3,750 religious-heritage sites are identified by the Archaeological Survey of India (ibid.). In 2005, UNESCO proclaimed the oral tradition of performing the epic of Ramayana, a practice widespread in temple-towns, as ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’. In addition, the national level Ministry of Culture and other non-government organisations such as the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), along with autonomous institutions such as the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) also work for the conservation, promotion and dissemination of all forms of art and culture.
These institutional efforts, originating from conventional approaches to understanding heritage, often fail to account for the implications of rapid cultural change related to religious tourism. Such oversight is even more problematic considering that more than 100 million visitors are believed to travel for ‘religious purposes and pilgrimages’ annually in India. The importance is further underlined by the fact that eight of the top ten ranking domestic tourist destinations are pilgrimage sites (NCAER 2003). The active engagement of visitors with the religious space of temples and with religious performances (including pilgrimage) shifts the focus to questions as to whether traditional practices are followed or altered to suit the demands of contemporary visitors, and how such religious sites and practices fit within broader tourism and heritage discourse.
This chapter focuses upon how traditional religious practices are being impacted by the changing social and economic situation in India and what the implications of this are for the conceptualisation and management of religious heritage in and around temple-towns. These challenges are illustrated by using two examples of religious performances: the practice of a circumambulatory pilgrimage and the oral tradition of religious story telling (katha) from the temple-town of Vrindavan in north India. In so doing, this chapter also explains the dialectical relationship between the tangible and the intangible, argues that the latter is subject to more rapid change, and suggests that this change has wider implications for tangible heritage.
The Temple-Town of Vrindavan
Vrindavan is located on the banks of Yamuna river in the state of Uttar Pradesh in north India, 150 km south of Delhi (the national capital) and about 50 km northwest of Agra. Vrindavan is a small town of 60,000 people (within its municipal area of 24 km2), but has more than 5,500 temples and attracts more than six million visitors every year (Shinde 2008). Most temples in Vrindavan are dedicated to Krishna, the tenth incarnation of Vishnu (one of the trinity of gods in the Hindu pantheon). Vrindavan has existed in Hindu mythology since ancient times but its historical development as a temple-town and a pilgrimage site is a relatively more recent phenomenon (Entwistle 1987).
In the fifteenth century, leading Vaishnava gurus of the Bhakti (devotional worship) movement such as Vallabhacharya and Chaitanya and their disciples established the pilgrimage landscape of ‘Braj’ in the region surrounding Vrindavan. By connecting its geographical features such as river, hills, lakes and forests with stories from Krishna’s legend (lilas), these gurus articulated the routes, itinerary and format of pilgrimage in this landscape (ibid.).
In the process, Vrindavan developed as the base from where Chaitanya’s disciples (known as the founding Six Goswamis) provided the theological framework and directed the ritual and practices of Krishna worship (Hawley and Goswami 1981). These practices included visiting various shrines marking the sites and events of significance related to Krishna’s life, celebrating Krishna’s sacred image through various ritualised services, listening to or reciting stories from the Bhagavatapurana (a ninth/tenth century epic whose depiction of Krishna’s life is the standard scripture of Vaishnavas), and performing poetry, art, dance, song, and drama dedicated to Krishna’s glory. Such institutionalisation was accompanied by the construction of grand temples and other religious establishments. The broader patterns of political and socio-economic change and of patronage relationships have continually influenced temple-construction and the related pilgrimage economy in Vrindavan but the changes in recent times have been more dramatic (Entwistle 1987; Haberman 1994; Shinde 2008).
Since the 1960s, spiritual quests of westerners have provided impetus to the promotion of ‘New Age’ spiritual tourism and concomitant growth of charismatic gurus and their institutions in Indian temple-towns (Kraft 2007). Vrindavan has been promoted as a place of spiritual nirvana with the establishment of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement. The building of the ISKCON temple and its international guesthouse in 1975 spearheaded the influx of international visitors to Vrindavan and also increased its popularity for domestic tourism (Brooks 1992). Around the same time, government tourism departments began to promote festivals and places in the Braj region for cultural tourism. A final factor that has contributed to the growth of tourism to Vrindavan is its physical location within the ‘Golden Triangle for Tourism’ in north India – the tourist circuit that includes Delhi, Agra and Jaipur as its major destinations.1 The influx of visitors to Vrindavan for activities of pilgrimage and cultural and heritage tourism is characteristic of mass tourism (Gladstone 2005; Greene 2005), and has a tremendous impact on the town.
