Rana P.B. Singh

• Prof.
• Professor (retired 1 July 2016) at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, UP 221005, India

Banāras (Vārāṇasī/Kāshī) is commonly perceived as a city of 'vigour and rigour' where traditional culture, people, and society are deeply interconnected; however, the religious landscapes and their associated dramas make the city unique and a model of Indian culture as perceived and exposed by Mark Twain, of course primarily under the guidance of A...

This study discusses the importance of Gangasagar in India as a sacral power centre, illuminated by the liquid energy of the holy Ganga River, a nourishing river for Sanatana Hindu culture and civilisation. The Ganga originated from the Himalayas, nourishing the land, and merging into the sea at Gangasagar, part of Sagar Island. On the auspicious d...

Around four hundred books are written in English on different aspects of Banaras/Varanasi, narrating its distinctiveness, archetypal representations, and eulogy in ancient literature. However, very few attempts are made to narrate the philosophy and psychology of the dwellers’ lifeworld, both insider expositions and outside reflections. The present...

The mountainous villages of Shirakawa-gō and Gokayama are well known for the unique architecture of their “Gassho” farmhouses and enlisted in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995. These villages, with their Gassho-style houses, subsisted on the cultivation of mulberry trees and the rearing of silkworms. The large houses with their steeply pitched...

Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is defined by UNESCO as the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, and skills-as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts, and cultural spaces associated therewith-that communities, groups, and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage. ICH is transmitted from generat...

Abstract: Every region or place has its own sacred geography where humans meet with the divinities and ultimately emerge the microcosmic web which is always regulated and expanded by the continuity of rituals, festivities, and celebrations. India as a whole is a sacred landscape, serving as the cosmic whole where all these attributes together make...

Food items in Hinduism are considered essential ingredients for different rituals, pilgrimages, sacred sites, different gods and divinities, seasons, motives, healing, etc. Food is described as ‘prāṇa’ (ethereal energy) in all the celebrations, performances, and pilgrimage traditions. Food, broadly classified into three categories according to its...

Hindu pilgrimage, Tīrtha-yātrā, is a liminal process that establishes participation in the spiritual realm, associated with the sacred land. It engages with sacredscapes that are partly defined by the material world but rather more strongly by sacred symbols, cosmogonic and cultural astronomy, traditions, festivals, and the belief that these places...

It is not unusual for a place to wait for years before being inscribed on the World Heritage List, but Sarnath—the place where the Buddha delivered his first sermon—has been on UNESCO’s “tentative list” for close to 25 years. As a sacred place for Buddhist pilgrimages, Sarnath continues to attract thousands of visitors annually and yet, remains und...

A country (Bhārat/India) with at least an 8000-year old history in continuity and contrasts, adaptability and superimpositions, a frame of succession-sustenance-sustainability, and a civilization united by its diversities and distinctiveness, keeping live experiences of the richness of culture/s, the glory of the past, the turbulences and triumphs,...

The role of Hindu functionaries (‘religious workers’) is of vital importance in maintaining and continuity of traditions through caring, promoting, and sustaining the religious and pilgrimage rituals and associated festivities, which altogether promote pilgrimage and religious tourism. Such groups include a variety and distinctive types of function...

Food, health, and sustainability have an interconnective and reciprocated system that is influenced by the cultural traditions, environmental contexts, and the impact of transformations over time. The SDG-2 has stressed extractions of hunger while achieving food security, improved nutrition, and sustainable agriculture. These interlinkages have sev...

The concept of pilgrimage to four sacred sites (Char Dham Yatra) in Hinduism continues from the ancient to the present. The temple of Lord Jagannatha (a form of Vishnu), situated in Puri (eastern part of India, Odisha), is one of the most visited sites by pilgrims (ca. 4.5 million in 2017). The miniature form of the Jagannatha temple is situated in...

Shikoku pilgrimage covers a 1,385km (861 miles) long route, a 1200-year-old pilgrimage into the heart of Japanese Shingon Buddhism, connecting 88 temples organized in four main prefectural clusters, making a sacred circle of Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's major islands, is steeped in tradition, ritual, and cultural heritage; the tranquility of th...

Varanasi (Banaras /Kashi) is commonly perceived as a site of ‘vigor and rigor’ where religious culture, people, and society get interconnected deeply, and the layers of transformations get absorbed in the landscapes, more visible and distinctively illustrated along the sacred river Gaṅgā – the Riverfrontscapes, exemplified with 84 Ghāṭs (stairways)...

