Sacred Complex
(Additional Study Material)
Religion is an important and significant aspect of Hindus in India. The institution of
pilgrimage is ancient in Hinduism, and textual evidences show that it existed even during the
Vedic period. Pilgrimage is a sacred act, almost a ritual. Anthropologists recognise that
"Pilgrimage" is a practise that can hold religious communities' beliefs and faith, and its study
helps us understand the study of ideology, cultural cohesion, and social structure, which are
the most important aspects of society. As a result, pilgrimage anthropology is extremely
useful for learning about both religious and social interactions.
Sacred centres in India generate a complex network of socio-religious elements that govern
the entire Hindu population. The number of Hindu sanctuaries in India is so numerous, and
pilgrimage is so popular, that the entire country can be considered a vast sacred area
organised into a system of pilgrimage centres of varying importance. From ancient times,
this institution of pilgrimage has preserved the people's spiritual aspirations and instilled in
the Hindu mind a deep love for its culture and civilisation, despite its many differences.
The function of pilgrimage, pilgrims, and pilgrimage sites, all with their integrative networks
and various social dimensions, require an anthropological reappraisal for studying Indian
civilisation in a broader context.
Vidyarthi defines a sacred complex as a happy synthesis of sacred geography, sacred
practices, and sacred specialists of a Hindu place of pilgrimage reflecting a level of
continuity, compromise and combination between Great and Little tradition
According to Makhan Jha (1977), the numerous Hindu sacred centres can be thought of as
a network of nodes with varying degrees of socio-religious traits. The distribution of holy
places of various religious sects across India has resulted in an essentially continuous
"sacred geography" in which regional and cultural differences become less important for
pilgrims travelling long distances.
In his book Sacred Complex of Janakpur, Jha studied the sacred city of Janakpur, a well-
known Hindu pilgrimage site in Nepal. He concludes that, despite the fact that Janakpur is
now located in Nepal, where the spirit of nationalism and political awareness differ, the
civilisation of India has spread beyond India's political boundaries due to the common
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cultural consciousness that exists in both India and Nepal. This demonstrates how a nation's
boundary is not the same as a civilisation's boundary.
On this basis, he compares Janakpur to Ratanpur in Madhya Pradesh, demonstrating how
they served as both religious and secular capitals for the ancient kingdoms of Mithila and
Mahakoshala, respectively. These civilizational regions served as important linkages
between villages and cities, as well as Indian Civilisation. He discusses Lord Jagannath at
Puri as a great traditional centre in his other book, "Rising India." Jha describes various
aspects of the Jagannath cult, including its origin and development, pilgrims and pilgrimages
to Puri, and so on, in his book "Dimensions of Indian Civilisations."
According to B.N. Saraswathi, pilgrimage is a sacred act, and thus those who go on
pilgrimage are all sacred. Saraswathi (1962) discussed pilgrim networks, sacred specialists,
and present villages in relation to the holy place of Nimsar in U.P. and shows how they all
play an important role in the integration of Indian Civilisation in his Institution of Pilgrimage in
Nimsar or Ancient Naimisha in U.P. He looks into the temple organisation in Goa and
discusses how sacred institutions play an important role in both the sacred and secular
aspects of Indian civilisation. Later, he investigates the classical traditions of Kashi and
discovers how a great traditional Indian city reveals the various dimensions of Indian
civilisation.
In his work Sacred Complex of Tirumala: An Anthropological Study, Narayan Reddy
examined Lord Venkateshwara Temple from an anthropological standpoint. He covered all
aspects of Tirumala's sacred complex, including sacred geography, sacred performances,
and Venkateshwara temple's sacred specialists. He also talked about the various types of
pilgrims, their socioeconomic backgrounds, and their pilgrimages. He also investigated the
sacred-secular continuum, which included secular geography, secular activities, secular
specialists, and so on.
Because of its comparatively greater complexity in terms of the continuity, coexistence, and
varieties of sacred traditions, Vidyarthi, Saraswati, and Jha chose Kashi for an all-around
re-testing of the concept of sacred complex. The study of the Sacred Complex of Kashi,
viewed as the 'Microcosm' of Indian Civilisation, on the one hand reveals the wider
applicability of the trichotomic elements of sacred complex in the analysis of Hindu sacred
centres towards integration of the core of Hindu civilisation, on the other hand, it provides
facts to conclude that there is textual and contextual continuity in India's 'Tirthas' (sacred
places). Furthermore, the study of Kashi is eye-opening in terms of conceptualising and
classifying the various aspects of the sacred complex in Sanskritic terms. Anthropological
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research in Kashi has revealed that the boundary and scriptural description of the Kashi area
are constantly changing.
All of the studies mentioned above attempt to fill a gap in the study of traditional and sacred
towns in Indian civilisation. Methodologically, the study of sacred complexes reveals
channels of cultural transmission that aid in civilisational integration. It has played an
integrating role by bringing together different types of people and traditions, castes and
sects, classes and social statuses. It also cultivates and promotes various forms of creative
arts and literature, as well as aiding in the preservation of 'ideal types.' It is a reality that
binds us together despite geographical differences and social and linguistic differences. The
sacred complex mechanism and the institution of pilgrimage are reliable and effective means
of national integration.
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