Pilgrimage to Vrindavan is an act of engaging with the religious heritage of the place. This religious heritage, accumulated over the past five centuries, comprises both tangible and intangible properties. The tangible heritage comprises the built environment including several layers of additions, modifications, and alterations to numerous riverside ghats (decorative embankments), temples, kunjs (palatial mansions) along the Yamuna riverfront, and dharmshalas (pilgrim-lodges). The intangible cultural heritage primarily consists of social, religious, and cultural practices related to everyday patterns of temple rituals, different rhythms of the Hindu religious calendar, festivals and events surrounding the worship of Krishna.
This cultural heritage, however, is in a continuous state of flux as it is influenced by frequent and regular visitor flows, high rates of population growth, unregulated religious tourism enterprise, and the unabated real estate development that characterise contemporary Vrindavan (Sharan 1995). Increasing tourist activities, the concomitant proliferation of modern ashrams, guesthouses, holiday homes and apartments, and modification of traditional religious service to cater to contemporary visitors pose serious challenges in articulating local religious heritage.
Religious Heritage: the Past and the Present
The complexities of religious heritage in Vrindavan can be illustrated by examining three components that play important roles in the religious activity in the area: built heritage such as temples; cultural routes such as Braj yatra; and oral traditions like the performance of katha based on Bhagvatpurana. These components are embedded in and are representative of a specific religious cultural context, but their ‘heritage value’ is altered and reshaped by broader socio-economic changes, pilgrimage economy and patronage relations amongst religious gurus, patrons, pilgrims and visitors within and outside of the temple-town, which I discuss in detail in this chapter.
Built Heritage – Temples
It is relatively easy to understand religious heritage in terms of built environment, which includes temples, ashrams, and other structures of religious importance. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has identified forty-two sites in the Braj region, including four temples from Vrindavan, namely Govind Devji, Madan Mohan ji, Radha-Vallabh ji and Jugal Kishor ji (all of which date from the sixteenth century) as ancient monuments to be ‘protected’.2 The Agra Circle Office of ASI is responsible for maintaining these four temples. In the maintenance of ‘protected monuments’, ASI undertakes various activities including archaeological fieldwork, documentation, research activities, conservation processes, day-to-day maintenance, provision of basic amenities for tourists, and the issue of certificates for surrounding constructions and use of the site.
Several organisations work towards conserving built heritage in Vrindavan. INTACH has been active since 1981 and through several studies has identified threats to its cultural heritage, emphasising the need for conservation. However, most of its activities have been focused on mobilising community support in improving the environment by cleaning kunds (embanked waterbodies), lakes, ponds and ghats and planting of trees – physical artifacts that are part of the pilgrimage landscape. Similar attempts were made by the World Wide Fund for Nature at ‘saving Krishna’s forests’ through large scale tree planting by the local community (Prime 1998). A local community based organisation, Vrindavan Vikas Samiti, carried out activities such as desilting kunds, cleaning the circumambulatory path in Vrindavan, tree planting and lobbying various government agencies to improve services and the physical environment. Many non-government agencies, citizens’ groups, and charitable trusts involved in such processes express their concerns about cultural heritage by invoking a sense of religious duty and publicising it as a service (seva) to Krishna.
The local urban authority, Mathura Vrindavan Development Authority (MVDA), in its Master Plan for the area, emphasises the historical and religious importance of the region. Two of its objectives are ‘to protect historical and archaeological value of heritage buildings including temples’ and ‘to promote Vrindavan as a tourist destination’ (MVDA 2002: 3). Consequently, MVDA has introduced regulations towards conservation of built heritage based on suggestions made by INTACH. These guidelines prohibit construction activity within a 100 metre radius around the heritage structure while permitting the construction of single storey structures within a 200 metre radius by defining the access, shape, size and the external treatment of buildings (ibid.). The MVDA (1998) has also set out proposals to develop state-owned forests near Vrindavan into Krishna theme-parks for showcasing the Krishna legend. Such initiatives confirm that built structures are integral to religious heritage, and that there are many parties involved in various facets of conservation. However, this recognition of ‘heritage’ value is not extended to the intangible religious heritage.