In Korea, for choosing a site and settlement the Pung-su principles, which interconnect the spirit of the natural landscape and human sensitivity, are the common practice in making, maintaining, and manifesting the cultural landscape as archetypal integrity of habitat. Like any other traditional Korean village, Hahoe has also grown up as a natural...

Places are the repository of the human imprints on the landscape, and the true representative of the changes and transformations that took with time, through the channel of placemaking. The studied city, Ayodhya is one among the holy-heritage cities in Hindu cosmogony that is known for bestowing salvation. Of course, it had a history of the Babri M...

The concept of placemaking is used in comprehensive and complex ways in different contexts of disciplinary boundedness and application in prospective planning and pathways to sustainable development. There is no mutual agreement on a common definition or its attributes. This concept is also taken as an approach and procedure too. Among all the conc...

The interrelatedness of placemaking and cultural landscape in the Asian realm has been explained vividly in the frame of an interdisciplinary approach in the writings of (late) Professor Sung-Kyun Kim. Following the Saurian tradition, his studies started in the 1980s at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, and continued longitudinally throughout hi...

Only a century later on 25th August 1777 by the patronage of Queen Ahilyabai Holkar (1725-1795) of Indore, the present temple of Vishvanatha was initiated and completed, and consecrated on the festive occasion of Shiva’s marriage—Maha Shivaratri in 1780! Over time, many shrines and temples have been built or reconstructed in the vicinity as a resul...

Food, health, and sustainability have an interconnective and reciprocated system that is influenced by cultural traditions, environmental contexts, and the impact of transformations over time. The SDG-2 has stressed extractions of hunger while achieving food security, improved nutrition, and sustainable agriculture. These interlinkages have several...

The meaning, concept, and uses of the notion of culture vary in the world's different languages; however, everyone agrees that culture allows people to reflect on themselves in dialogue with others and understands human interconnectedness. The culture makes us human, rational beings endowed with critical judgment and a sense of moral and civil comm...

The World Congress of Culture in Mexico City (28-30 September 2022) allowed us to put people's values and the role of culture education for the future of the younger generations at the center. This text describes the reflection proposed within the congress by the study group of the international pedagogical project "Reconnecting with your culture"...

Traditional structure brings out an indispensable role in indigenous as well as in the nation's history and culture and signifies its importance and richness of it. The study building, Koothambalam, an element of sacred temple architecture in Kerala is in danger object of the unplanned development of the temple complex at present time. The word 'Ko...

Hinduism is experienced through its spirituality, sacrality, architecture, and sacred landscape. Hindu temples are Hinduism’s coded religious messages, constructed of symbols, designs, iconography, and depictions of historic and literary events, and possessing universal messages. Combining and unifying these elements, Hindu temples communicate the...

The meaning, concept, and uses of the notion of culture vary in the different languages of the world; however, everyone agrees that culture gives people the ability to reflect on themselves in dialogue with others and understands human interconnectedness. It is the culture that makes us human, rational beings, endowed with critical judgment and a s...

The city of Ayodhya represents is an example of holy-heritage city of India, recording variety of cultural landscapes and multi-cultural religious sites in the form of sacred landscapes. The sacredscapes are known as tirtha in classical Hindu literature, and in general is translated as a sacred or a holy place. For the sacredscape history matters,...

Cities, in the developing Global South, draw people, from their hinterland due to various reasons. Kashi/Varanasi or Banaras a few names by which the same city is still known and addressed across has been drawing hundreds and thousands of people, many of whom stayed back and adopted it as 'their' place. Everyone has her/his own story and experience...

This essay presents an account of Professor Rana P.B. Singh's academic contributions, professional growth and career, and academic recognition. He is well-known as a leading academic figure in Indian geography. He has enriched the discipline of geography through his immense contributions, especially on cultural geography, from the perspective of an...

Cities in the Global South draw people from their hinterland due to various reasons. Kashi, Varanasi, or Banaras—a few names by which this city is known and addressed, has drawn hundreds and thousands of people, many of whom stayed back and adopted it as ‘their’ place. Everyone has her/his own story and experiences to share and narrate. Rana P. B....

The care, concern, and understanding of heritage in Indian culture has a deep root in the past, initiating in the Vedic period, and continuing till date. The metaphysical and metaphorical narration of heritage was linked to salvific sites, which over time represented in a different form of icons, symbols, and performances. The Nature-Culture interf...

