KASTHMANDAP – A Pagoda Called Kathmandu(Bird-eye view series of Nepal)

Kasthamandap, the Wooden Pavilion, stands at the southern edge of the Kathmandu Durbar square, in Maru tole. Prominent with its three-tier pagoda rising to 50 feet above a long veranda, it beckons the traveler, as did centuries ago.

What’s in a name? Surely, Kathmandu by any other name would not be Kathmandu. Consider the alternative: Kantipur. It doesn’t have the same resonance. When the three syllables of Kath-man-du roll out of the tongue, they strongly evoke all that is Kathmandu. And there is one building in the city that carries the claim of giving named the city and the Valley.

Kasthamandap, the Wooden Pavilion stands at the southern edge of the Kathmandu Durbar Square, in Maru tole. Prominent with its three-tiered pagoda rising to 50 feet above a long veranda, it beckons the traveler, as it did centuries ago.

In the early mornings, Kasthamandap and its vicinity is a hubbub of activity. AS you walk through from Indrachowk, which is relatively quiet in the morning than afternoons or evenings, you will be surprised at the sudden encounter with noise and people around Kasthamandap. The vegetable farmers of the Valley have already gathered there and staked their claim on a spot to attract buyers. You will see women with small plates containing materials for worship flocking at the Ganesh temple, the most popular ganesh in Kathmandu, immediately to the north of Kasthamandap. Porters are sitting at the southern entrance of the building – smoking, guffawing and waiting for clients.

The porters make way for devotees to go inside Kasthamandap and to pay homage to Gorakhnath in the middle of the ground floor. He is on a raised platform, smeared in auspicious vermillion. The sight of the Kasthamandap area in the early mornings transports you back to its history, when eight centuries ago it was the hub of the Valley.

The birth of Kasthamandap, also known as Maru Sattal, is attributed to King Lakshmi Narasimha Malla, who is said to have built it in 1595 AD. But historians point out that Lakshmi Narasimha Malla was not the ruler of Kathmandu in 1595, and that there is already a reference to Kasthamandap in an inscription going back to 1143 AD. Thus there is evidence that the Kasthamandap was built before the middle of the 12th century. In Nepal’s history, during the period of the Licchavi kings (300-879 AD), Kathmandu was divided into different hamlets. One of these hamlets was Daksinakoli or Yangal, which around the 12th century came to be known by the Sanskrit name, Kasthamandap, or the Wooden Pavilion.

The name came from a curiously large and imposing public rest house. This intimidating Sanskrit name didn’t immediately gain popularity among the residents, but two centuries later the whole of the city came to be referred by this name. Not much a known about the period between the last Licchavi king and the first Malla king in AD 1200 – the very period when Kasthamandap was built – so nothing definite can be said about who exactly built it.

But towards the end of the 18th century, when the Gorkhalis under king Prithvinarayan Shah entered the Valley, the name had been modified to “Kathmandeu”. The Gorkhalis liked the way it sounded and they used the name, which gradually evolved to the present Kathmandu.

The Wooden Pavilion, as kastha means wood and Mandap a pavilion in Sanskrit, comes with the legend that the entire structure was built out of a single giant tree. Moreover, it is also believed that another rest-house a few yards to the south, the Silengu Sattal (which translates as rest-house built out of left-over wood), was constructed from the remaining wood of the same tree. The name Silengu Sattal in time became corrupted into Singah Sattal (lion rest-house). The epithet stuck especially after the installation of figures of lions to adorn its four corners.

Despite the lack of knowledge of its builder, Kasthamandap’s architecture is similar to that of the ubiquitous public shelter built in the Newar style. A dharmasala in its simplest form exists as a pati, not more than a rectangular platform with a roof. It is found abundantly throughout the villages in Nepal. Its close relative is a Mandap, a 16-pillared structure with a roof. A Mandap is usually found in towns and can serve as a town hall and a place where market prices can be exchanged.

All the three stories of Kasthamandap are open hallways that have no dividers for rooms. Unlike and ordinary temple, Kasthamandap has a fairly wide wooden stairway that leads to the first floor and a delicate one leading tow the second floor. This historic building’s construction exhibits that the loads are collected very systematically and distributed through posts and walls to the foundation, demonstrating the strong engineering grasp of the post-Licchavi architects. Four massive wooden posts form the core of the ground floor. The four posts of the first floor also rest on these wooden posts. The second floor, however, has a square of 20 posts that forms the structure. To-shoulder the load of the three pagodas; three is a separate grouping of columns around each of the cores according to the floor with plastered and whitewashed brickwork and unpainted timber. The timber structures, especially the supporting columns, appear to be the oldest in the Valley.

The shrine of Gorakhnath in the ground floor centre was established by King Jaya Sthiti Malla in AD 1379.

The growing importance of Kasthamandap after its formation is attested to by the most ancient inscription in Kasthamandap, dated AD 1333, which announces it as the “building of the three royal families”. The building with its centralized location on the trade route was seen as the combined property of the three separate fiefdoms then existing in the city.

We many never know who built this Wooden Pavilion that has commanded a central location in Kathmandu’s history and geography. Or perhaps, to our delight someday some historian or archaeologist will discover an inscription that clearly spells out the name of the builder. For now our hearts are glad that the namesake of the city still exists in its entirety.

As the sun sets, its red-orange hue falls on the top roof of the building, and also the building across it to the south, the Silengu or Singha Sattal with a lion at each corner. To the east is the Trailokya incarnation. Directly opposite Vishnu, behind Kasthamandap, is the temple of Shiva the Destroyer. To the north-eat of Kasthamandap is the three-storied Maju Degal, again with Shiva. Elephant-headed Ganesh, Shiva’s son, sits to the north of Kasthamandap.

And suddenly, as darkness falls, it appears as if Kasthamandap is surrounded by gods and their consorts guarding and preserving it through the night.