Cultural Route: Braj Pilgrimage
Braj Yatra is an annual feature of the pilgrimage calendar of Vrindavan. As a tradition, the yatra (journey) involves circumambulation of all the sites considered sacred to or commemorative of Krishna’s life in the Braj region and begins during the monsoon season. The desire of pilgrims in performing this journey is ‘to recreate in their imagination the life of the god to whom they are devoted or whose stories appeal to them […] to hear the stories retold at the sites where miraculous events took place’ and ‘to see material evidence and representations of the gods and great devotees’ (Entwistle 1987: 103). This circumambulation of 300 km covers an area of about 2,500 km2. The original route focused on 133 sites including forests, lakes, ponds, kunds and shrines but while the itinerary and routes taken to complete this journey differ among Vaishnava sects,3 most contemporary versions of the Braj circuit involve visits to 73 sacred places including 12 main forests and 36 kunds (Entwistle 1987).
The different Braj Yatras are organised and directed by religious leaders and funded by collective sponsorships and voluntary contributions of participating patrons and devotees. The organisers of each Braj Yatra provide their followers with booklets containing detailed information about the religious importance of the yatra, the itinerary, descriptions of the places to be visited, the rituals to be performed at these sites, rules of participation, and a brief history of the sect and its leading religious figures. The Braj Yatras include feasts and cultural performances such as katha (see next section) and raslila (a musical drama representing Krishna’s divine play), and generally adhere to the traditional itinerary, routes and ritual activities (Haberman 1994).
In recent times, however, these traditional performances have been overshadowed by increasing numbers of ‘exclusive’ and ‘comfortable’ Braj Yatras organised by several goswamis and gurus that cater primarily to their wealthy Indian patrons and foreign devotees (Brooks 1992). The use of motorised transport and professionalism in organising these yatras as package tours has significantly modified the pilgrimage landscape.
I performed a yatra in 2005 as part of my field research to explore the impact of these changes upon religious heritage. The yatra was organised by a leading goswami from Vrindavan who has a large following of devotees from cities in western and northwestern India. The leader, referred to by the honorific title ‘Maharaj-ji’, announced the yatra during one of his religious tours of duty in 2004 in the city of Indore in central western India. He announced that he was organising a special Braj Yatra that would take place not during the busy pilgrimage season in August, but during the spring festival of Holi in March 2005. He assured the audience that he had substantial experience in organising yatras and that this one would be performed in eight days. Participants would be provided with comfortable accommodation and would travel in cars to all the main sacred places in the Braj region.
On 15 March 2005, more than 2,000 participants arrived at the ashram in Vrindavan to register for the yatra. These participants were transported in 150 cars and ten buses hired from local taxi and tour bus operators. The yatra caravan was led by the Maharaj-ji, who travelled in a large air-conditioned van with his core support staff. In the following days, the yatra took on a standard pattern: participants assembled for a buffet-style breakfast served at the ashram, then boarded the cars and buses. The cavalcade of cars and buses made their way to two or three sites, mainly temples and shrines – stopping at each place for about an hour. Packed lunches were transported in a special van, and were served in the afternoon and then the procession of vehicles made their way back to the ashram.
The car-yatra of Braj did not follow the circuit or sequence of traditional pilgrimage travel around the region. Instead, over the following nine days, the yatra covered about twenty-five sacred sites (five vans or wooded groves, three kunds or dams, and seventeen temples and shrines) through daily forays from the ashram base in Vrindavan and back with no night halts or camps in any of the sites of the traditional pilgrimage circuit. Braj Yatra generally involves story-telling sessions through which eulogies of the places visited are narrated. It appeared that after two days, Maharaj-ji had lost interest in sharing these stories as different batches of visitors arrived at different times and there was considerable time-lag between arrivals of cars and buses.
