The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c9.40

c9.40

The derivation of the Hindu temple from the *rathas*, or cars, of Aryan warriors, on account of the poetic imagery used in the Râmâyana and Mahâbhârata, and the attempts made by medieval builders to give literary imagination concrete form by placing stone wheels on the sides of the vimâna, as in the Sûrya temple at Kanârak, has, *pace* Dr. Coomaraswamy and other writers, no historical foundation. It is a clear case of putting the cart before the horse. The temple car on which the sacred image was carried in procession could not have been introduced into the temple ritual before the image itself became part of it—*i.e.* before the first centuries before and after the Christian era—and all the constructive types, as well as the symbolism connected with them, if Indian temple building had been developed before that time. There is no instance of vimânas being made like rathas, or cars, before the tenth century.