The Liminal State by AA School

The Liminal State

A ritual stage in the making Vedika Kapur Tutor: Francesca Romana DellAglio

7 months. 210 days. 5040 hours. The time taken to build the iconic ephemeral city – the Kumbh Mela festival. The Kumbh Mela is a Hindu religious festival that occurs every 12 years at the confluence (Sangam) of the River Ganga and the River Yamuna. It is described as the world’s largest peaceful gathering and attracts 120 million people during the 49 days of the festival. The location of the festival is important because it is believed to be one of four places where the drops of eternal life fell and therefore the main ritual that happens is bathing in this symbolic water. Hindus believe that the water is a remover of obstacles and gets rid of any sin for the future, thus releasing them from the cycle of rebirth.

Figure 1. The Kumbh Mela Festival at the moment of Sangam

The research and the screenplay studies how these subjects, at the Kumbh Mela festival, construct new typologies for the practice of faith, rituals, and domestic spaces. It forms a comunitas condition where the social relations formed and the groups that occupy the space become transient. Yet, there is a very meticulous choreography in which the preparation of the ritual that happens. If we define ritual and habit as: Ritual = religion and Habit = domesticity/the domesticated, prescribed and ordered. Ritual = annually and Habit = daily Ritual = extraordinary and Habit = ordinary Then what if the ritual and the habit become one at the Kumbh Mela and a place where architecture is a response to this behaviour and ways of moving. The spatial form and the human forms that comes out of the repetition can be to a certain extent rationalized. When you construct a space, you do it in a certain way. Is this because of the ritual? Or are we using the wrong tool? Can the tool therefore be temporal to create a typology? The essay has six chapters and is represented in three ways: 1. A Screenplay 2. A Drawing 3. A Text/Description Figure 2. The Kumbh Mela Pooton Bridge

Chapter 1: April 2012

...9-18

Chapter 2: August 2012

...19-28

Chapter 3: September 2012 to October 2012

...29-38

Chapter 4: November 2012 to January 2013

...39-46

Chapter 5: January 2013 to March 2013

...47-54

Chapter 6: Disassembly of the Space

...55-65

Chapter 1: April 2012

Unlike most festivals the construction of the Kumbh Mela doesn’t begin at the site of the festival but in fact in the small rural villages across India. Each village starts preparing six months in advance by collecting materials that will be used for the construction of the festival. This includes the collection and treating of bamboo, the traditional pattern sheets which are hand crafted and painted by the local women and other important tools. The materials arrive from different boundaries on a multi-scalar level from state to local villages. The construction of the festival in Allahabad starts to develop into what is called a ritual. Rituals have a sense of order, and they are prescribed. The collection and making of the tools such as knives, saws, hand cutters etc. aid in constructing the space in a certain way. There is a certain order, and the tool has to be used in a certain way in order to construct the space correctly or according to the norm. For example, in the rural villages as well as collecting materials and tools they also collect different powders that are grown in their crops, such as turmeric and red chilli. These spices are blended and made into a fine powder to then be used on site where they are sprinkled on the ground before construction begins. This is a religious procession that has been there in Hindu shastras (scriptures) where before any form of construction begins the powders are used to remove any evil eye or spirits that may have been there. Across the six months there is also an amalgamation of different people in these villages who are from different religions, ethnicities, and castes. The caste system especially has always excluded people from a lower caste to enter religious spaces or even be a part of any rituals that are prescribed to the space. The untouchables as they are called are not even allowed to cross boundaries in villages and have restricted movements throughout. Their right to roam was limited and therefore even in this festival, as per religious scriptures, a person of a lower caste is allowed to be a part of the ritual of collecting materials and tools but is not allowed to enter the temple courtyard where all this is collected.