Culture is central to human beings to the extent that the history of their evolution is incomplete without the consideration of cultural attainments across time and space. However, in the domain of geography as a discipline, its conceptualisation and place do not appear clear. The sub-discipline of cultural geography having its roots in late 19th c...

Historical-cultural cities expose to those human settlements strongly conditioned by a physical structure originating in the past and recognizable together representing the evolution of their people and making an interlinking pathway of existence, maintenance, imprinting on the landscapes, and continued the symbolic marks and traditional expression...

Varanasi, one of the sacred-heritage cities in India, manifests the cosmic symbolism in its planning with the form of multiple concentric sacred layers as territory. These sacred areas are being circumambulated by thousands of pilgrims during sacred periods of the Hindu calendar, where the Pañchakroshī pilgrimage represents one of these sacred cosm...

This paper narrates a historical description of the Vishvanatha Shiva (Vishveshvara), the patron deity of the holy-heritage city of Varanasi (also called Kashi/Banaras)-how over time since its first reference in the 6th century BCE till date the temple has faced destructions, demolition, and contestation, but ultimately it reached to the phase of r...

Varanasi, one of the sacred-heritage cities in India, manifests the cosmic symbolism in its planning with the form of multiple concentric sacred layers as territory. These sacred areas are being circumambulated by thousands of pilgrims during sacred periods of the Hindu calendar, where the Pañchakroshī pilgrimage represents one of these sacred cosm...

The paper first introduces the cosmic symbolism of Shiva and his iconic representation “Linga”. This is followed with historical description of the Vishvanatha Shiva (Vishveshvara), as to how over time since its first reference in the 9th century BCE till date the temple has face destructions, demolition by the bigoted Muslim invaders and the Musli...

The basic metaphysical frame of life in ancient India, that of sacred water (paviṭra jala) and the notion that "Water itself is life" (jala hī jivan hai), can be illustrated with case studies of two cities. Settled continuously since 1000 BCE, the cities of Varanasi and Ayodhya have been eulogized as the salvific holy-heritage cities in India known...

Religion (dharma) plays a vital role in the Hindu (Sanātana) quest for understanding and practicing harmony between nature and humanity that results in the formation of a global understanding, i.e., ‘transcending the universe.’ The importance and applicability of such new consciousness is a sign in promoting global humanism in the 21st century, whe...

This study identifies the varying components of cultural heritage and analyses the scenario within the perspectives of notable sites, different issues, potentials, and prospects for tourism development, and finally the scope and strategy of holistic development in the Purvanchal region of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Uttar Pradesh, consists o...

Professor R.B. Singh (1955-2021) had been the first Indian Geographer to have the dual distinction of holding the position of the IGU Secretary General and ICSU Scientific Committee Member. He was the first Indian and second Asian Secretary General and Treasurer of the IGU (2018-2022). Professor Singh was a distinguished geographer of the 21st Cent...

Professor R.B. Singh (1955-2021) had been the first Indian Geographer to have the dual distinction of holding the position of the IGU Secretary General and ICSU Scientific Committee Member. He was the first Indian and second Asian Secretary General and Treasurer of the IGU (2018-2022). Professor Singh was a distinguished geographer of 21st Century...

Ganesha is one among the group of five Hindu gods, and considered as initiator and protector of all the rituals and happenings. His birthday is celebrated most popularly as Ganesh Chaturthi, falling on Bhadrapada Shukla (waxing-light-half, August-September) 4th in the lunar calendar. Installing idol of Ganesha, and followed-up rituals, group chanti...

India (Bhārat), being one of the oldest cultures with continuity of traditions has introduced cultural diplomacy in the ancient past, and constantly followed the path of cultural dispersal as illustrated with diffusion of Buddhism during the 5th century BCE-the CE 12th century in southeast and east Asia. One such example was marriage of princess fr...

The idea of manifesting the environment as sacred space goes back to the ancient tales of the Vedas, which continued as a tradition of pilgrimage. Many of the spots considered possessing special intensity of sacrament, that's how they became places of pilgrimages. This whole system becomes part of sacred geography. Unique features of landscapes, e....

This report-cum-appraisal of the life-journey, works and contributions of (late) Prof. Ravi S. Singh (b. 8th Sept.1971 ~ died: 21st April 2021 at 10:50AM IST), a distinguished and senior Professor of Geography at the Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University- India, who died so young, narrates the academic story, lifeworld, experiences and exp...

