Indian Sculpture c6.s1.7

c6.s1.7

Whatever the positions of the accompanying figures may be, the principle for the main figure of the image is to face the devotee. This it does in the artificial dimness of the garbhagṛha, the inmost sanctuary. The light that filters in through the door comes, already tempered in its strength, from the hall or the porch in front of the sanctuary. The strong light of the day must not penetrate as far, so as not to detract from the magic power of the image. The garbhagṛha is without windows. The artificial dimness in which the image is kept has its natural origin in the cave temples. Even when lit up by the flicker of many lamps, and if not clothed and anointed so that it is hidden almost altogether—for the devotee knows the image; he carries it in his mind and its presence becomes acutely clear to his inner vision, once he has entered the appropriate atmosphere—the radiance around it is enveloped by darkness. However rationalised the method, however meticulous the canon of proportion of the image as a yantra, its setting is replete with its magic and with the concentration of the devotee.