Sacred Complex- L P Vidyarthi

The concept of Sacred Complex was put forth by L.P Vidyarthi in his book The Sacred Complex of Hindu Gaya.He studied the sacred and great traditional Hindu city of Gaya and described in detail three analytical concepts.These are a sacred geography,a set of sacred performances and a group of sacred specialists.These three concepts collectively called sacred complex.It reflected a level of continuity,compromise and combination between great and little tradition.



The sacred specialists  of a place with their distinctive style of life  transmit certain elements  of great tradition to the rural population of India.L.P Vidyarthi has referred to Hindu civilization and in place of culture he applies the term sacred to evolve the analytical concepts of sacred geography,sacred performance and sacred specialist.He introduces the term sacred complex to indicate the integrative pattern envisaging all the sacred elements.

The sacred complex has been in the process of   modification and transformation.The  sacred complex  provided a meeting place for  different kinds of people and traditions,castes,sects ,class and status  and nourished a sense of Indian unity even at a time when a spirit of nationalism was lacking.The sacred complex was observed  to be undergoing a secondary urbanization .