| archaeology and memory
A LANDSCAPE OF MEMORY AND CONTINUITY
BHADRESHWAR, GUJARAT
Meghavi Suthar
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| Bhadreshwar’s built environment, especially its facades and spatial organization, functions as a repository of collective memory, reflecting the dynamic economic and cultural exchanges across the Indian Ocean over the past centuries.
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What does it mean for a town to persist in memory?
The case of Bhadreshwar presents this striking question through its havelis, dharamshalas, Jain temples, mosques, and warehouses. Once a flourishing port town on the western coast of Gujarat in the Kutch district, Bhadreshwar bears traces of trade, migration, and repair; while connecting Gujarat’s coast to the Persian and Mediterranean Sea. Today, this port town’s significance is overlooked with the decline in trade, but its architecture still carries the weight of its distant geographical connections, shifting patronages, and resilience of the local communities.
While using Aldo Rossi’s notion of urban artifacts and collective memory; which has shaped understandings of European cities, Bhadreshwar presents a counterpoint. Here, buildings gain meaning not from typological permanence, but from cycles of rebuilding; shaped by earthquakes, shifting trade networks, and evolving religious patronage. Rossi’s framework, while useful in highlighting how architecture exceeds mere function, falters in contexts like Bhadreshwar where memory is plural, discontinuous, and materially unstable. This article argues for an expanded understanding of collective memory; one rooted not in permanence, but in repair, migration, and layered belonging.
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