Form, Fabric and Meaning: Understanding Landscapes Comprising Religious Sites from the Deccan Region with Special Reference to Maharashtra

Natural landscapes comprising lakes, rivers, hills, mountain-ranges, valleys, and forests often embody a sacred geography. Unique natural settings, imbricated in mythological narratives, shape the histories of landscapes, while the built environment integrated within them evolves alongside ecological and cultural changes. Perpetuated through religion and architecture, such landscapes cannot be separated into constituent parts because together they facilitate the emergence of regional cultures and narratives. As part of Connected Teams, my research investigates religious landscapes in medieval Maharashtra (Western India) as interconnected ecological, architectural, and mythological formations. Through interdisciplinary methods, it seeks to reconstruct lesser-known histories of religious architecture and place-making in the Deccan.The project, titled Form, Fabric and Meaning: Understanding Landscapes Comprising Religious Sites from the Deccan Region with Special Reference to Maharashtra, explores sacred landscapes and religious architecture in the medieval Deccan, examining how geography, mythology, and built environments shaped regional histories. In particular, the project focuses on the cultural narratives of the approximately 50,000-year-old meteorite impact crater at Lonar in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. Lonar is the only crater in Asia emplaced in the Deccan basaltic rock and possesses a uniquely evolved sacred geography. The built environment at Lonar survives in the form of approximately thirty temples, tanks,and monasteries, stylistically placed between the eleventh and nineteenth centuries, spreadacross a circular region encompassing the lake and its geological and vegetal eco-system. The research further extends to sites across Maharashtra associated with varied landscapes and architectural remains spanning several centuries, including but not limited to Sinnar, Charthana, Pandharpur, Velapur, and Shikhar Shingnapur. These sites demonstrate a religious and linguistic coherence that developed in Maharashtra during the medieval period, visible in both literature and architecture, though the latter remains understudied. Since inscriptional evidence in Maharashtra is comparatively meagre, architecture constitutes prime historical evidence for reconstructing regional history. Comparative analysis across regions will help identify artistic transmissions and changing architectural phases. The project investigates temple-building activity, architectural networks, mythical narratives, patronage, stylistic transmissions, and the relationship between pilgrimage and economic networks. Methodologically, the research combines documentation, art history, mapping, geology, and ecology with digital tools, oral histories, and literary evidence.