Temples In India-1.pdf - Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan

VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKAVastu Shastraand TemplesPROF. P. THIRUGNANASAMBANDHANAnanda K. Coomaraswamy in his essayon ‘Indian Architecture’ observes, ‘TheVedic ritual required neither· images nortemples, but the non-Vedic cults such asthose of the dragon (Nagas), the treespirits(Yakshas)and the goddesses mayhave had permanent shrines with imagesand wooden temples’. It is only in the latestphase of Vedic literature that we findreference to temples and images. Templearchitecture, however, had grown up longbefore the Gupta period for the MatsyaPurana refers to eighteen architectsincluding Bhrigu, Atri, Vasishta,Vishvakarma, Maya, Narada and severalothers. (ch. 255). It is traditionally heldthat Vishvakarma is the architect of theNorth and Maya of the South.Works on architecture like Tantrasamuccayaand Manasara and Shaiva andVaishanava agamas deal not only with theconstruction of temples, moulding andinstallation of images, but in certain textsalso modes of worship of images.Samaranganasutradhara of Bhoja refers totemples of different kinds such as Meru,Mandara, Kailasa, Nandana,Sarvatobhadra, etc. numbering abouttwenty. Similar names with details occurin other Vastu Shastra texts likeVishvakarmaprakasha and even inBhavisya-purana. Down south, saintTirunavukkarasar refers to types of templessuch as Perunkoyil, Karakakkoyil,Jnalarkoyil, Kokutikkoyil, Ilankoyil,TEMPLE INDIAManikkoyil, Alakkoyiland Punkoyil.The temple is referred to by several namessuch as devalaya, devatayatana. Mandira,Prasada, Devagriha, etc. The Devagrihaor temple of God is perhaps modeled onthe Rajagriha or royal palace. One can seea number ofBhumis or storeys in a temple as in a palace.The Samaranganasutradhara speaks aboutone to twelve storeys and gives theirmeasurements. Silparatna speaks aboutseven storeys of Dvaragopuras or towerserected over the ramparts at the entranceKashyapa Silpa refers to as many as sixteen‘talas’ or storeys.Brihatsamhita says that temples may bebuilt on the outskirts of forests, at thefoot of mountains, banks of rivers and incities with gardens (56-8).What does the temple stand for? The VastuShastras identify the temples with theuniverse. Its substance and shape, saysthe Vastu section of Agnipurana, is Prakriti.The primordial Nature and the central imageenshrined therein is the Parama-purusha,the Supreme Spirit. The entire temple isan organic whole consisting of the variouslimbs of that Purusha. Agnipurana (LXI. 23-25) says that the shikara is the head, thedvara (door) the mouth, kalasa the hair,greeva the throat, shukanasa the nose,bhadras the arms, Vedi the shoulders, pillarthe foot, etc. lshanasivagurudevaddhatistates that the prasada (lit. seat of God)is made up of the presence of Shiva andShakti and of the principles of existence(tattvas) beginning from the earth rightup to Shakti.Before building a temple, one has to drawa ground-plan called Vastu-mandala. It isdivided into 64 or 81 squares. Of all the23