FROM PAST PATHS TO FUTURE WALKS: Reading and Learning From the Traditional Streets of Kathmandu Valley Towns
Sudarshan Raj Tiwari
Introduction
The town, for most societies, has been a settlement in a bounded area, where passages crossed to cause a dynamic convergence … of people, ideas, activities, services and whatever else cultures cumulated. The early Egyptian ideographic symbol for the word ‘town’– a composition of a circle enclosing a cross- is almost literal. Even truer to the ideogram were the traditional settlements of Kathmandu valley. Particularly towns from the Malla period appear to have been conceived, built, perceived and lived almost exactly to the idea. They were traversed by pathways, embellished with crossings and ringed by boundary markers - physically, literally and ritually.
Fig. 1: Symbol of the city in Early Egyptian Hieroglyphics (Steinbacher, 1995).
Convergence of heterogeneity of urban citizenry naturally demands understanding, acceptance, cultivation and nurturing of mutual interdependence and the rules of living together to bind them in some form of a whole entity. The very word 'polis' tells of the 'space of the many, the space that exists in between individuals or groups of individuals when they coexist' (Aureli, 2011). It is in these spaces between the individual buildings, along the pathways and at the crossings within and at the perimeter, the public spaces of the streets and the squares, that the town expresses and lives. The surviving street pattern of Malla towns of Kathmandu valley (12th - 18th century) show an intricate web of public spaces of streets and squares that wear characteristics precipitating varied aesthetic, social and cultural experiences of values cherished by the resident population. Conceptually, these urban spaces are mediated by rituals of significance to the two popular religions, Hinduism and Buddhism.
History of Development of Urban Patterns
Ritual mediation of public spaces has been a long standing urban tradition in Kathmandu valley, coming from as far back as the Kirat period (ca. before 1st century AD). It has been shown that the Kirat settlement, called pringga was small but densely built in fallow high ground (Nadarajah & Yamamoto, 2007) and characterized by a street that linked the in-town sanctum (devakula or dyochhe) of the tutelary of the settlement with its out-of-town hypaethral sanctuary (pithugwora or pith) located in nature some distance from its periphery marked by funerary spots (Tiwari, 1989). Annually, the residents celebrated the ceremonial travel of the town's tutelary from the dyochhe to the pith and the associated rituals of departure, moving and arrival. Eventually, the forecourt of the dyochhe developed into a central public space and the spatial detailing of the street incorporated a number of stopover spaces for the tutelary on its ceremonial travel. When the Lichchhavi arrived, the Kathmandu town was already a ceremonial arena as much as they were served administrative, economic and social purpose.
Fig. 2: A Kirat pringga Settlement Seeding of the Ritually Mediated Streets and Squares in Kathmandu.
The Lichchhavi period (1st -9th century AD) saw the towns getting larger and complex requiring them to manage the maze of interlinking pathways of various kinds. Towns were organized using the classical Hindu knowledge system, which prescribed templates and norms for sizing and patterning, and the Lichchhavi experiences and practices in town planning from the Gangetic plains. By 5th century AD, the capital town of Managriha was built using Prastara planning pattern and all its 12 entry points on the perimeter of the square and the four central crossings appear to have been marked with urban elements such as stone water conduit pits, temples and platforms for public use (See Fig. 3). Other prescribed patterns such as Dandaka (for Kathmandu) and Karmuka (for Deupatan) were also used in patterning settlements. The Hindu classical knowledge system had scaled up the locality specific ritual mediation of urban spaces of the Kirat days to one of cosmic reflection and ordering as entrenched in the diagram Vastupurushamandala. Use of prescribed patterns brought in the formality and order of geometry on the ritual mediated order. Although the standard Hindu prescriptions did not emphasize creation of urban public spaces as such, Lichchhavi developments in Nepal have contributed to the definition and development of crossroad as urban public space. The use of stone water conduit pit as a defining element of the crossroads urban space is a major Lichchhavi contribution in the making of public space in Kathmandu valley towns (Tiwari, 1989). The absence of any reference to public temples or squares in the famed Tang Annals account of Kailashkutbhawan palace reported by Wang Huen Che, the ambassador of China in mid 7th century Nepal, shows that the central urban space of the palace square was not yet crystallized in the Lichchhavi period.