The concept of Cultural Landscape refers to a complex cultural mosaic and network of spatiality of time, temporality of space, sacrality of nature and overall, the encompassing manifestation of transcendence of man who since time immemorial is trying to make a strong bridge between conscious mind and super-conscious divine. This way the interplay h...

India (Bhārat), being one of the oldest cultures with continuity of traditions has introduced cultural diplomacy in the ancient past, and constantly followed the path of cultural dispersal as illustrated with the diffusion of Buddhism during the fifth-century BCE—the CE twelfth century in southeast and east Asia. One such example was marriage of pr...

Hindu pilgrimage, as the most important and meritorious rite of passage, involves three stages: initiation (awakening to take the journey), liminality (the voyage itself and experiences), and re-aggregation (the homecoming); altogether they converge into a cycle. Pilgrims’ experiences and faith-healing helps to experience the spirit of place and di...

Religion (dharma) plays a vital role in the Hindu (Sanatana) quest for understanding and practicing harmony between nature and humanity that result into the formation of a cosmological awakening, i.e. 'transcending the universe.' The importance and applicability of such new consciousness is a sign in promoting global humanism in the 21st century, w...

The sacred landscape combines the absoluteness of space, relativeness of places and comprehensiveness of landscape; thus altogether results in a ‘wholeness’ carrying the inherent and imposed spirit of ‘holiness’, which is to be called ‘sacredscapes’, and are regulated and survived by the faith involved in and the sacred rituals. We begin the sense...

Following the UN SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) Target 11.4, focussing on ‘Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’, cultural heritage and urban sustainability are now considered inseparable part of holistic development. Religion had played an important role for controlling power in Indian monarchy in the ancient p...

Religious heritage as religious properties and sacred places can be an integral part of larger ensembles, such as historic cities, cultural landscapes and natural sites. Religion had played a role for controlling power in Indian monarchy in the ancient past, and in contemporary India too it played a role in the formation of religious nationalism an...

In this chapter, we explore the relationship between intangible cultural heritage and historic urban landscapes, using the ideas of heritage in the context of India. The basic concept of heritage in Indian context is referred as dharohara that projects and maintains roots and identities of cultural landscapes. This is further explained as ethical c...

The interfacing links between Ayodhya (India) and Gimhae (Korea) goes back into two thousand years, illustrated with marriage of princes Suritatna from Ayodhya with King Kim SURO of Gimhae. This is now taken as frame for bilateral cooperation between the two countries. Through the legendry book of the Samguk Yusa (삼국유사) this story has been re-inter...

In the technocratic era of the 21st century Gandhi is taken as icon for global humanism, harmony and peace. Gandhi has not given any theoretic frame per se, but his sayings and life-style are the signposts for sustainable development through human service. Gandhi’s ahimsa (‘non-violence’) is an alternative path that would save humanity from its cri...

Abstract. In Indian thought the intrinsic value is posed in the basic quest to know the role of humans with respect to the interrelatedness of ecological cosmology, i.e. ecospirituality, as was re-interpreted through Vedantic thought by Swami Vivekananda. The importance and applicability of such new consciousness is a good sign in promoting the Sus...

According to UNESCO, urban governance is the process that leads and takes into account the various links between stakeholders, local authorities, and citizens. It includes written and unwritten policies, procedures, and decision-making by units that control resource allocation within and among institutions. Heritage-inclusive development (HID) poli...

From India 37 sites are enlisted in the WH List (as of 12 July 2018; on 6 July 2019: 38, Jaipur added); however, 'The Riverfront Ghats of Varanasi' has not yet been proposed for inclusion, mostly due to the political complexity and a lack of strong support from the stakeholders. Framing tourism and cultural development for national and internationa...

The mountainous villages of Shirakawa­gō and Gokayama are well known for the unique architecture of their "Gassho" farmhouses and were enlisted in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995. These villages with their Gassho­style houses subsisted on the cultivation of mulberry trees and the rearing of silkworms. The large houses with their steeply pitc...

Banaras (Varanasi), known as the cultural capital of India, enriched by more than three thousand temples; most of them eulogised in the puranic literature and are linked by the pilgrimage routes. Among several of such pilgrimage routes Panchakroshi is the most popular and well documented too. This route is divided into five parts symbolised with ni...

