113bC4l

140 ⁄ the victory of esoterism and the imperial metaphor
application of this term indicates that the political diction of a circle of vassals
in the seventh century was coming to be applied to a circle of religious structures.
Queen Dudda occupied the center of the circle, while the monasteries
protected her periphery and were sustained by her authority.
Construction details and vocabulary for the mandala are directly connected
to the architectural heritage of palace construction as well. Indeed, the term for
the residence of the divinities of the mandala is exactly that employed for palaces
and pavilions in medieval architectural manuals, with the architectural terminology
for them almost identical. The central Buddha resides in a pavilion
(kutagara), which has entrances in the four directions and ornamented corners
in the intermediate directions. The entrances are dominated by arched gateways
(torana), in the shape of scepters (vajra), and guarded by an adamantine
wall—a fortress of religiosity. Internally, there is an adamantine redoubt (vajrapañjara)
protecting the lord and his families. Although the term vajrapañjara
came to be interpreted by Tibetans as an impenetrable canopy (rdo rje gur), the
term initially indicated a cage or citadel that could not be penetrated, and the
Harsacarita uses the term as a metaphor in its identification of Harsa’s body
with specific parts of the citadel. 86 The clear association of Buddhist mandala
terminology with palace architecture is equally evident when we compare mandala
ground plans with those depicted in such medieval treatises as the Mayamata.
Here, the arrangement of the palaces, pavilions, and halls closely resembles
the Buddhist mandala idealization. Their similarity is obvious when set
against the structure and terminology of temples (mandira) dedicated to Brahmanical
divinities or monasteries (vihara) for Buddhist monks. 87 Not only are
these latter designs dissimilar to mandalas, but the terminology could not be
more distinct. Meister’s review of medieval North Indian temple architecture
establishes a lexical base for dissociating these temple plans from the Buddhist
mandala architecture. 88 Nowhere in mandala discussions are found descriptions
of a sanctum sanctorum (garbhagrha), a single entrance through an assembly
hall (jaNgha), or other specifics evident both in the literature for the period or
in surviving temples from the seventh to eleventh centuries.
We might wonder whether sufficient attention has been given to the value
of some of the terms associated with a mandala as well. For example, the designation
“family”—observed in the Buddha families in the center and cardinal
directions of the mandala—is not a precise rendering of the Sanskrit word
kula. Although there is some variation according to locale, in the Gangetic valley
a kula indicates not just a clan (gotra) or a specific lineage (vam$a) but a clan
or lineage situated in a specific residence. In the medieval period, the term kula
specifically had the value of direction and locality attached to it, to the point