How descriptions of urban planning and sustainable living in epics and puranas, informed the making of Ayodhya airport

The Splendour of Shri Ram's Ancient City AYODHYA: A Walk Through the Living Heritage cover, and author Vipul B Varshney (Image of book cover via LinkedIn Vipul B Varshney)

Terminal 1 of the Maharishi Valmiki International Airport, Ayodhya Dham, is expected to handle peak volumes of 300 passengers a day. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the airport on December 30, 2023, and the first flight landed here 11 days later on January 10, 2024.

Much has been written about the art and architectural inspiration for the 65,000 square feet airport. Indeed, the architects at Sthapati, which was responsible for phase 1 of developing the airport, drew inspiration from scripture. And Vipul B. Varshney, a founder at Sthapati, had already been researching and writing a book on Ayodhya when the airport work began.

Titled The Splendour of Shri Ram's Ancient City AYODHYA: A Walk Through the Living Heritage (Rs 2,900), the book draws heavily on the Ramayana for descriptions of Ayodhya as a city "filled with magic and mysticism". Remarkably, some of the descriptions are resonant of urban planning and sustainable living practices that could be aspirational today.

Sample this: "There are many orchards and gardens for public relaxation all over the city." A little later, "Planning is expounded in various shastras like Shilpa Shastra, Niti Shastra and Smriti Shastra. These shastras consist of explicit directions regarding town planning and selection of sites, and contain the minutest of details of construction and beautification of all types of structures."

Throughout the book, photos and illustrations take readers back and forth, between myth and reality, and across Ayodhya from July-September 2023. Indeed, some of the recent photos by photographers like Lt Col (Retd) Anil Mehrotra capture the colours and architectural elements of the city as it is now. The illustrations and poster art have the opposite effect, of distancing the reader - as if pointing out that what is being described here is an ideal - a reconstruction of a city described in scripture, through shlokas and shastras - and a bit unreal/surreal.

To be sure, people who have intimate knowledge of the Ramayana will likely not discover anything new in the book - except perhaps a more trained focus on the urban planning and architectural aspects of the city as described in scripture.

Needless to say, Ayodhya 2.0 is designed for religious pilgrimage. And stories, images, ideas from scripture and other religious texts have informed its remaking. As such, Varshney's research for the book also informed her work on the Ayodhya airport.

In a video interview, Varshney spoke about the crossover between the book and the airport design which incorporates many stories from the Ramayana, the photos and illustrations in her coffee table-style book, and why Hanuman's life story gets pride of place at the Ayodhya Maharishi Valmiki International Airport. Edited excerpts:

How long did it take you to research and write this book?

It took me almost two-and-a-half years, from research to layout of the book.

Are you working on any other projects in Ayodhya right now?

No, we are doing something in Kashi. Let's see, when phase 2 of the Ayodhya airport starts, we hope to be associated with it.

Your book focuses on descriptions of urban planning and architecture in scripture and shastras. Did that influence your work on the airport?

About urban planning in Ayodhya, I have referenced shlokas from Valmiki Ramayana in the book. If you see, the city was similar to the excavations in Dholavira (Gujarat) and the city had the same proportions. For example, the dimensions of the road 12 yojan by 3 yojan. And one yojan was about 7 km. The proportion is 4:1 - the length and width of the city.

Vastu Shastra was followed (in the city, according to scripture, and at the airport). It's in the Skandapuran - one of the puranas alongside Vayupura, Agnipuran. It gives a sense of directional applications. It says where open spaces should be, where high trees and dense forest should be planted.

We also followed a bit of Vastu Shastra (at the airport), as the client also wanted. So we've tried to put a lot of open spaces in the Northeast direction because the southwest gets a lot of intense sunlight and the northeast gets the more welcome morning sun - so it also makes sense from the climate perspective. There's also a water body in the northeast, in front of the airport, since the northeast is also where the god of water Varun resides (according to Vastu Shastra). In the southwest, there should be covered spaces, high ceilings and the top officials or owner of the house should reside in this part.

These were small clues and hints that went into the building.

Did the scriptures also affect the art at the airport?

It's well-known that in Ayodhya, Hanuman ji is worshipped before anyone else - this is taken (accepted) well by the gods (in scripture). There's a mural on the life of Hanuman at the airport. (According to scripture), Lord Ram had told Hanuman to stay in Ayodhya. So we have given a big mural with almost 25 smaller tales about Hanuman.

Apart from that there are other stories from the Ramayana on horizontal panels showing different stages of Lord Ram's journey.

There's also a mural inspired by Raja Ravi Varma paintings, depicting Ram, Sita and Lakshman returning from exile in the Pushpak Vimana and all the people of Ayodhya are there to welcome them.

Could you tell us about the selection of the artists to make the artworks?

An art curator from Indore, Sachin Kaluskar, was invited for this major mural work. There were folk artists from Maithili to do a Madhubani painting. There was also a team of local artists who were invited. There was another person associated (with the art curation and commissioning for the airport) - Mrs Masuma Rizvi - she was also associated with the renovation of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Published by Kiva Prakashan, the book (Rs 2,900) will be unveiled at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Mumbai and is scheduled to be available on Amazon in the coming weeks.