Unit 3. Processions as display: Yatra, barat & julus

There are many types of processions in India that are organized on various occasions like military parade, political procession, protest marches, and religious processions that mark weddings, festivals & pilgrimage, funerals, temple procession, Christian, Sikh & Jain processions, Muharram). Processions are about display, public space and domination and communicate cultural identities.

Essential readings:

• Hermann Kulke, “Rathas and Rajas: The car festival at Puri”, “Art and Archaeological Research Papers" (AARP, London) vol. XVI, Dec. 1979, on "Mobile Architecture in Asia: Ceremonial Chariots. Floats and Carriages", pp. 19-26.

* A clipping https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/news/explained-the-significance-of-puris-jagannath yatra/videoshow/65095341.cms?rel+0

• Gregory D. Booth, “Space, sound, auspiciousness, and performance in North Indian wedding processions” in Knut A. Jacobson, ed., South Asian Religions on Display: Religious Processions in South Asia and in the Diaspora, Routledge: London & New York, pp. 63-76.

• Suchitra Balasubrahmanyam, Chapter 6, “Imagining the Indian Nation: The Design of Gandhi’s Dandi March and Nehru’s Republic Day Parade”, in Kjetil Fallan, Grace Lees-Maffei, eds., Designing Worlds: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization, Berghahn Books, 2016, pp. 108-124.

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