The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c20.21

c20.21

The Kailâsa temple has the usual orientation of a Siva shrine, that is, its entrance faces the setting sun. It derives its name from the Himâlayan mountain which was Siva's mythological paradise; for Siva, like Vishnu, as a nature symbol is a mountain deity, and the high pyramidal towers which covered Siva shrines were meant to represent Kailâsa, just as the sikhara of Vishnu shrines represented Mount Mandara, or Mêru. The distinction between the two symbols was that Siva's mountain was the rugged, white snow-capped peak, soaring above the clouds, where nature was quiescent and as if wrapped in meditation. The cubical cell where the yogi sat in thought alone with the universe was the symbol of it. Vishnu's symbol was the fruitful mountain, whose rounded summit was crowned with deodar or cedar, and the tree- and flower-clad hill glad with the song of birds and teeming with joyous life, like a lotus-flower with turned-down petals offering its nectar to the bees.