Seven concentric enclosures exist on an island between the Cauvery and the Kollidam river. The island traces itself back to 5^th century CE. The thesis is a construction of the historical and spatial timeline of the island. Through a study of its urban morphology, the thesis looks at how over the course of history, institutions which served the people have gradually been pushed out of the town.

Stakeholders throughout history have been replaced and the Temple Town has assumed new meanings as a result of constant transformations. Today, the town negotiates between two eras – a feudal India v/s the independent India. Though the Temple town is administered by the State, there is a lack of a tangible presence of the State’s imagination of the temple town, within the framework of a secular republic country. The thesis therefore, continuing the practice of building enclosures, intends to form a conceptual 8^th enclosure of the temple town incorporating within it, the abandoned institutions.

The State and The Temple (HRCE) come together to form the 8th Enclosure – A Place of Commons for The Town. A place representative of the people. The enclosure is imagined as an interface for the temple town to look inward and outward simultaneously. Its aim is to create an equal reaction of the profane in response to the action of the sacred. It is through the interface of the 8th enclosure that questions of Development, History, Caste and Landscape are engaged with.

Credits & Copyrights:
Aashna Daga
Undergraduate Thesis