Accessibility by car determined the places visited during the tour. Many places from the traditional Braj pilgrimage circuit were omitted because it was not convenient to bring a large convoy of cars and buses to them. For example, on the day when participants were to visit Mathura, a place as important as Vrindavan in the Braj pilgrimage circuit, Maharaj-ji advised the participants to make their own way through the city because it was impossible to find parking near the main temples and ghats on the banks of the Yamuna River. Maharaj-ji justified the breach in traditional practices by stating that the participants had acquired enough merit just by stepping in Vrindavan and seeing so many places in Braj, and that the yatra will still be treated as complete in terms of religious practice.
Also omitted from the yatra were visits to many sites whose natural settings, even today, are believed to reflect metaphysical connection to the stories from the Krishna legend. Their omission from the pilgrimage route is critical for their vitality as sacred sites. The example of a place called Shyam-Dhak suffices to illustrate this aspect of Braj pilgrimage. It is believed that the kadamb (Anthocephalus cadamba) trees in this forest have peculiar bowl-shaped leaves because, according to the legends, Krishna used leaves from these trees for eating and drinking while herding cows. These leaves and the forest continue to symbolise the presence of Krishna and are experienced by devout pilgrims who traverse this traditional route with the motivation of encountering Krishna (Haberman 1994). In spite of the strong symbolism and imagery, this place is omitted from the standard tours of Braj because of its inaccessibility by road. Very few visitors seem to be aware of this oversight and the few tour operators who know the correct location charge exorbitant fees to visit this place when people insist.
The symbolic meaning of natural sites is also provided through story-telling sessions performed during the yatra. Maharaj-ji abstained from this performance, which was another significant loss of a traditional ritual associated with the places visited. One of the forests we visited is believed to have kadamb and tamaal (Garcinia Morella) trees whose branches intertwine, giving it a bower like appearance. Devotees believe that this intertwining of two different colour branches from two different trees is Krishna’s lila and represents the divine communion of Krishna with his consort Radha. Since Maharaj-ji did not explain this belief, most participants were not aware why this particular place was part of the yatra. Similarly, in most places, participants did not have any means of knowing about the site and relied on information provided by others familiar with the legends or from guidebooks. In traditional pilgrimages, cultural performances were common during night halts at sites believed to provide the correct setting for visualising physical manifestations of particular episodes from the Krishna legend. Retiring to Vrindavan every evening de-emphasised the specificity of those sites for cultural performances, further contributing to their loss of symbolism and active practice.
Maharaj-ji’s yatra is not a unique example of contemporary religious tourism around Vrindavan. Roughly thirty to forty Braj car-yatras are now organised at different times of the year by various goswamis and gurus. In addition, there are Braj Darshan tours operated by many private tourist bus operators who offer temple tourism packages. Their tour buses only stop at popular temples in the major centres of the region. Sightseeing has been a part of Braj Yatra but packaging the landscape into an origin-destination travel by car has altered the religious and spiritual experience central to the ‘walking pilgrimage’ of Braj (Haberman 1994). Such touristicoriented packaging has outnumbered the foot-pilgrimages that are a domain of a very few learned religious gurus who guide such pilgrimages for their devotees.
The Braj pilgrimage neatly illustrates one relationship between tangible and intangible heritage. The preference for readily accessible sites, mainly temples, over natural sites and their subsequent omission disrupts the continuity of cultural heritage and importance of these natural sites. Further, the loss of active and living tradition leads to the neglect of these sites. Several kunds (waterbodies with permanent embankments) in Braj exemplify this vicious cycle of omission from the itinerary, neglect and further dilapidation. While degradation of a site in the pilgrimage landscape is related to non-performance of rituals, there are other practices where alterations in their traditional performances raise debates over their value as intangible cultural heritage.
Oral Tradition of Katha
Katha, the oral exegesis of Krishna’s life, is an important religious practice in devotional worship, both for the storyteller and the audience. The professional narrators or storytellers of katha describe the exemplary morality and ethical behaviour of renowned Krishna devotees and Vaishnava saints and of rewards bestowed by Krishna in response to acts of unconditional love and devotion (Hein 1972). The main text used is the Bhagvatpurana, but katha continues to be an oral tradition that offers its audience a spiritual experience.
