Spiritual Anchor
- Aparna Goyal
- Dec 5, 2015
- 1 min read
River Narmada flows through many cities, and out of those one is Maheshwar which lies on the northern bank of River Narmada. The riverfront ghat was made by the Maratha queen Rajmata Ahilya Devi Holkar in the late eighteenth century. The ghats were a place to reach to the river, a valuable source of “fresh water”, a place to perform religious rituals, perform sankirtan and enjoy the views of the nature sitting on the banks of the Narmada River in Maheshwar.
But, in the contemporary scenario, the river apart from being used as a water source, have become a source of income for the local people. People have bought small boats and they offer a ride in the great river to earn few pennies for their livelihood. Therefore, these boats have become an important entity in this landscape and are anchored at the ghats itself. The most interesting thing is that sometimes these boats have been found to be anchored to the stone sculpture of the deity on the ghat itself as it serves as a good and sturdy anchoring point.
Author: Aparna Goyal ; Masters of Landscape Architecture (2009-2011) - Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad.
All images courtesy the Author
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