Cultural Documentation of River Ganga from Gaumukh to Ganga Sagar – Bulandshahr District

This Namami Gange project is being undertaken for the Jal Shakti Ministry, Government of India, under the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) scheme. INTACH is assisting the Ministry in the capacity of a knowledge partner. Three divisions of INTACH namely; Natural Heritage (NH), Architectural Heritage (AH) and Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) divisions have been engaged in the cultural mapping project, of three aspects natural, tangible and intangible assets along Ganga.
The objective of the project is to conduct field investigation and document existing cultural assets on either side of the river Ganga (within a radius of 5Kms, starting from its source, i.e. Gangotri, down to its point of dispersal at Ganga Sagar) and to produce for the ministry a detailed, illustrated report based on the primary and secondary resources available.

Bulandshahr District

This report details the history, folklore, cuisine, crafts, and traditional knowledge of Bulandshahr. A special focus has been given to the Khurja Pottery tradition that is famous in this region.Khurja is a small town, with hardly 7,000 houses and with a population of about 70,000 located in Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh.The patterns and paintings of the pottery are of the Indo-Persian character. It is said that the industry traces its origin to the last decade of the 14th century, when Temur Lane had invaded India.

Bulandshahr is home to a plethora of religious places. Rajghat, Naroura, Karnavas, Anoopshahr, Ahar, Gajroula and ghats on the river Ganga are popular sites where ritualistic bathing takes place.The fairs, festivals and folklore along with places of interest have been been highlighted in the report.

Check out more on the INTACH ICH Archive:
https://icharchive.intach.org/Detail/collections/81