Theory and Discourse
Historic Conservation: Value, Authenticity and Integrity in the Setting
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| In Conversation with Rabindra J Vasavada, former Professor and Head of the Post Graduate Programme in Architectural and Settlement conservation at the Centre of Environmental Planning and Technology University (CEPT) about heritage conservation in Orissa and otherwise, the legislature of protection of monuments and historic places and how a landscape conservation project is different from the conservation of architectural heritage. |
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Your have worked extensively in the state of Orissa for the last many years now. How do you view the evolution of the region and the relationship of humans and nature through the lens of history?
I have been associated with studies on two feudatory kingdoms - Ran-pur (with Dr Niels Gutschow) and Keonjhar (with Dr Hermann Kulke, Director of the Orissa project); Ran-pur being one of the south-west and Keonjhar being one of the north-west feudatory states on which we have focused on in our Orissa studies under the German Research Council Projects.
Orissa's cultural heritage is one of the most authentically preserved in our country. Historically, this has evolved retaining its close tie with tribal cults, tutelary gods and their sense of their primordial religious landscapes of sacred grooves where their 'jungle gods' inhabited. Their connection to their settlements and the primordial gods living in sacred groves or jungles was intimately connected and the rela-tionship between the two is unbroken even when the urban settlements grew as the streets and the abodes of their gods actually generated the street net-works and residential settlements in a way that the cosmic relationships of their positions governed the planning of the settlements with the brahmins occupying a distinct position within the settlements with the king donating their lands for residences.
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