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Mythical and Symbolic Origins of the City: the Case of the Kathmandu Valley

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Gérard Toffin
Gérard Toffin*
Affiliation:
C.N.R.S., Paris
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In recent years, the relationships between systems of symbolic representations and cities have given rise to an often rich and stimulating consideration among various specialists in human sciences, namely, historians, anthropologists, semiologists and sociologists, among others. Urban conglomerates can no longer be conceived as simple assemblages of more or less functional constructions. The city is as much a mental concept as it is a physical reality. It is made up of images that give it a meaning. It does not exist independently of the sum of subjective interpretations that are continually made by its inhabitants. Our Western perception of the city may be influenced by romanesque literature or the memory of a painting, in other words, by imaginary worlds. It varies according to individual memory: each of us is attached to the different urban spaces of his souvenirs, emotions arising from family history or the duration of a lifetime. These personal projections are all the more important because they command a certain number of daily actions and furnish a framework of orientation to every citizen. They contribute to giving a moral quality to urban space and transform physical objects into concepts, into more or less determined signs.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 38 , Issue 152 , December 1990 , pp. 101 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © 1990 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1 Some results of excavations in S.B.DEO, Archaeological Excavations in Kath mandu : 1965, Kathmandu, HMG, Department of Archaeology, 1966 (on Gairi Dhara and Hadigaon) and in C.S. Antonini and G. Verardi, "Excavation in the Kath mandu Valley", Ancient Nepal, 1985, no. 89, pp. 17-30 (on Hadigaon and Dhum varahi). Even the four stupas of Pâtan that surround the city are difficult to date for the lack of excavations; cf. on this subject, F.R. Allchin, "A Note on the ‘aśokan' stûpa of Pâtan", in The Stûpa, Its Religious, Historical and Architectural Sig nificance, ed. by A.L. Dallapiccola, Wiesbaden, Franz Steiner Verlag, 1980, pp. 147-155. The latest results from the excavations at Ismeo, led by G. Verardi, attest however the existence of a small royal city already well established at the beginning of the Christian era, perhaps even before, at Hadigaon (Harigaon) with a palace and Hindu religious elements. This city, which in all probability was one of the capitals of the Licchavi kings, fell into decadence toward the 11th century, follow ing an unknown catastrophe (fire or earthquake). Today we find nothing but a big village, on the periphery of the "Great Kathmandu". Cf. G. Verardi, Harigaon Satya Nârâyana, Kathmandu. A Report on the Excavations Carried Out in 1984-1988, Rome, Ismeo, 1988.

2 A general presentation of these cities in G. Toffin, "La notion de ville dans une société asiatique traditionnelle: l'exemple des Néwar de la vallée de Kathmandou", L'Homme, 1982, XXII, 4, pp. 101-111, and N. Gutschow, Stadtraum und Ritual der newareschen Städte im Kathmandutal, Stuttgart, Kohlhammer, 1982. See also for Kirtipur, R. Herdrick, Kirtipur, Stadtgestalt Prinzipien der Raumordnung und geselleschaftliche Funktionen einer Newar-stadt, Munich, Weltforum Verlag, 1988. Some historical data in D.R. Regmi, Ancient Nepal, Delhi, F. Mukhopadhyay, 1961, and Dhanavajra Vajracarya, "The Development of Early and Medieval Settlements in the Kathmandu Valley. A Review of the Inscriptional Evidence", Heritage of the Kathmandu Valley, ed. by N. Gutschow and A. Michaels, Sankt Augustin, VGH Wissenschaftsverlag, 1987, pp. 357-364. On the Licchavi capital, or capitals, cf. M. Witzel, "On the Location of the Licchavi capital of Nepal" Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik, Cologne, Verlag A.U.J. Wezler, 1978, pp. 311-337, and M. Slusser, Nepal mandala. A Cultural Study of the Kathmandu Valley, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1982, Vol. I, ch. 5.

3 On the myth of the origin of Patan, cfr. especially D. Wright, History of Nepal, Calcutta, Ranjit Gupta, 1966, pp. 90-91, which presents the most complete version. See also N. Gutschow, "Pâtan: Historical Development, Spatial Structure and Ritual Topography", in Patan City, Innsbruck, Universitätsverlag Wagner, 1981, ("Khum bu Himal") p. 262. We note that this myth refers to the Nepali name (Lalitpur) for the city and not to its Newar name (Yela), much older. On Patan in the 11th-13th centuries, see B. Kölver and H. Sakya, Documents from the Rudravanâ-Mahâvihâra, Pâtan. 1. Sales and Mortgages, Sankt Augustin, VGH Wissenschäftsverlag, 1985.

4 Cf. B.J. Hasrat, History of Nepal, Hoshiarpur, V.V. Research Institute Book Agency, 1970, p. 46; and S. Levi, Le Nepal, étude historique d'un royaume hin dou, Paris, E. Leroux, 1905-1907, Vol. 1, pp. 52-53. Here too the myth mentions only the Nepal name of the city (Kântipur or Kathmandu) and not the Newar name (Yem).

