The Cultural Heritage of Chamba Digitalisation Project

The region of the former kingdom of Chamba, now a district of the Indian State of Himachal Pradesh, preserved a remarkable amount of its cultural heritage up to the present day making it one of the most significant cultural areas of Northern India. Situated at the outskirts of the Western Himalayas, it reflects cultural developments which synthesised the art of Kashmir and the North Indian plains with the culture of the hill states at the gates of Western Tibet. The art and architecture of Brahmapura (modern Bharmour), the early capital of the region, as well as other places like Chhatrari and Chamba Town, bear witness to almost 1500 years of artistic, religious and socio-cultural traditions. The projects aims are the documentation, analysis and digitalization of the various aspects of this culture. The starting point is the architecture including all the construction methods, paradigms of design and its related art forms such as wood carvings in particular focusing on ceilings and portals as well as the enshrined artefacts, i.e. the deities for whom the temples were built. The types of temples to be surveyed are either made of wooden, such as the Lakshana Devi Temple of Bharmour, or of the Nagara type, made of stone with its classical, curvilinear shikara tower. Based on the architectural survey, detailed plans will allow the analysis and visualization of the proportional systems and the structural aspects as well as the iconographic programs. Portals are of crucial importance not only based on their refined art, but also because they provide the visual and iconographic frame for the main idol. Portals reflect the essence of the intellectual background of a monument. Beyond that, the project aims at documenting the wider context regards to geography and the socio-cultural environment. This includes the study of rituals (pujas, processions, etc.), the religio- cultural landscape on a local and cross-regional level, as well as a comparative study with the art and architecture of pre-Islamic Kashmir. The project will take into account the latest developments in the field of digital cultural heritage (DCH) as a sub-branch of digital humanities (DH). An interactive project website will form the core of the project. It will be based on digital, architectural models with complementary maps, plans, photographs, films and text. The data will be made applicable for smartphones, tablets, etc., and, in a further step, for virtual reality. Thus, the results will not only become accessible for a small circle of researchers, but will also allow a wider public to learn more about the cultural history of this significant part of Indo-Himalayan culture. The project will implement DCH tools and methodology into the field of cultural studies in the Indian and Himalayan context.

The digitisation of the cultural heritage of Chamba primarily - but not exclusively - focused on material culture. It included the documentation of religious architecture and art, which reflects the history of its Brahmanic society from the middle of the first millennium to the present. Photogrammetry was applied for the survey of Nagara stone temples as well as temples with composite technology (wood and masonry) of the so-called "hill type". In addition, sculptures were documented. These stone stelae are either still part of the architectural structure or "orphaned", i.e. collected from ruined sites and arranged anew. The different conducted architectural surveys focused on portals and related iconographic programs. Special attention was directed towards the prominent topics related to the threshold, both architecturally and metaphorically: fertility, time, and underworld represented by the river goddesses, the planetary deities, and gods of the netherworld and death. Since Chamba has always been surrounded by powerful and culturally dominant neighbours, comparative studies were carried out with Kashmir, Kangra and Kullu. In this context, the site of Swai stands out. There, fragments of at least one 10th century temple were re-used in a new temple, and thus stone sculptures reflecting the art of Kashmir have survived. At Swai, the fusion of the architecture of northern India and the art of Kashmir can be perfectly traced. Similarly enlightening are exact comparative studies with the wooden portals of the Shakti temples of Bramour (Brahmapura) and Chatrarhi where it is possible to ascertain close and, so far, unnoticed similarities with the Buddhist architecture of Ladakh. To briefly summarise the result: The North-South connection from Chamba to Ladakh was at least as strong as the Ladakh-Kashmir axis in terms of cultural transfer, which has so far been considered paramount. Beyond the cultural studies, another focus of the project was on the digital processing of data collected in the field, more accurately 3D-modeling of temples and sculptures, digital presentation and digital dissemination. While major results are also published via print media, digital publication is at the core of the dissemination strategy. Following the premisses of open access policy, the results are published in a blog and a linked data archive. 42 entries display all types of formats, ranging from sketches and architectural drawings, photographs and videos, to finally 3D-models and animations. The significance of the digital twin for art-historical studies is particularly highlighted, especially where the original in the field is difficult or even impossible to access. The data collection is completed by extensive textual descriptions and discussions. Additional entries explain the technical aspects and the workflow in detail. The blog is accessible at: https://iam.tugraz.at/research/chamba/blog/ .