Topographies: places to find something

Thursday 14th May, 2015

Venue: LT3, 17 Woodland Road

What is a problem of TOPOGRAPHY in Indian context? (Different types)

CARTESIAN : Solstices, Equinoxes, irrelevant to matter (topography)

RELATIONAL : The landscape and the Sun, relevant to matter (topography)

SEMANTIC : The nature in totality, that can be read like a book or painting

The Landscape, The Sun, and all other things on the landscape provide

contextual meaning to the nature, Semantic topography simply means that all

things in a space are distinct not just as existents but also as types.

The Landscape as topography (natural)

The Structures on the landscape as topography, cave and rock-shelters

The Surface of the painted canvas as topography (synthetic, meta-topography)

The understanding of everything combined as topography (Hybrid)

Interpretation : Topography as matter, a tangible entity, a semantic reality as

symbols that carry meaning

After Vahia et. al., 2009

Material objects acquire new properties when aggregated into collections.

The only assumption we need in order to understand topography semantically

is that the topography is a closed system, where objects or materials that are

described individually are different from objects that are described collectively.

Topography is a symbol of the mind, and that meanings that exist in the mind

can exist in matter as symbols.

Topography is also a relational property of the interaction between the world

and the observer.

Topography is the ideas of wholes, conceptual relations, and intentional

relations, a combination of which might produce objects as information

Research Questions:

1. What is the true nature of topography, is it physical, quantifiable or

semantic?

2. How is it associated with other types of meanings?

3. How topography can be a relationship between the part and the whole?

Methodology

1. Detailed study of ancient monuments and sacred cities within their

cultural context, eg. Megalithic monuments, when related to sunrise

and sunset etc.

2. Rock art (paintings, engravings, Geoglyphs, Location and shape of

rock-shelters, Megalithic burials

3. Ethnography , oral compositions, , Mythology, written materials etc.

1. Rigorous literature review and Local consultation

2. Field work, Landscape system science and Geometry of the topography

3. Documentation, Cataloguing, comparison of the data

4. Mapping, Model building, scientific input

5. Interpretation and theoretical framework

6. Introducing the concept of meaning in topography and its approaches,

like topography as types, objects, materials in order to understand that

meanings are defined collectively.

Study Region

Landscape of Rock art at Bhilwara district in Rajasthan, Desert

topography, Photo by the author

Different topography types, savannah, forest, mixed forest, dense forest,

Photo by the author

Burzahama (5000-3,500 BP), Kashmir valley, India, Photo courtesy, IGNCA,

New Delhi, Apparently the engravings represent a hunting scene

Dataset, Literature review

and Comparison

Sky map showing the region of HB9 in 5,000 BP. to facilitate easy comparison with the

drawing, rough patterns drawn in the map. The large circle in the centre is the full

Moon in the month of August in roughly 5,000 BP, and the smaller damaged circle to its

left marks the position of HB9, after, Iqbal , et al., 2009, Journal of Astronomical History

and Heritage

OrionTaurus

Cetus

Andromeda or Pegasus

1) 2 Suns - even sun and moon together will never be comparably bright.

2) We have looked for all supernova remnants in our catalogues that could

have been bright enough to be seen during day time close to the ecliptic

and we get only 1 result.

3) Independently, when we plot it in the sky it comes out close to Orion -

Taurus. And the figures drawn also look like Taurus/ Orion and are

reasonably to scale (after Vahia, M.N., pers comn)

Rock art from Liktse, Kashmir showing a super human controlling the

Sun and the Moon. © Indira Gandhi National Gallery of Art, New Delhi

Engraved Sun motif, ritualistic

topography Example of a site from

Manipur, Photo courtesy, IGNCA

The use of topography,

topography within topography

as meta-topography, Bedia

rock-shelter at Mirzapur

district, India, Dstretched,

Photo by the author

These rock-shelters never receive direct

sunlight throughout the year, although

they are open air sites, but the content

is hidden or the actual rock art is hidden

from direct sun rays and wind action,

Hidden aspects of meta-topography

A hidden landscape, Sacred landscape based on the

movement of the sun, sacred topography

Rock-shelters that receive direct

sunlight, surface topography is

different

Domestic decoration as both a

synthetic and hybrid topography

at a multiethnic village in

Bhilwara, Rajasthan,

Megalithic burial sites ate also

important archaeo-

astronomical markers that

record the Sun’s movement

across the sky, Site Loicha,

Bhilwara district, Rajasthan,

Photo by the author

Sacred topography of the

landscape

Barwadi Punkhri,

Courtesy, Mr. Bulu Imam

NAP, Jharkhand, Photo courtesy, Mr. Bulu

Imam, evidence of sacred topography

Megalithic monuments from Jharkhand, See

book, Antiquarian Remains of Jharkhand, by

Mr. Bulu Imam, 2014

Photo Courtesy: Mr. Subhasis

Das

ConclusionConclusion

1. The concept of topography has limitations, although it can be understood

and as a closed system.

2. Topography is distinct both in terms of existence and types, although it is

not quantities.

3. It is both a communicative medium and an external reality, are reconciled as

two phases of a communicative paradigm in encoding and decoding a

message.

4. Topography forms complex structures, these structures acquire semantic

properties and become symbols, the symbols can refer to other objects,

these references become conscious and lead to knowledge of the world.

5. Topographical meanings are constructed from distinctions and they require

opposites to exist at the same time.

The setting of two rock-shelters in the Bhilwara district of Rajasthan,

Photo by the author

Thank you very much for your kind attention

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Dalela, Ashish (2014-11-16). Quantum Meaning: A Semantic Interpretation of

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Vahia, M.N.; Nisha Yadav and Srikumar Menon : Origin and Growth of Astronomy in

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