Figure 4. Village communal spaces and organisation of objects

In small villages like Jhunsi in Allahabad and like many others the tradition of these six months is something that evolves over the years and every year more and more children become a part of this. There is a necessary transformation of skill and knowledge that happens each year from grandparents and parents to children. Everyone integrates in the district communal spaces across the village. In Jhunsi there are communal cooking areas and communal areas of worship/discussions. This community space is the first spatial infrastructure that is constructed by the people and using their own bodies. People and their physical self-occupy the space by sitting on the floor in an oval formation with the priest in the center. The bodies of these people create a physical chain in which the tools and materials are treated, cleaned, washed, and dried before they are placed in the temple. All these tools at the end of the six months are transported to Allahabad by rickshaw or auto with hordes of people travelling with. This includes a multitude of vocations and therefore skills, there are farmers, electricians, carpenters, teachers, craftsmen etc. There is a very specific role that the materials play as a part of this preparation for the ritual stage. There are very detailed and prescribed materials with specific length, diameter and material types which determine the size, shape, and scale of the ritual stage.

Figure 5. Village communal spaces and organisation of objects

“If one bathes and sips water where the Ganga, Yamuna, and Sarasvati meet, he enjoys liberation, and of this there is no doubt” (Padma Purana Uttara Khanda 23.14)1

Chapter 2: August 2012

Rahul Mehrotra, Felipe Vera, “Kumbh Mela: Designing the World’s Largest Gathering of People,” last modified April 28,2015, https://www.archdaily.com/624425/kumbh-mela-designing-the-world-s-largest-gathering-of-people. 1

Architectural Association 2021-2022, History and Theory Studies

Chapter 2: August 2012

‘Mother’ Ganga as it is called is an entity that has the highest regard in the life cycle of one’s life. The devotees that come to the Ganga consider the river as their goddess. A form of communal care where the river itself is sacred and has set rituals that are played out daily. There is immense love and admiration given to this body of water where the Ganga has rights as well. The river has right of “legal persons”2 with all the corresponding rights, duties, and liabilities of a living person, “it has the constitutional right to flow and be recognised as a living ecology”.3 This ecology includes the environment, territory, and the people. The changes to this body of water are broken down into two aspects: the rights of the river and sacredness of the river. It looks at the duality of the river being a goddess and a ‘mother’ vs the legal body and the construction of the festival. The sacred and the rights – where the two lens have their own subject. Festivals in India have and always will be of uttermost importance yet always have an expiration date. They are temporary in nature and the question becomes if and when we construct a space is there is a particular method of using the space. Is this because it is a ritual? Or are we using a different tool? Can the tool therefore be temporal to create a typology? The Kumbh Mela as described by architect Rahul Mehrotra “An ephemeral city”4 is in fact a Hindu religious fair. It is a way of attempting to understand the social, cultural, and religious aspects of many different places and social strata. With the inclusion of multiple different actors and families including children, there is a richer and deeper integration of society within the festival. The terrain that the festival is built on is a very convoluting one as it is forever changing. It is not static in nature and the appropriation through different tools depends on the terrain itself. The entire Kumbh Mela comprises of smaller parts constructed through different moments of time. They are tied to the pre-existing, the new and connecting infrastructure that is solely built for the Kumbh Mela. The implementation process is very dynamic with the preparations of the festival beginning many months in advance there is a collective effort to organise this. During the monsoon season where children are playing within the lines of the land there are different meetings being held between the different actors (architects, planners, priests, construction team, electricians, police officers etc. The materials that are brought on rickshaws and autos from villages like Jhunsi are moved into the vacant spaces near the floodplain. The water levels recede by the end of October in 2012 where firstly the ground was levelled and them the initial grid was deployed.

Shrishtee Bajpai, “Do India’s rivers have a constitutional right to flow,” last modified June 28, 2020, https://scroll.in/article/965461/do-indias-rivers-have-a-constitutional-right-to-flow. 2

Shrishtee Bajpai, “Do India’s rivers have a constitutional right to flow,” last modified June 28, 2020, https://scroll.in/article/965461/do-indias-rivers-have-a-constitutional-right-to-flow. 3

Figure 6. Rural organisation of the festival

Vedika Kapur

Figure 7. Urban landscape at Allahabad

Chapter 3: September to October

Chapter 3: September to October 2012

The construction of the Kumbh Mela is a meticulous process that is repeated every year. Within the landscape of Allahabad there are two types of spaces along this active landscape: smooth and striated. The smooth space is boundless, and it is carved out by the negative and the striated space which is being divided and meticulously measured and separated for construction of the festival. There is, therefore, a liminal state and space created. A liminal space is the time between ‘what was’ and the ‘next’ place of transition.5 It has a quality of being ambiguous but can introduce a form of care and a mutual right holding of the ecology (the environment, territory, and the people) as the territory develops. The process of construction begins with a collection of writings which help determine the procession and allows for certain rituals to be followed. In the case of the Kumbh Mela this is in the form of a legal document called the Mela Adhikari Legislation which is a temporary piece of legislation which allows for the temporary construction or pop-up festivals in the city of Allahabad. There them: 1) 2) 3)

are three distinct locales across the festival and a form of governance across The city of Allahabad Small town of Jhunsi An underdeveloped span of rural land

