ABSTRACT
The sacred landscape combines the absoluteness of space, relativeness of places and comprehensiveness of landscape; thus altogether results in a ‘wholeness’ carrying the inherent and imposed spirit of ‘holiness’, which is to be called ‘sacredscapes’, and are regulated and survived by the faith involved in and the sacred rituals. We begin the sense of our-place from the local scale and here we first experience the sacred message (spirit of place, genus loci) and power of place: place speaks, place communicates! The Matsya Purāna (c.ce 400) enumerates a large number of sacred places with descriptions of associated schedules, gestures, dreams and auspicious signs and symbols. The seven sacred cities (Sapta-purīs) include Mathura, Dvaraka, Ayodhya, Haridvar, Varanasi, Ujjain and Kanchipuram. Similarly, the twelve most important Shiva abodes are scattered all over India. The four abodes of Vishnu in the four corners of India are another group of popular pilgrimages. These are the examples of pan-Indian pilgrimage places. The chapter presents such vivid examples.