5 Cf. B.J. Hasrat, op. cit., p. 49. The chronicle translated by D. Wright (1966, p. 110) states that it was at the instigation of the goddess Annapûrnâ that Bhak tapur was founded.

6 See B.J. Hasrat for this myth, op. cit. pp. 3-32. A more detailed analysis in G. Toffin, Société et religion chez les Néwar du Népal, Paris, Ed. du CNRS, 1984, pp. 51-53.

7 N. Gutschow and B. Kölver, Bhaktapur, Ordered Space Concepts and Func tions in a Town of Nepal, Wiesbaden, Franz Steiner Verlag, 1975, p. 20.

8 Idem. p. 20.

9 See especially D. Vajracarya, "The Development of Early and Medieval Settle ments in the Kathmandu Valley…", op. cit. The Sanskrit word pura (city) does not exist in the Licchavi inscriptions. We find only grâma (village), dranga (federa tion of villages around a commercial center) and tala (grouping of villages). However the inhabitants of the center of the valley were qualified as paura (citizens) as op posed to those of the periphery and hills called jânapada, one meaning of which is "peasant".

10 M. Slusser, op. cit., pp. 87 sq. For a critical point of view on this use of Nepa lese sources, see K.P. Malla, "The Limits of Surface Archaeology", Contributions to Nepalese Studies, 1983, Vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 125-133.

11 M. Slusser, idem.

12 M. Slusser, idem. p. 89. On the genesis of Kathmandu, see also N. Gutschow, "Kâthmându: Historical Development, Spatial Structure, Social and Ritual Topog raphy", in Kathmandu City, Innsbruck, Universitätsverlag Wagner 1976 (‘Khum bu Himal", 13/3, pp. 247-256.

13 See D. Lombard, "Pour une histoire des villes du Sud-Est asiatique", Annales E.S.C., 1970, no. 4, p. 847.

14 R.I. Levy, Mesocosm, Hinduism and the Organization of a Traditional Newar City in Nepal, 1989, p. 105.

15 Quoted by M. Sorre, Les Fondements de la géographie humaine, Paris, Ar mand Colin, 1952, Vol. III, p. 178.

16 See N. Gutschow and B. Kölver, Bhaktapur, op. cit., p. 26.

17 H.A. Oldfield, Sketches from Nepal, part 1, Delhi, Cosmo Publications, 1974, pp. 95-96 (first edition, 1880).

18 D.R. Regmi, Medieval Nepal, part 1, Delhi, F. Mikhopadhyay, 1965-1966, p. 514.

19 B. Kölver, "A Ritual Map from Nepal", in Folio rara, Steiner Verlag, 1976, pp. 68-80.

20 D.R. Regmi, Medieval Nepal, Vol. II, Calcutta, Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay, 1966, p. 576.

21 See M. Slusser, op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 93 and Vol. 2, pp. 108-110.

22 See N. Gutschow, "Courtyard Buildings in Nepal. The Palaces, Temples and Monasteries of the Newars", in A.L. Dallapiccola (ed.), Vijayanagara, City and Empire, New Currents of Research, Wiesbaden, Franz Steiner Verlag, 1985, pp. 362-379.

23 V. Barré, L. Feveile, P. Berger and G. Toffin, Panauti, une ville au Népal, Paris, Berger-Levrault, 1981.

24 See B.B. Dutt, Town Planning in Ancient India, Calcutta and Simla, Thack er, Prink and Co., 1925, p. 147.

25 N. Gutschow, "Kâthmându: Historical Development, Spatial Structure, So cial and Ritual Topography", op. cit. p. 250. See also S. Levi, supra.

26 S. Levi, op. cit., Vol II, p. 53.

27 G. Toffin, "l'Indrâ jâtrâ à Pyangaon: essai sur une fête newar de la vallée de Kathmandou", L'Ethnographie, no. 76, 1978, pp. 109-137.

28 G. Dumézil, La religion romaine archaïque, Paris, Payot, 1974, (revised se cond edition), p. 196.

29 An Introduction to Hanuman Dhoka, Kathmandu, INAS, Tribhuwan Univer sity, 1975, p. 20.

30 J. Gonda, "Ancient Indian Kingship from the Religious Point of View", Nu men, 1955-1957.

31 The ethnographic dossier constituted by M. Allen, The Cult of Kumârî, Kath mandu, INAS, Tribhuwan University Press, 1975, is still today the most complete on this very particular cult in Nepal.

32 See R. Pradhan, Domestic and Cosmic Rituals Among the Hindu Newar of Kathmandu, Nepal, Delhi, Department of Sociology, 1986, Ph. D.

33 The thesis was developed in G. Toffin, "Les aspects religieux de la royauté néwar au Népal", Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions, no. 48, 1979, pp. 53-82.

34 Indian parallels in F. Bhattacharya, "La déesse et le royaume selon le Kâlaketu Upâkhyâna du Candî Mangala", Purusârtha, 5, 1981, pp. 17-53, and M.C. Porch er, "La princesse et le royaume sur la représentation de la royauté dans le Daśakumâracarita de Dandin", Journal Asiatique, Vol. CCLXXIII, 1985, pp. 183-207.