Temples In India-1.pdf - Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan

VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKAis the ritualistic part. The other two partsare generally very short.The Kriyapada of the Kamika Agamas hasbeen the most well-known in Tamilnadu andthis is one of the largest of the knownAgamas. The Karana Agama is even larger.It is being followed in quite a significantnumber of the temples. Makuta-Agama isgenerally considered to lay down theprocedure for the worship of Lord Nataraja,principally in Chidambaram and also in mostof the other important temples.All the four parts are available today onlyin respect of Suprabheda and Kirana amongthe principal Agamas and Mrigendra amongthe Upagamas. The Vidya-pada is availablefor Raurava, Matanga, Vatula andPaushkara, while the Kriyapada is availablefor Kamika Karana, Ajita, Raurava andKumaratantra.The total number of slokas in all the partsof all the Agamas and their Upagamas may’run to several millions, if all becomeavailable. This can easily be seen whenwe know that the Kriyapada of Kamika andKarana alone run to 12,000 and 16,151slokas respectively.Relevance of the AgamasTemples of today are built and worshippedon the Agamic lines. Puja or worship is oftwo categories, atmartha and parartha ;the first is for the individual who does it;the second is for the welfare of thecommunity at large.Hence temple worship has a large part toplay in the lives of the worshipping public.The temples had been growing inimportance since the days of the SaivaSamaya Acharyas-Sambandhar, Appar,TEMPLE INDIASundarar and Manickavachagar. The CholaKings, from the 10th century to the 13thcentury, had lavished all their riches onthe temples and had practised a kind ofreligious socialism, not to be met withanywhere in history. Hundreds of newtemples were built. An external form andharmony and majesty had to be evolvedand observed, if such temples were reallyto be the abodes of the Almighty Beingand to offer spiritual solace to theworshippers. To suit the different tastesof mankind in the art-world and in thethought-world, variations had to beprovided for in the temples, in full unisonwith the general concepts of sculpture,architecture and religion and public usage.Hence· some standards had to be evolved.We may now realise that such standardswere laid down by the Agamas.The Agamas differed from one another indetail and treatment, but not in theessential principles, religion or philosophy.The plan of the temple, the lay-out withreference to local traditions and legends,the position of the very many sub-templesinside the walls with reference to availablespace, their size, the very construction,consecration, the forms of the deities, dailymodes of worship, worship on specialoccasions, monthly and annual festivals,celebrations by individuals, the functionsof the priests and their training, the templetank,temple-music and dance, the flowergarden,food-arrangements-all these areregulated by the Agamas. An elastic, buteffectively restraining code is indeednecessary in the temple, which is a publicinstitution, in order that it does not becomea mere jumble of many incongruous andinharmonious parts. Such a code was one38