Similar to the changing patterns of pilgrimage driven by the growing demand for spiritual and religious experiences and contemporary trends in religiosity, katha performances have also flourished into a business closely tied with the new environment of religious tourism. In recent years, the significant financial rewards offered by the business of katha performance have led to the proliferation of performers (Lutgendorf 1989) who have modified and adapted their performances to tap into the potential of this market. Those that previously relied on the relationships with established temples and goswamis for their livelihood are now able to operate independently due to the growing patronage of urban sponsors and organisers of package tours (Rinehart 2004). Rather than relying on donations from the audience, professional storytellers demand set fees for their performances (Lutgendorf 1989).
The changing trends in katha performances and its performers from Vrindavan can be illustrated with a few examples. Krishna worship has long been popularised through films, television serials, radio and print media, but several katha performers now employ new communication technologies to promote their business. Some performers deliver sermons live on various TV channels and maintain websites to provide downloadable lectures, devotional songs and Krishna stories; others sell devotional song albums and videos.4A music company established by a katha performer claims to ‘own 3,500 titles of which a minimum of ten have sold ten million copies, and over fifteen have grossed more than five millions in sales and another twenty have bagged sales of about a million’ (Vipul Music Co. n.d.). According to this performer, the inspiration to do so has come from a ‘divine dream’ in which he was summoned and directed by Krishna to make the katha accessible to people who are unable to attend his performances. There are others who offer a range of accommodation during katha performances, tour services, and Braj Yatra packages (see, for example, IndiaDivine.Org 2011).
The frequency and geographic distribution of katha performances point to their globalisation. The annual calendars of popular katha performers (who also claim to be spiritual gurus) are globetrotting itineraries where they spend more time outside of Vrindavan catering to domestic demands, as well as internationally to the Indian Diaspora (Pal 1995; Llewellyn 2004). One such itinerary of a famous katha performer from Vrindavan includes a month-long tour of Indian cities including Jalandhar, Delhi, Jaipur and then a two-month long tour of the U.K., Switzerland, Italy and Belgium. This tour is followed by another round of domestic destinations such as Govardhan, Kolkatta, Jaipur, Mumbai and Ludhiana before heading to Kenya for a fortnight of katha performance (see Goswami 2008).
Most performers use katha as a means to expand their following and bring devotees (and their donations) back to Vrindavan. The innovative ways in which katha performers are exploring the international market is illustrated by a katha performance on-board a cruise-liner. A leading Goswami from Vrindavan has organised the following program in association with the international tour operator, Cox & Kings:
A 7-day periodical preaching programme of Srimadbhagawat katha on the world famous and enchanting Royal Caribbean Cruise to Europe Sailing on the ocean has been organized by Kolkata’s famous and Social Organisation – SAARTHI. These Sacred and eternal preachings will be conducted by Dr. Shri Manoj Mohan ji Shastri, who has shown the way of eternal revelation to many seekers through at least 700 such kathas. To add with, there will also be Bhajans (religious songs). The event will start from 24th May 2008 and continue till 6th June 2008. It is a mystical experience of spending the summer vacations along with a fascinating overseas tour with the presence of religious preachers who will enchant you with the words of Wisdom […] While the younger cruisers are fast asleep, the adult cruisers can enjoy their late night entertainment options.
(Shree Om Saarthi 2008)
This tour around the Mediterranean includes trips to Avignon, Switzerland and Paris and the price for the participant ranges from INR 123,100 to INR 370,000 depending on the package requested for accommodation and food.
