While research into the importance

While research into the importance of cosmology, mythology, and legitimation has dominated landscape studies in India, the most common usage of the landscape has been for day-to-day residential and subsistence activities. Most importantly, these activities occur in the midst of all the other happenings. For instance, while axial layouts and cosmological orientations are applied to temples and surrounding towns in order to maintain a ritual integrity, these neighborhoods are also the centers of everyday life. At Srirangam, which was mentioned earlier as an archetypal maṇḍala shape, boys play cricket in the streets on the outer circuits of the walls. A few steps from the primary circumambulatory routes in any temple town lead to residential areas, local shops, and mundane activities – a quotidian landscape (Fig. 5). This overlay of secular and religious use of the same landscape is seen throughout India, at sites sacred to all religious traditions.