City as Cosmogram: The Circular Plan of Warangal
City as Cosmogram: The Circular Plan of Warangal
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DOI：
10.1080/02666030.1992.9628439
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发表时间：
1992
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
G. Michell
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
G. Michell
中世纪印度最引人注目的印度教城市之一是瓦朗加尔，它曾经是卡卡蒂亚国王的首都，现在是现代安得拉邦的一个繁荣的省级城镇。虽然考古学家、艺术史学家和工程师都熟悉瓦朗加尔的一些被毁的古迹，但“城市本身的圆形形式似乎几乎没有被认识到，更不用说研究了。” 2 考虑到瓦朗加尔计划中的防御工事在地面、地图和航空照片上都清晰可见，这有点令人惊讶。 3首先，本文旨在描述瓦朗加尔独特布局的基本特征，并提供该城市的基本地图。然而，瓦朗加尔城市形态的可能来源也被考虑在内，包括在印度广泛使用的宇宙图和冥想图。这些图表与瓦朗加尔的计划有许多共同的形式组成部分，表明这座城市可能充满了宇宙意义。虽然这种城市布局对其皇家创始人可能具有的确切意识形态或象征意义无法从已知的历史文献中恢复，但这里有人认为，城市的规划旨在将瓦朗加尔的统治者及其王国置于一个广泛构想的宇宙框架内。
One of the most remarkable Hindu cities of medieval India is Warangal, once the capital of the Kakatiya kings and now a thriving provincial town in the modern state of Andhra Pradesh. While some of Warangal’s ruined monuments are familiar to archaeologists, art historians and engineers,‘the circular form of the city itself appears to have been hardly recognized, let alone studied. 2 This is somewhat surprising considering that the fortifications defining Warangal’s plan are clearly evident on the ground as well as on maps and aerial photographs. 3At the outset, this article aims at describing the essential characteristics of Warangal’s unique layout and providing a basic map for the city. However, the possible sources for Warangal’s urban form are also considered, including the cosmograms and meditational diagrams in widespread use in India. Such diagrams share many formal components with Warangal’s plan, suggesting that the city may have been imbued with a cosmic significance. While the precise ideological or symbolic meaning that this urban layout may have had for its royal founders cannot be recovered from known historical documents, it is argued here that the plan of the city was intended to situate Warangal’s rulers and their kingdom within a broadly conceived cosmological framework.