Mandala Urbanism, Landscape, and Ecology (PDF)

Classic Indian texts and Vaastupurusha Mandala are not often discussed in the western discourse on urbanism, even while much of these predate the commonly taught European writings. This book sheds light on some of those forgotten concepts, thus making the lesser discussed classic Indian town organization ideas accessible to architecture, landscape, and urban planning students worldwide. The resonance of these concepts in present times are reviewed through case studies of select Hindu temple towns in India. Furthermore, the author underscores the formal abstraction of the classic Indian Mandala and transplants the discourse from sociology to socio-ecologically adept trans-disciplinary design thinking. The creative interpretations offer a premise to start revising classic models for current practice to influence the urbanism and ecology of a place in accordance with the changing climate.

Reviews

"India has a strongly developed design, planning language and principles or sutras as shared through ancient Indian texts approximately developed through 5000-550 BCE such as, Kamikagama and Suprabhedgama, Matsyapurana, Bhavishyapurana, and Manasara. Kautilyashastra from around 5th BCE builds additional layers of complexity to the discourse. Sharma's book orients the students to some of these classic ancient principles while taking them on an investigative journey of applicability of these at temple precinct and town level."
- Pankaj Jain. Professor and Head of the Department of Humanities and Languages, FLAME University, Pune, India

"Our changing climate is forcing the rapid evolution of the pressing issues concerning urbanism. Sharma's book draws upon traditional Indian frameworks to be embedded in design methods, to creatively mitigate the current problems to be addressed in urbanism."
-Tom Verebes. Professor of Architecture, New York Institute of Technology

"Dr. Sharma presents an enlightening and groundbreaking perspective on the Hindu Temple landscape, placing it in the nexus of urbanism and ecology."
- Diane Jones Allen, Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Texas at Arlington