Such detailed and exotic itineraries may be exceptional for an average performer in Vrindavan, but are indicative of the trends and potential of the market. Closer to home, katha performers have adapted similar strategies of marketing and self-promotion through social networks, advertisements in newspapers, billboards and local TV channels. The Braj Yatra I performed was initially conceived and advertised during a katha performance in the city of Indore. During the actual performance of the Braj Yatra, evenings were reserved for performing the katha. In reciting the katha, Maharaj-ji assumed his seat on the ceremonial dais in the courtyard of the ashram. This performance, however, resembled an orchestra with electric synthesiser, keyboard and drums churning out devotional songs in praise of Krishna interspersed with anecdotes and jokes about the everyday life of a common man in India. At the end of these sessions, the participants sang hymns to mark the end of the day, which was followed by an elaborate buffet dinner. After each session, the performer and his core group of organisers repeatedly asked for donations to be made in the name of the sacred Vrindavan and to support their charitable activities. Maharaj-ji capitalised on the emotional experience of the participants and in the process highlighted the highly commercial nature of contemporary katha performance.
Similar to commoditisation of other ritual practices, playing to the wealth of the sponsor and exploiting katha for financial rewards has the potential to negatively affect the sanctity of such religious practices. The alterations to the oral tradition of katha also raise pertinent questions regarding its continuity as intangible cultural heritage. The ‘resource’ value of katha threatens to dominate over its social and religious role. Through popularising it, performers are transforming the katha in its content, form and delivery. The ‘lifting’ of katha performances out of the socioreligious context transforms them into concerts and recreational and cultural events. Modernising and globalising katha may have helped to disseminate and build knowledge about it, but have also contributed to its dematerialisation (Bumbaru 2003), which raises very different concerns depending upon whether the focus is on religious practices or heritage management.
Changes in pilgrimage economy and katha business in the contemporary environment of religious tourism pose difficult questions about articulating heritage and its conservation, about whose practices should be considered as tradition, why it needs to be conserved, and who should conserve (Luxen 2003).
Articulating Religious Heritage: Some Implications
The changing patterns of engagement with and enactment of pilgrimage and religious performances have had a major impact upon the religious heritagescape of India. My research has shown that there are a number of forces, both from within India and internationally, which are converging on places like Vrindavan, shaping religious heritage. In particular, broader social and economic transformations engulfing India have profound effects on traditional forms of spiritual experiences. This places religious heritage in a particularly awkward position and brings up a number of important questions with wide relevance within heritage discourse, focusing upon the relationships between commercial, spiritual and heritage concerns.
The above examples, especially to those with more conservative notions of heritage in mind, might suggest that religious figures are playing a strong role in commercialising cultural heritage and in potentially degrading it. However, it is important to keep in mind several things. First, such religious gurus and intermediaries have long served as the custodians of the cultural economy of pilgrimage and religious rituals and as such have long been implicated in both the commercial and the spiritual aspects of religious practices. Activities around temples and religious sites have traditionally required mediating authorities (e.g., gurus) for visitors to have spiritual experiences, and such encounters have traditionally had some form of commercial transaction associated with them. From a heritage perspective, the commercial elements are not the main problem and must be seen as part of on-going living heritage. However, the resultant transformations over the past several decades caused by new forms of interactions between gurus, pilgrims and sites present real complications.
During the course of my research it was clear that many of the religious actors were responding to the contemporary needs of religious experience and religious expressions desired by their patrons. Although rooted in tradition, their activities are embedded in a broader socioeconomic milieu which is changing at a rapid pace in general in Indian society and specifically in the religious sphere. From a religious point of view the question needs to focus more on the impact of transformation upon the core spiritual needs of the people – the pilgrims. Are these changes to ritual, movement and routines, regardless of how they might appear to those involved in heritage conservation, serving the vital role of providing a spiritual experience to pilgrims? In many cases, it seems that this is the case. Furthermore, increasing wealth and mobility has created vastly increased opportunities for people to engage in such religious practices, greatly increasing the inclusiveness and accessibility of religious experiences.
However, this brings up a critical question of jurisdiction when it comes to religious sites and practices. As active religious spaces and practices become intertwined within modern forms of mass tourism, especially when there is a heritage element involved, there is tremendous potential for conflict between different relevant authorities – in particular between religious and secular authorities. In India, as in most countries, the process of managing heritage falls within the domain of formal secular institutions. Formal bodies such as ASI and INTACH have mandates to protect, conserve and manage heritage sites driven by rather static ideas of heritage conservation (as discussed in more detail by Ray in Chapter 4 in this volume). Religious heritage sites in India are clear cases of conflict. At an institutional level, the present articulation of heritage is focused on the conservation of tangible heritage as something that is static and ‘frozen in time’. This is also an approach that is awkwardly applied to intangible elements of heritage.
