Cultural Documentation of River Ganga from Gaumukh to Ganga Sagar – Kannauj and Hardoi 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.

Kannauj and Hardoi District

The Kannauj report covers several aspects of Intangible culture; perfumery, AalahRudaal, languages, personalities and other folklores, Kannauj district was carved out of the erstwhile district of Farrukhabad on September 18, 1997. The district is part of the Kanpur Division of Uttar Pradesh. Its northern borders touch Farrukhabad district, on the eastern side Hardoi district is located; Kanpur Dehat is towards the southeast, while the district’s western and southern borders touch the districts of Mainpuri and Etawah respectively. The district is divided into three tehsils and eight development blocks. The Ganga is the main river, flowing along the northeastern border of the district. Kali and Isan are the other important rivers of the area. The Kali flows along the northern border while Isan flows through the middle of the district.

The report also deals with Sacred complexes and the folklore of the Kannauj district. It highlights some of the sacred spaces found in the district like Annapurna Devi mandir, Ajay Pal mandir, Baba Gauri Shankar, Baba Vishwanath mandir, Dargah Haji Sharif, Fort of Jai Chandra, Rajgrih and so on.

The report elaborately describes the Kannauj Perfume, also known as Kannauj Ittar or attar, as traditional Indian manufacture of perfume. This perfume production is popular in Kannauj. It has been protected under the Geographical indication (GI) of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement. It is listed as “Kannauj Perfume” of the GI Act 1999 of the GovernmentKannauj perfume has a long historical background and Kannauj has had perfume trading for hundreds of years. Due to the key role of perfume production in Kannauj, the city is known as “the perfume capital of India” and “Kannauj is to India what Grasse is to France.”

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