An Architectural Appreciation of Dashashwamedh Ghat in Varanasi City, Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

Popularly known as the Cultural capital of India, Varanasi (Benares or Kashi) is  a very old timeless city in India. The main city spreads over an  area of 84.55 km² and is inhabited by nearly 1.21 million people. Additionally, everyday about 40,000 commuters visit the city. It itself present as an excellent example of traditional habit, culture and interaction. Natural landscape as well as aesthetic importance makes this city specific in all the respect. It too has an outstanding expression of architectural assemblage and landscape.  The beauty of the Varanasi city is that it is situated near the sacred river Ganga along with long uninterrupted stretch of nearly eighty four ghats. Each ghat uniquely provides platforms for all rituals, art, music, drama, meditation, gathering, etc.  The present case is to visualize the architectural setting  and analyzing the space and volumes at the ghats associated with these activities, particularly  Dashashwamedh Ghat  is chosen for the case study.