The city is laid out of a grid system which is the main skeleton around which the main amenities and facilities are constructed. ROADS

FIGURE GROUND

INFRASTRUCTURE

SECTOR

TRAFFIC PUBLIC SPACE

URBAN FORM CULTURAL ACTIVITY

MATERIAL TECHNOLOGY

GOVERNANCE ADMINISTRATION

There 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Figure 8. Initial grid organisation across the sectors

are multiple aspects to this: City planning and management Engineering and spatial zoning Land allocation Electricity grid Water lines and sanitation systems Water distribution plans, hospitals, and vaccination centers Police and fire stations Public gathering spaces for entertainment

The grid that is present throughout the Kumbh Mela arrived from the British colonial rule and they used the grid as the main rationalization for infrastructural deployments and the organisation of the space. It has the ability to adapt to a new morphology, it is the constant across the city. The festival in 2013 was divided in 14 sectors. Among this grid is the creation of relational fluxes which consists of layers of water, electricity, sewage, roads, and bridges. There is an infrastructural grid for roads, electricity, and waste along the highly dynamic terrain. There is a meticulous choreography of the ritual stage which is followed and carried out. There are 18 pontoon bridges made and 150km of temporary roads, 90 parking lots, bus stations, 7 train stations, 30 police stations and 30 fire stations protecting 20mx20m with watch towers.

“Liminal Space,” Liminal Space, Google, last modified March 13, 2018, https://inaliminalspace.org/about-us/what-is-a-liminal-space/.

BIHAR

UTTAR PRADESH

LEGEND RIVER PULSE

RAILWAY 18M LOGISTICAL ZONE

Figure 8. Ganga River

Different actors across the festival coordinate with the allocation of land and negotiates with the different subjects. There is a hierarchy of the actors where the Akharas who are the priests have the highest regard and have separate allotments of land (sector 4) during the time of the festival. As it is in rituals in churches or even in Hindu temples where there is often a physical division of space which represents the administrative structure and the caste system. In Hindu temples and during the daily prayers there is a separation of people who come from different castes and the priest is always sitting on the right side of the deity. This physical separation and organisation are omnipresent in the festival as well. With the principal authority who deals with the negotiations during the design stage being in sector 5, the priests in sector 4 and the logistical nodes and hubs of the people in construction are in sector 11. Whilst there is a physical separation only pushed further by the tools used to construct their spaces and the types of spaces i.e., the priests having larger and stronger tents, there is a necessary fragmentation of roles which in itself promotes spatial singularity with no pre-conceived notions about religious communities. Its purpose is to not remove individuality directly but provide multiple identities spread through the districts. There is different tools and forms of segregation during the making of the stage. There are public, private, and sacred spaces as one, food helps organised the patterns (Figure 9) of organisation as people create their own spaces within the scaffolding to sleep, flags which help define the space temporarily and dialogue. The dialogue that is present throughout the construction process is a vital part to this ritual. It shows that the space and the tools used to create that very space is in the hands of the people.