Perhaps the biggest issue raised in my research centres around the highly centralised official heritage perspective that resides with secular authorities who have a mission to preserve and conserve cultural heritage. This comes into clear conflict with the actual dynamics that shape the pilgrimage landscape and encounters with temples and ritual spaces. The former – highly prescribed and formalised – does not fit well with the actual uses of both sites and performances by both religious authorities and their patrons. The lived religious landscape is being dramatically transformed by a combination of changing pilgrim aspirations and needs, and also the organic, decentralised and entrepreneurial nature of religious authorities.
Conclusion
By using examples from Vrindavan, this chapter has drawn attention to the uneasy tension that is evident when dealing with religious sites and performances that have both long historical foundations and are also part of contemporary lived experiences. This uneasiness, however, is not unique to Vrindavan. Religious heritage in temple-towns constitutes material and symbolic resources that are embedded in particular religious-cultural contexts and continuously reshaped by their bearers under the influence of wider patterns of socio-economic changes and market forces related to the pilgrimage economy. Complex links exist between the marketing of religious heritage and tourism industry, as influx of visitors and tourists shape audiences, expectations and promotional strategies in a distinct cultural economy. The ‘resource value’ of religious heritage makes it vulnerable for commercial exploitation and modification to suit market demands. With expanding geographies and economic realities of religious heritage as a global industry issues such as ‘market’, ‘uneven distribution of opportunities and wealth’, ‘lifting’ out of context, ‘displacement’, and ‘inauthenticity’ are likely to become major concerns in templetowns. Outside of the site, such progression has significant social and cultural implications for the society that depends on these places for spiritual and religious directions.
This chapter has also challenged the current approaches to heritage conservation that continue to focus on the physical conservation of tangible properties such as temples. In the case of temple-towns, this emphasis is misplaced and has been detrimental to the living transmission of cultural values, practices and rituals associated with temples. Even when religious heritage is accepted as living tradition, its articulation is by the people who are often outside the change process. If the commodification of various religious performances to suit contemporary demands is accepted as a natural process of change, then the question becomes what is to be conserved: the traditional form or contemporary versions? And who should have the authority to make this determination? By highlighting the importance of personal observation and participation in tourism/heritage research, this chapter argues that it is necessary to consider what people view, claim and use as their religious heritage and how these ideas are translated into strategies for managing heritage.
A recurrent theme in this chapter has been the need to de-romanticise religious heritage. Although retaining traditional form, content and context of religious practices may be a desirable goal to some, it is important to recognise and acknowledge that these practices are also representative of the aspirations and desires of their main stakeholders – those who are actively involved in the reproduction of spiritual experiences. While alteration to some practices produces new religious heritage, others fall outside of the margins of traditional religious landscape as defined by heritage related organisations. Articulation of religious heritage is thus an ongoing process of mediation and negotiation between traditional forms and actual performances to suit the contemporary needs of a changing society.
Notes
1 Agra served as the capital of the Mughal Empire and houses the famous Taj Mahal (listed as a World Heritage site); Delhi is the present national capital and Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan, the state of fort-palaces.
2 According to ASI, an Ancient Monument is ‘any structure, erection or monument, or any tumulus or place of interment, or any cave, rock-sculpture, inscription or monolith which is of historical, archaeological or artistic interest and which has been in existence for not less than 100 years’ (Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1958).
3 Some sects retrace the path taken by their founders in the sixteenth century and complete the circumambulation in fifteen days. The most elaborate Braj Yatra organised by the Pushtimarg sect takes place over six to seven weeks and is known as the bari-yatra or big pilgrimage. It has over ten thousand pilgrims, several hundred priests who perform various ritual services for pilgrims at sacred sites and the leading figures of the sect.
4 For details of these entrepreneurial ventures see the following websites: www.gauranga.org; www.vrindavan.com; www.mvtindia.com/parikrama.htm
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