Binita Magaiya, is a PhD student and an architect specializing in the conservation of monuments and heritage structures. Within Heritage as Placemaking, Binita is a research assistant based at Social Science Baha.
She has been involved with the restoration of the Brahma temple in Jayabageshwori in Deopatan, Nepal since 2017. In the article below, she describes and reflects on the process and the kind of works and institutional collaborations it has involved.
“The process of restoring the Brahma temple began in 2017, when I was involved with the Jayabageshwori Youth Club (JBYC) in the executive committee under the presidency of Mr. Dilip Vaidya. The project came into being as a Community Service Project of the club. Mr. Vaidya had actively supported my documentation team earlier for the Jayabageshwori reconstruction project, and he had also provided the space of the club hall as a site office. Hence, the project started as an obligation to repay Mr. Vaidya’s favor.
The site of the earlier Brahma temple experienced depopulation and general difficulties. These included the gradual depletion of the temple itself and the theft of the statues, while new sewer lines, water lines and road expansion all led to the complete deterioration of the site. The temple was left in ruins for almost 70 years. Even the elder locals aged 70 years and above in the area did not remember the original structure of the temple. Hence, we took upon the challenge to restore the temple and initially proposed to rebuild the structure based upon the measurements of the superstructure above.
It was a very difficult site to measure, as there were pieces of glass, garbage, vegetation and remains of syringes and needles everywhere. But we measured the site at the best and proposed a general one-story square temple of 8.5 feet by 8.5 feet. The roof was proposed to be a dome as opposed to the existing flat reinforced cement concrete slab. The club president, Mr. Vaidya, took on the initiative to take the proposed design to the concerned offices of KMC ward no. 8 office and Pashupati Area Development Trust office. For my part, I asked a fellow executive team member of JBYC, Mr. Sushant Baidya, also a civil engineer to prepare an estimate. After that we were not involved much in the club and also with the reconstruction of the project. When we followed up with Mr. Vaidya, he also seemed frustrated with the delays in getting the permissions to rebuild the temple, hence the matter stayed on a standstill till 2023.
The ruins of temple with constant interference of pipelines from the city's infrastructure department damaging its plinth and structure. Photo courtesy of the author.
After the elections of 2022 AD, the new ward chair Mr. Asaman Sangat, wanted to restart the initiative of the reconstruction of Brahma temple and followed up on the matter. He got the permissions from KMC Heritage department and went ahead to clear the site. I was not informed of the developments and was in the site visit to Muchuk, Bandipur when I received the news. Upon my return to Kathmandu, I immediately reached out to Mr. Sangat and together we visited the site for further plan of action. Till that time, most of the garbage and ingrowing vegetation was cleared, hence we could now see the clear foundation lines which seems to be much bigger than the proposed drawings.
The ruins of the early structure started to become visible with clear lines and foundational brick work with cross bracing walls. It was immediately seen the need to redo the proposal of the temple. Hence with the help of the clearing team present at the site from the contractor’s end and the permission from the ward office, we remeasured the site which has now clear foundation lines of approx. 26 feet by 26 feet. This clearly indicated that the nearby private residences (the land was reclaimed later by demolishing their extended property) to the east and south and road (the reclamation of land is underway) to the north and west had completely engulfed the temple’s land and its structure. The construction process was halted for the time being and awaiting new proposal after the newfound foundation lines.
The ruins of sanctum and the main structural walls seen after the clearance works from North. Photo courtesy of the author.
The temple is now being built under a user’s committee group and the chairperson is Mr. Shyam Sangat. The site measurements confirmed that the temple was much bigger in size and height. The reconfiguration was based on the measurements of the brick size 300x200x50 mm and the foundation depth of approx. 13.5 feet. After the discovery of foundational bricks, it was easier to safely presume that the period of the building is the early 5th to 6th century. The size of bricks in 7th century Kasthamandap foundation is 245x200x55 mm. Also from the Brahma idol’s dating by Lain Singh Bangdel in his book, the structure can be place around early Lichchhavi period.
Many manuscripts about the design for the temple were studied to figure out its new structure type. From various methods and archival research, the final structure is derived from the unit of brick measurement and the depth of the foundation. Finally, after a series of presentation at the site, in ward office, in KMC heritage department and City Planning Commission, in Department of Archaeology (DoA), the final submitted proposal of two-story temple was approved in April 2024. Now the process is with KMC heritage department and under tendering process.”
The acquisition of encroached land by dismantling the annex of the adjacent building to the east. Photo courtesy of the author.