Chapter 4: November to January 2013

Chapter 4: November to January 2013 There are different tools which are used, appropriated and re-appropriated during the construction of the Kumbh Mela. The first tool being utilized is the river itself. The river, as a right holder is giving its body and flesh to the people. It is being framed and reclaimed and being worshiped as a maternal figure. This landscape that is being altered is not static ground but dynamic in nature and therefore it can be traced. The active landscape becomes non-living. The etymology of ritual comes from the 1560s, “pertaining to or consisting of a rite or tires,”6 from French ritual or directly from Latin ritualis “relating to (religious) rites “religious observance or ceremony, custom, usage,”7 All human actions could be a part of ritual behaviour. A ritual is initially a conscious and voluntary, repetitious bodily behaviour. It is distinguished from common behaviour. It takes place at a specific place and/or time and it is usually formally stylised, structured, and standardised in comparison to most common behaviour. It is very much a meticulous choreography based on a script and can be purposeful and symbolically meaningful for its participants. Its performers are (at least part of) its own audience. Most rituals are related to a religious or a ceremonial order. In the Kumbh Mela it becomes a series of actions that is prescribed and followed regularly. The construction of the festival involves the entire body in vigorous rhythmic movements, which may include the movement of the materials, the tying of materials, the dances which include the swaying, slapping of the chest and thighs, stamping as every sector is constructed. During the construction and through the history of the construction there is a strong cultural meaning that materialises from the repetition of the construction and tools used. It provides a unification and reinforces the identity of the community and the religious meanings. The repetition of the tools and the movement people as they construct is vital to understand how the ritual works. The repetition reinforces the familiar order and organisation of the religion and ceremony. The Kumbh Mela as it has evolved throughout history to the contemporary has one thing that is an important ritual in itself and has an impact of unifying people and in turn creating one figure, one movement and one rhythm. This is progressed through the tools of sound, objects of cutting, joining, clothing which are repeated yet remain an ephemeral order. “Why do we always assume everything is forever? We’re not and so why should our institutions be?8 There is something about this temporality, the duration of the ritual where it is not part of the everyday. By the ritual being an act that does not occur every day it could become more impactful. A performance that remains as recognisable actions to be repeated rather than becoming a mundane process where it merges with everyday life.

Figure 9. Grid Development

Etymonline.com. 2021. ritual | Origin and meaning of ritual by Online Etymology Dictionary. [online] Available at: <https://www.etymonline. com/word/Ritual> [Accessed 13 October 2021]. 6

Etymonline.com. 2021. ritual | Origin and meaning of ritual by Online Etymology Dictionary. [online] Available at: <https://www.etymonline. com/word/Ritual> [Accessed 13 October 2021]. 7

Barr, P. and Mehrotra, R. (2016). Nothing is forever, nothing is sacred. (online] Domus. Available at: https://www.domusweb.it/en/interviews/2016/08/10/nothing_is_forever_nothing_is_sacred_.html [Accessed 23 Oct. 2019]. 8

Those who bathe in bright waters of the Ganga where they meet dark waters of the Yamuna during the month of Magh will not be rebirth, even in thousands (Matsya Purana 107.7)9

Chapter 5: January to March 2013

Chapter 5: January to March 2013 There are different tools which are used, appropriated and re-appropriated during the 7 months, 210 days and 5040 hours later the Kumbh Mela festival begins. This is the last step to the ritual of the Kumbh Mela with the construction being the main ritual. The photo essay shows the iconic festival with a focus on the main bathing ritual which occurs every day at 3am. (Figure 11) At 3am at the confluence the ritual that is believed to liberate people from life and rebirth occurs. The pilgrims bathe in the sacred rivers and moving across the river is called ‘tirthas’ which means crossing places. The Ganga River has said to absorb the sins and sorrows. It is the moment of pure and divine presence. The sheer volumes of people that arrive to be part of the bathing ritual shows the devotion that people have to the river. The festival is also a celebration of community “sarbojanin”10 with many religious discissions, mass feedings and lots of different musical entertainment. The people that come, who are from all different castes, believe that the river is a means to “prāyaścitta (atonement, penance) for past mistakes, and that it cleanses them of their sins.”11 Throughout the photo essay the main part of the festival is darshan. It is the observation and experience of all religious and secular people. There are two major sects which are a part of this, one being the Sadhus who are holy men and the second are the pilgrims. The Sadhus who are usually scattered across India use the festival as an opportunity for pilgrims to take darshan and to be able interact, ask questions, and listen to the teachings of these holy men.