Fig. 3: Lichchhavi town of Maneswor and the Surviving Street Segments and Cultural Markers
From Kirat to Lichchhavi period, then on to Malla period, towns progressively faced greater diversity of clan, class and caste; varied economic pursuits and trades and ways of rest and recreation. Their pathways made an intricate web in the town and their boundary edges met in the public spaces of the streets and the squares. This burgeoning density, heterogeneity and diversity of urban society, economy and culture were sought to be managed in the town at the residential and working neighborhoods, at gathering places and institutions and along streets and at squares in the crossings. The indigenous Newar, an amalgam of various ethnic communities, had grown to be the dominant inhabitants by the medieval period and their highly ritualistic way of life (Shrestha, Khatry, Sharma, & Ansari, 1986) brought in an era of agricultural urbanism supported with immense developments in religion, arts, crafts and commerce in Kathmandu valley towns. In the Malla period (12th - 18th century AD), town forms appear to have discarded the geometry of the Lichchhavi in favor of organic patterning respectful of physical and religious topography while reviving the Kirat homogeneity at the neighborhood level. Here we find the concept shifting to more of a mental geometry (Tiwari, 2013). The open public space structure appears to seek out active individual interaction through application of homogeny, streamlining and calming. As the valley divided itself in the fifteenth century into several independent small kingdoms ruled by the brotherly Malla houses, who took a competitive stance in urban arts, crafts and religious celebrations, hierarchies of streets and squares of various hues and colors, functional, aesthetic and ritual intents and provisions evolved in the towns, each aiming and claiming rather sophisticated subtle distinctions.
The communal life philosophy of Newar demanded a lot more space for interaction than allocated in the classical Hindu patterning of town, and, along with the durbar square and neighborhood chowk, many crossroad nodes also transformed into communal activity spaces such as market squares or just festive squares. Even the extended family system played a singular role in characterizing the Malla urban space with many a private family square or court vying with the neighborhood square in scale. The religious and ritual mediation of life and the congregational nature of people combined to develop all such spaces as sites for concentration of temples and the associated socio-religious appurtenances such as pati, sattal, dabali and mandap. The hierarchical character of such squares—the durbar square, the market square (crossroad nodes), the neighborhood square and the family court—is also visually expressed, not only by the size and extent of the space but also by the scale and importance of the temple structures (Tiwari, 2013). Malla period streets and squares show a crafty use of the familiar, in expected as well as surprising locations and contexts, as props for community living and pedestrianism. The streets and the squares, through the selective mix of such props, create a graded sense of private and public behavior in the citizen in the public space. The hierarchical character thus also shows a social intensity gradient (Tiwari, 1994) soliciting appropriate social behavior in public (Sharma, 2013). The distribution of public squares is conscious, objective and extensive.
Characteristics of Squares in the three periods
The basic town square of a Kirat pringga can be studied at the Tunaldevi Dyochhe chowk located off the main street at Dathutole of Hadigaun. The axis of the Dyochhe crosses the rectangular court in front, becomes a narrow street and taken a right angular turn to the east to meet the main street of the town. The court space in front and on the sides of the Dyochhe is further defined by a east-west pathway and by pati placed at its north-west corner. On the west of the Dyochhe building is the ceremonial space of arrival and departure of the goddess during the annual festive travel through to the pith. There is no marker at the first turning, but the crossing space is widened on the side away from the main street - an early form of lachhi . The crossing of the pathway from the dyochhe with the main street is marked by placing a Jaladroni (Jadhu) on the opposite side of the main street. The jadhu is a drinking waterspout serving the passersby and participants in revelry. A small corner space is formed at the right and a pati is placed looking towards the main street. Although the elements and their layout became live and the festivities and rituals linked up and mediated the living and the divine through towns space on particular auspicious time and days that came in seasonal or annual cycles only, yet their symbolism and meanings; cognitions and recognitions; knowledge and experiences instigate and trigger memories and recollections to charm the everyday life and mundane activity performed using the same elements and the same network of spaces.