Banaras (Varanasi), known as the cultural capital of India, enriched by more than three thousand temples; most of them eulogised in the puranic literature and are linked by the pilgrimage routes. Among several of such pilgrimage routes Panchakroshi is the most popular and well documented too. This route is divided into five parts symbolised with ni...

Ayodhya-Faizabad twin city (Urban Agglomeration/ Metropolitan City, population: 256,624 in 2011 census) extends between 26¬0¬ 47’ North to 260 80’ North Latitude and 820 12’ East to 820 20’ East Longitude. These two twin cities are divided by a pilgrimage route of Panchakroshi Yatra, and the entire sacred territory is demarcated by the Chaudahkrosh...

In Indian thought the sense of intrinsic value is posed in the basic quest of knowing the place and role of man with respect to interrelatedness of ecological cosmology, i.e. ecospirituality, receiving more attention today under New Age Movement, and re-interpretation of Vedantic thought as conceived by Swami Vivekananda. Religion (dharma) plays a...

Most of the visitors (pilgrims in the majority) and the dwellers (mostly Hindus) perform some sorts of rituals at varying degrees and become involved in the religious activities to gain solace or soul healing. Of course, as sidetrack visitors also perform other activities of recreation and side-show. However, these are the marginal activities. It i...

Abstract . Most of the visitors (pilgrims in the majority) and the dwellers (mostly Hindus) perform some sorts of rituals at varying degrees and become involved in the religious activities to gain solace or soul healing. Of course, as sidetrack visitors also perform other activities of recreation and side-show. However, these are the marginal activ...

Varanasi, the city of history and continuity, is one among the oldest living cities in the world, recording settlements since ca 1000 BCE, and eulogized in the followed up mythological literature. Recent archaeological investigations in its vicinity date it back to 1500 BCE. Visit of the Buddha in the 5th century BCE is a testimony to its importanc...

Through a combination of theoretical and case-study chapters, this volume focuses on religious routes and trails in terms of their spiritual, cultural and economic meanings, and considers the opportunities and challenges arising from their recent increase in popularity. The book is divided into three sections. Part I (chapters 1-5) deals with conce...

It has been realised that the cultural and natural heritages are increasingly threatened by destruction not only due to the traditional causes of decay, but also by changing social and economic conditions. It has further been decided to adopt a general policy, which aims to give the heritage a function in the life of the community, and maintaining...

Situated along the crescent bank of the Ganga River, Varanasi has been primarily an ancient tirthas (riverfront sacredscapes) and salvific city that records settlement continuity since at least ca 800BCE. Under the purview of Smart City development strategy through the interfacing programmes of HRIDAY (Heritage city Development and Augmentation Yoj...

The 'ritual landscape' is result of maintenance of sacredness and of reciprocal and interfacing relationship between human faith and landscapes in the trajectory of 'time-space-ritual' routines through variety of rituals and performing functionaries. The bank of the Sarayu River at Ayodhya consists of a number of sacred places where devout pilgrims...

Ayodhya for a period of over two thousand years has borne witnessed to the presence of Jainism, Buddhism, Shaivism, Vaishnavism, and Islam (Sufism) too projected city as place of religious solidarity. According to the ancient history, Ayodhya was one of the holiest cities where the religious faiths of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Islam flourishe...

Ayodhya for a period of over two thousand years has borne witnessed to the presence of Jainism, Buddhism, Shaivism, Vaishnavism, and Islam (Sufism) too projected city as place of religious solidarity. According to the ancient history, Ayodhya was one of the holiest cities where the religious faiths of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Islam flourishe...

Concept of ‘multifunctionality’ of cultural landscape can help envisioning landscapes that cross urban-rural divides in sustainable and an integrated way – characterised by wholeness and ecospirituality that developed in the cultural history of landscapes converging into creation of National/Cultural Identity. That is how, the idea of ‘wholeness’ (...

According to the ancient history, Ayodhya was one of the holiest cities where the religious faiths of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sufism (Islam) and united together to build a place of enormous sacred importance. Ayodhya History is a chequered one (see Table 2). In the Atharvaveda, this place was described as a city that was made by gods and wa...

In the mystical tradition of India, the creation is considered as the consciousness of intermingling of masculine and the feminine powers of nature, in which the latter is considered as primordial and the basic source, prakriti. The Goddess is viewed as omnipresent and omniscient in the sacredscape of Varanasi. The city-dwellers believe that "witho...

