Piyush Ranjan Rout
Bhubaneswar has many heritage structures and yet it is not a UNESCO World Heritage City; this is the situation when even less endowed cities such as Chandigarh and Ahmedabad enjoy this status.
Kyoto, an ancient Japanese city located between Tokyo and Osaka, is the second most popular tourist attraction in that country. Kyoto is among the first capitals and dates back to AD 794. Today it has become Japan’s living cultural archive. The city has more than 1,600 Buddhist temples and over 400 Shinto shrines. Regardless of how one travels through or explores Kyoto, one cannot miss the world heritage sites there. The city hosts 17 UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Kyoto was modelled on the capitals of ancient China, and was the imperial capital of Japan from its foundation until the middle of the 19th century. As the centre of Japanese culture for more than 1,000 years, Kyoto illustrates the development of Japanese wooden architecture, particularly religious architecture, and the art of Japanese gardens, which have influenced landscape gardening the world over.
Bhubaneswar is older than Kyoto. A rock edict of emperor Ashoka gives evidence of its existence in 261 BC. It has a message of peace etched into a pregnant elephant sculpture seeming to indicate peace and the practice of Buddhism was about to take birth from this place. Then the city has the remains of Sisupalgarh, an ancient city that is believed to have supported a population between 20,000 to 25,000 between 3rd century BC and 4th century AD. It still appeals to historians who believe it may have been larger than Athens.
There are valid reasons, though, why Bhubaneswar is yet to receive this international recognition. Some say Bhubaneswar was once home to more than 5,000 temples. Its name derived from Tribhubaneswar, that is the ‘Lord of the three worlds — the earth, the space and the netherworld’. But today only about 700 temples exist in the city and few are in good condition. The others are abandoned like landmine sites after war. Most older temples in Bhubaneswar were built between the 8th and 12th centuries, under Shaivaite influence.
Bhubaneswar, founded in 1948, is also Independent India’s first planned capital city. The key ingredient of the masterplan of Bhubaneswar was neighbourhoods based on the grid system. This plan placed every urban necessity, workspaces, schools, healthcare facilities, and parks among them, within walking distance for residents across the city. Most buildings were inspired by temples and caves. Some of these are still visible, but some have been covered up by modern granite edifices and hoardings. But the city still attracts researchers to study the city over years.
In 2014, Bhubaneswar submitted its dossier to the UNESCO governing body which accords World Heritage status to cities. The dossier is now live in the tentative lists.
But the dossier seeks heritage status to Old Town, often called Ekamra Kshetra. Old Town can be compared with World Heritage sites such as Angkor Wat in Cambodia; Hampi and Pattadakal in Karnataka; Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
The attempt to get world heritage status for Old Town as a whole is good but such applications must also be made for individual structures, too. Few cities in the world have structures representing three ancient religions — Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. What makes the heritage of Bhubaneswar exceptional is the city’s secular fabric and the pursuit of peace generation after generation.
There is hope that one day Bhubaneswar will get its due with at least 20 World Heritage sites that will belong to all peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located and the culture or religion they practice. Until that day, the city will have to preserve its rich heritage.
The writer is an urban planner-cum-urban management practitioner. He can be reached on Twitter @piyushrout.