Bhubaneswar: Architects carry the signature of their times in their designs and creations. Be they the 7th, 10th, 13th century monuments or the modern day structures, the architects, in their designs, capture the essence of their thoughts. So, it’s no surprise when a team of students from Srinivas School of Architecture (SSA), Valachil, Mangalore, arrived here Sunday at Ekamra Walks to study Kalingan temple design and architecture as part of their study programme.
After spending more than two hours studying the temples with three distinct styles — Rekha, Pidha and Khakhra — of Kalingan architecture, the student and faculty members of SSA Mangalore were of the opinion that the temples of Odisha in general and Bhubaneswar in particular, are far more beautiful than the sketches and photos their text books depict.
The edifices carry a distinct signature of the respective times and the creative genius of the old school of architecture.
All students of SSA Mangalore, under Visvesvarayya Technological University (VTU), Belgaum, Karnataka, are in the third year of their undergraduate studies in architecture. They asked tour guides questions about the temple structures, style, types of stone used in construction, influences of various schools of thought, religion, society and the royals who had built these magnificent edifices in stone in different periods of Kalinga Empire. The students were guided by Associate Professor Leslie Dias and Assistant Professor Anvi Gor.
Ashwathi, a student from SSA Mangalore, said, “seeing the monuments live was a great moment for all of us as we had only seen their images. We were really fortunate to include the temples of Bhubaneswar as the city is known for its
monuments.”
Another student Jainam Kothari said, “every region in the country is dotted with monuments influenced according to the local traditional architecture. During our study we will be visiting many parts of the country to understand the traditional architecture, for which India is known in
the world.”
Amrita Adiga termed her experience ‘precious’ as it would make her understand the subject of conservation architecture in future as it is also a sought-after specialization for students of architecture. The Kalingan style of architecture has got an influence over other areas like the South East Asian nations as Kalinga rulers had maritime trade with
that region,
Ashish Gor, an investment banker from Mumbai, who also joined the Ekamra Walks Old Town Circuit said: “We have read and learnt a lot about the heritage walk as it is widely publicized on the Internet. I really appreciate the effort of the city authorities and Odisha Tourism for this.”
XUB students in Ekamra Walks
Bhubaneswar: More than 30 students of Xavier School of Communications from Xavier University Bhubaneswar, led by their faculty members joined the heritage walk in the Old Town area and learnt the speciality of Kalingan temple building process and architecture.
The students of first year B.Sc. Mass Communication not only documented the entire journey from Mukteswar temple to Ekamra Van, the medicinal plant garden, via Parasurameswar, Swarnajaleswar, Kotitirtheswar, Bindusagar, Anantavasudev, Old Dharamsala, Lingaraj, Chitrakarini, Sari Deula, Mohini, Vaitaal temple and Art Vision, an institute to train budding Odissi dancers by well-known Guru Ileana Citaristi, they also videographed the event for future reference and use in their in-house publications and productions.
Abhisanka Bhowmick, a student termed the experience as ‘educative and inspiring’. The team from XUB also visited the heritage walk at Udayagiri-Khandagiri Saturday. Faculty members of XUB Prof Raj Kishore Patra, S. Tony Raj and Assistant Professor Nadira Khatun guided the students.
Dr Ramchandra R Chavan from Maharashtra, who is in the news recently for his solo cycle trip from Malvan in Maharashtra to Konark, covering 2,006 km, also joined the walk with Director Tourism Dr Nitin Jawle. With the students from SSA Mangalore and XUB and other walkers, there were 90 participants Sunday at Ekamra Walks.
PNN