The mountainous villages of Shirakawa-gō and Gokayama are well known for the unique architecture of their " Gassho " farmhouses, and enlisted in UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995. These villages with their Gassho-style houses subsisted on the cultivation of mulberry trees and the rearing of silkworms. The large houses with their steeply pitched th...

In its convention in 1972 UNESCO instituted a special body called World Heritage Committee. Until July 2017 there have been 167 State Parties (countries) as members. In the World Heritage List, 1073 (July 2017) properties are enlisted. It has been realised that the cultural and natural heritages are increasingly threatened by destruction not only d...

Religion had played a role for controlling power in Indian monarchy in the ancient past, and in contemporary India too it played a role in the formation of religious landscape and religious heritage, through commonly using processions, pilgrimage, religious assemblies, religious fairs (melā), and sacred places. Ayodhya-Faizabad represents an aesthe...

The tīrthas (holy places, sacredscapes) of India provide examples of self-amplifying interactions between people and their cultural landscape. The five pilgrimage routes, developed during CE 5th – 9th centuries, in Banaras symbolises the manifestation and archetypal representation of five koshas, the ‘sheaths’. That is how koshas are analogous to t...

In its convention in 1972 UNESCO instituted a special body called World Heritage Committee. Until July 2017 there have been 167 State Parties (countries) as members. In the World Heritage List, 1073 (July 2017) properties are enlisted. It has been realised that the cultural and natural heritages are increasingly threatened by destruction not only d...

From India 35 properties are enlisted in WH List (till October 2016), however 'The Riverfront Ghats of Varanasi' has not yet been proposed for inclusion, mostly due to political complexity and lack of strong movement from the stakeholders. Framing tourism and cultural development in holistic frame for national and international resource within the...

In Indian thought the sense of intrinsic value is posed in the basic quest of knowing the place and role of man with respect to interrelatedness of ecological cosmology, i.e. ecospirituality, receiving more attention today under New Age Movement, and re-interpretation of Vedantic thought as conceived by Swami Vivekananda. Religion (dharma) plays a...

Urban regeneration is the attempt to reverse that decline by both improving the physical structure, and, more importantly and elusively, the economy of those areas. In all regeneration programmes, public money is used as an attempt to pump prime investment into an area. In the context of urban regeneration, the term 'culture' seems to refer mainly...

The concept of Indian Cultural Landscape refers to a complex cultural mosaic and network of spatiality of time, temporality of space, sacrality of nature and overall the encompassing manifestation of transcendence of man who since time immemorial is trying to make a strong bridge between conscious mind and super-conscious divine. This way the inter...

Hinduism is experienced through its spirituality, sacredness, architecture, and landscape. Hindu temples are Hinduism's coded religious messages, constructed of symbols, designs, iconography, and depictions of historic and literary events. Combining and unifying these elements, Hindu temples communicate the divine. Eight of the 36 UNESCO's World He...

From India 36 properties are enlisted in WH List (till 12 July 2017), however 'The Riverfront Ghats of Varanasi' has not yet been proposed for inclusion, mostly due to political complexity and lack of strong movement from the stakeholders. Framing tourism and cultural development in holistic frame for national and international resource within the...

The mountainous villages of Shirakawa-gō and Gokayama are well known for the unique architecture of their " Gassho " farmhouses, and enlisted in UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995. These villages with their Gassho-style houses subsisted on the cultivation of mulberry trees and the rearing of silkworms. The large houses with their steeply pitched th...

The whole of human life, says Nobel-laureate Ernst Schumacher (1973), is a dialogue between humans and the environment, a sequence of questions and responses. We threat the universe by our action and progress, and, in consequence, universe reacts in an effort to harmonise the cosmic order with its law, or even violate them (Chaitanya 1983: 131). If...

The liveability of India’s cultural capital, Banaras (Varanasi/ Kashi). Noted Cultural Landscape geographer, heritage scholar, professor and author of 6 books and 125 research papers on Banaras, Rana P.B. Singh (B.H.U., Varanasi, India) talks to Vinayak Bharne (USC Los Angeles, USA) about the multifaceted personality of India’s cultural capital – i...

Attempts have also been made to elucidate the geography in ancient India, however most of such works considered the notion and framework of concept of the universe and the earth, astronomical and climatic aspects, the places known and the settlement patterns. The description of regional identity and regional geography (natural and cultural landscap...