Ethics and access

Most of what Vaayil records is not a ruin. It is a temple that people use, in a village that has looked after it for longer than any survey has existed. That fact sets the terms of the work.

Permission

Nothing is flown, entered or recorded without permission from whoever holds authority over the site, such as the Archaeological Survey of India, the state department, a temple trust or the community itself, as the case requires. Where a permission reference exists, it is published in the record’s documentation panel.

Worship

Where a building is in active worship, survey is scheduled around use. We do not clear a space to photograph it. Where an interior is not entered (because access is restricted, unsafe or not appropriate), the record states that the interior was not entered and nothing about it is inferred.

Location

Coordinates are published at one of three precisions: exact, approximate or withheld. Approximate is used where a precise fix would expose an unguarded structure; withheld is used where publication would put a building at risk of theft or damage. The record always says which of the three applies, so that a researcher knows whether a coordinate is a location or an indication.

Attribution and community

The people who maintain these buildings are not a footnote to them. Where a community, trust or individual has provided access, knowledge or permission, that is recorded. Where we have been told something we cannot verify, it is recorded as testimony, not as fact.

Reuse

Records are published under a licence that permits scholarship, teaching and non-commercial reuse with attribution. Commercial reuse requires a separate agreement, not to restrict research, but because a measured record of a protected monument should not be resold without the site or the studio knowing.