An example of specialization of the crossing in the Lichchhavi period can be read at the Dabali, which was developed as one of the main entrance crossing or public space of arrival. A number of pati and rudimentary sattal are located about it such as to define the crossing space as well as its limits, ends and corners with a big dabali (stage) occupying its spatial and ritual center. The crossing space appears extended southwards and westwards, where some temples, pati and ceremonial spots are located. The rituals and the placing of auspicious seats (stones with lotus motifs) show the dabali faced northwards and a hallowed spot for raising the ceremonial pole (lingo) is located at the middle of its northern side and on the axis of the main street of Kirat Andipringga now transformed into a perimeter street of the Lichchhavi Maneswora. The street to the east is stepped and goes down to the pit conduit (later called hiti), an important new element in the making of the square. The street goes further as a major thoroughfare to the Pashupatinath temple in Devapattana.
Another space at the south-west corner crossing of Maneswora (presently Chardhunge at Naxal) does not show dabali formation but has a collection of a large Narayana image, a Narayan temple, stone plinth remains of an avarana pit temple (with its associated myth of Amar Bana), a number of chaitya and sivalinga showing the complexity of religious faiths, myths and memories that played out at the gateway to the Lichchhavi capital.
The complex maze of streets and squares that supported the Malla capital town is exhibited by the plan of Patan shown in Fig. 6. Located around the central space outlined by the streets, two going east-west (Tyagal-Pulchowk and Balkumari-Pimbaha) and two going north-south (Konti-Mahapal and Sankhamul-Lagankhel), the central Durbar Square space is sited with a number of temples and other public structures such as dabali, mandap, sattal, pati and hiti and literally wraps round the palace building on the east creating continuous subsidiary spaces to the north and south of the palace building also. The palace square is approached mainly through the main streets and most of the festivals and ritual celebrations of the town come to the fore space of the palace. Second order spaces, market squares or urban plazas are located at the intersection of neighborhood streets and the high streets (such as the four streets outlining the Durbar square) and are composed with one or two temples, hiti, dabali and pati. The intersection with a high festive street appears as a criteria and they tend to be 'multi-cultural' (Tiwari, 2015) as more than one neighborhood (tole) identify with the intersection.
Fig.4: Chysah Square with Bhimdyo Lachhi (Tiwari, 1994)
A third order space located and formed around a street intersection inside a neighborhood (tole) contains a temple, usually a Ganesh, a well, a pati or two, a open space of a size related to the traditional trade of the caste (jaat) belonging to the tole. Some such neighborhood squares can be quite large and may even have its own neighborhood festivity e.g. Talaco pottery square of Bhadgaon or the Chysal square in Patan. The fourth order space located at the end of a pathway is a square at an extended family level and may contain a well and a miniature temple specific to the clan. The third and the fourth order public spaces tend to be mono-cultural (Tiwari, 2015).
Fig 5: Nugah - A Second Order Market Square in Patan. (Drawing adapted from Raghuvamsi, 1998)
A large number of open spaces shown in Fig. 6 are Buddhist Monasteries. Most of them being inward looking court in terms architectural space design and socially 'mono-cultural' in the formation of its collective association, the Sangha, they work like a sub-neighborhood within the neighborhood (tole). In the current study, they may be placed within the third and fourth order spaces. For example, Nagabahal may be seen as a third order space with its crossing street, hiti and chaitya. Bhinchebahal space presents a differing class within the third order neighborhood 'square'. These cursory observations apart, the study of Buddhist monasteries in the making of the urban spaces in Kathmandu is out of scope of this research.