Singh, T., 2018. Durga Puja Pandals of Kolkata. International Journal of Social Science and Humanity.Durga Puja Pandals of Kolkata, Volume 8 No.6, 155. 10

“Kumbh Mela,” Kumbh Mela, Google, last modified November 16,2014, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbh_Mela#Rising_attendance_and_scale

Chapter 6: Disassembly of the Space

Chapter 6: Disassembly of the Space As the rituals are organised there is a necessary disassembly or ending to in order for its value to increase. (Figure 12) For rituals to become more ent in a person’s life there has to be a distance and an ending to it. The festival must come to an end to complete the ritual cycle, and a necessary the previous status of the river. The Ganga River in India has rights of a therefore there is a form of mutual care that is maintained throughout the tion and in the deconstruction of the space as well.

a ritual omnipresKumbh Mela return to person and construc-

By the end of May 2013, the water levels will reach its lowest levels as the monsoon season starts to arrive. The landscape will become a productive ground where an agricultural site will appear by those who live around the river. The residents near the river own a part of the river due to the introduction of Riparian Rights which allows them access and ownership to around four meters from their house (which can include the Ganga River at times). Whilst the structures are being dismantled and the materials are being collected for recycling the river starts to show its natural shape and form. (Figure 13) There is a liminal state that is being created and therefore materialised through the construction and deconstruction of the festival. The different tools, typologies, and the use of people bodies to construct the space is in itself a ritual being created. The typology is an apparatus, “a living pulse”`12 and the ritual can be domesticated where through the act of building the architectural form and its traditional symbols can be misused. Therefore, the festival is allowed to be built because it is a transition medium for people and because of that is becomes a trojan horse. Through the construction and deconstruction of the festival a transitional habit follows where through the act of building ‘you’ can expose ‘yourself’. It is important to “engender the more important and worth value of human harmony” This transgression that occurs can be argued that should be seen in a positive light where there are less regulated forms of interaction challenging and disrupting the norms of the caste system in India. The preparation of the ritual stage could come a political and cultural power.

Cremation Ritual

Hindu Daily Prayers

There is a territorial, cultural, and political complexity to the construction of the Kumbh Mela, and the research focuses on this liminal state of the ritual where the construction of the festival has the possibility to become the ritual itself and become institutionalized. There is however alongside the construction of the temporary city a cosmology of the environment at play. There is an intimate relationship between the sacred river and the schedule of construction.

Sari - Protecting “Mother”

Protection from erosion

There is no aspiration for this constriction to be permanent, but it is only repeated. The idea is to allow the Ganga to flow and reclaim the site so there are no marks left on the land, no materials left behind but only a mentality that is being challenged and being put forward. Through the construction and making of the ritual stage there is a typology being created that is incomplete and temporal. This is the key to community harmony. It is not antagonistic and an open template for people to appropriate and materialise. The tools are changing but still in every way being prescribed. They each have a particular use and method for it to be used and applied.

Figure 12. The Ghat - Different Rituals Taking Place

Architectural Review. 2019. The Indian city kinetic: consuming, reinterpreting and recycling spaces I Essay I Architectural Review. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/theindian-city...using-reinterpreting-and-recycling-spaces/10030442.article. [Accessed 05 December 2021] Eck, D., Khanna, T., Leaning, J. and Macomber, J., 2015. Kumbh Mela, January 2013: Mapping the Ephemeral Mega City. 1st ed. Berlin: Hatje cantz Verlag. 12

Architecture can set the ritual stage and allow for a buffer to be implemented where the river is protected, organised, and regulated with communal bodies whilst being a spiritual entity and resource. (Figure 14) This is the point of design where the river has no hard border and the duality of the river as a goddess vs. the legal body comes through. There is an act of withdrawal and resistance where an agency of care, mutual care be implemented by using different tools. The tool has the ability of being temporal. The sense of obscurity that occurs of the ritual itself is what is interesting. The preparation for this large festival requires immense cooperation and organization of the space at the confluence. There is a temporal ritual stage being created which is so intricate and malleable that it is constantly evolving and being re-appropriated. The ritualisation of the space comes from the construction of the ritual itself and therefore the human forms and spatial form to come from it is being rationalised. A space that is transient in nature yet still maintains its sacredness. The making of the ritual stage has built a liminal state or a state of limbo – where people no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold once the rite is complete. (Figure 15) Where the festival happens and when it happens is not as important as to the ritual stage than the preparation it takes to set the ritual stage up.

