Gezicht op een monument en de stad Ahmedabad 1672

This anonymous engraving depicts Ahmedabad, capturing its monuments and city life. Note the pyramidal structure adorned with inscriptions, a visual echo of ancient ziggurats, religious structures built in ancient Mesopotamia. Consider how this motif, born in the cradle of civilization, resurfaces here in India. Like the ziggurats, which served as a bridge between the human and divine, the monument in Ahmedabad is a sacred place, a site of reverence, where individuals prostrate themselves in devotion. These acts of veneration, passed down through generations, mirror the timeless human desire to connect with the cosmos. This image serves as a reminder that cultural memory is not linear. It is a cyclical dance where symbols and gestures reappear, transformed by time and place, yet carrying echoes of their origins.