Figure 14. Architecture and Nature

Figure 15. View from inside the ritual stagV

Bibliography

Images Bibliography

Bajpai, Shrishtee. “Do India’s rivers have a constitutional right to flow.” Last modified June 28, 2020. https://scroll.in/article/965461/do-indias-rivers-have-a-constitutional-right-to-flow. Barr, P. and Mehrotra, R. (2016). Nothing is forever, nothing is sacred. [online] Domus. Available at: https://www.domusweb.it/en/interviews/2016/08/10/nothing_is_forever_nothing_is_sacred_.html [Accessed 23 Oct. 2019]. BZ architecture. 2019. Ephemeral Architecture. [ONLINE] Available at: http://bzarquitectura.com/en/ephemeral-architecture/. [Accessed 05 December 2019]. Eck, D., Khanna, T., Leaning, J. and Macomber, J., Kumbh Mela, January 2013: Mapping the Ephemeral Mega City. 1st ed. Berlin: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2015

Figure 1. The Kumbh Mela Festival at the moment of Sangam Hasan, Tarik. 2022. “The Kumbh Mela Is An Opportunity To Foster Peace”. Telegraphindia.Com. https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/the-kumbh-mela-is-an-opportunity-tofoster-peace/cid/1682372. Figure 2. The Kumbh Mela Pooton Bridge Alasdair Pal, Reuters. 2022. “Kumbh Mela, The World’S Largest Religious Festival, To Kick Off In India In January | News India Times”. Newsindiatimes.Com. https://www. newsindiatimes.com/kumbh-mela-the-worlds-largest-religious-festival-to-kick-off-in-india-in-january/.

EPHEMERAL STRUCTURES: An exploration of ephemeral structures in aspects of ‘Firmness, Commodity and Delight’ (structure, function and aesthetics I Anuvrat Das - Academia. edu. 2019.

Drawing Titles

Google. “Liminal Space.” Liminal Space. Last modified March 13,2018. https://inaliminalspace.org/about-us/what-is-a-liminal-space/.

Figure 3. Village communal spaces and organisation of objects

Google. “Online Etymology Dictionary,” Ritual. Last modified June 27,2016. https:// www.etymonline.com/word/Ritual#:~:text=ritual%20%28adj.%29%201560s%2C%20%22pertaining%20to%20or%20consisting%20of,rite%22%20%28as%20in%20ritual%20murder%2C%20attested%20by%201896%29.

Figure 6. Rural organisation of the festival

Figure 4. Village communal spaces and organisation of objects

Figure 7. Urban landscape at Allahabad

Google. “Kumbh Mela.” Kumbh Mela. Last modified November 16,2014. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbh_Mela#Rising_attendance_and_scale

Figure 8. Initial grid organisation across the sectors Figure 8. Ganga River

Mehrotra, Rahul, Felipe Vera, Tarun Khanna, and John Macomber. Kumbh Mela: Mapping The Ephemeral Mega City. Germany: Hatje Cantaz Verlag, 2015.

Figure 9. Bamboo Construction

Mehrotra Rahul, Vera Felipe, “Kumbh Mela: Designing the World’s Largest Gathering of People.” Last modified April 28,2015, https://www.archdaily.com/624425/kumbh-mela-designing-the-world-s-largest-gathering-of-people.

Figure 10. The Ghat - A set of steps for the festival to take place

Mehrotra, R. Vera, F. ,Architectural Review. 2019. The Indian city kinetic: consuming, reinterpreting and recycling spaces I Essay I Architectural Review. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.architecturalreview.com/essays/the-indian-city._using-reinterpreting-and-recycling-spaces/10030442.article.[Accessed 05 December 2021].

Figure 12. The Deconstruction of the site

Singh, T., 2018. Durga Puja Pandals of Kolkata. International Journal of social Science and Humanity. Durga Puja Pandals of Kolkata<, Volume 8, No.6, 156.

Figure 11. The Ghat - Different Rituals Taking Place

Figure 13. Architecture and Nature Figure 14. View from inside the ritual stage

TED Talks. 2019. Rahul Mehrotra: The architectural wonder of impermanent cities I TED Talk Subtitles and Transcript I TED. [ONLINE] Available at https://www.ted.com/talks/ rahul_mehrotra_the_architectural_wonder_of_impermanent_cities/transcript#t- 181070. [Accessed 05 December 2019].