The Hindu Temple v1.c4: Part I. The Site

The Hindu Temple v1.c4

Language: English

v1.c4.s1 Tirtha and Temple — 29 parts
v1.c4.s2 Site and Builder — 41 parts
v1.c4.s3 The Stability of the Site — 11 parts
v1.c4.s4 Purification, Insemination and Levelling of the Site — 43 parts

Part I. The Site

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वनोपान्तनदीशैलनिर्झरोपान्तभूमिषु । रमन्ते देवता नित्यं पुरेष्‌द्यानवत्सु च ॥

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"The gods always play where groves are near, rivers, mountains and springs, and in towns with pleasure gardens." 'Bṛhat Saṃhitā', LV. 8. 'Bhaviṣya Purāṇa', I. CXXX. 15.

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अदाद्यमोऽवसानं पृथिव्या इति । यमो ह वा अस्या अवसानस्येष्टे स एवास्मा अस्यावसानं ददाति ॥

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"Yama (Death) has given (us) the residence on earth. Yama indeed rules over the earth and it is he who grants the sacrificer a residence on this earth." 'Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa', VII. I. 1. 3.

Tirtha and Temple

Life as a pilgrimage from birth to death has many stations. In India death is but another station and in itself does not bring final release (mokṣa). Final release from all conditions of existence, from all limitations, is gained through Knowledge (Brahmavidyā); and Knowledge, the realisation of Supreme identity, is the means and the end itself: it gives and is release. Some attain it while alive (jivan-mukti), others at death. To the great mass of people, who are without the faculties and training to make them fit for the realisation of the Supreme Principle by Knowledge, other roads lie open which also lead to the Centre. Pilgrimage is one; it brings joy (bhukti) and release (mokṣa) to those who have achieved control of their minds and of the actions of their hands and feet; who have sapience (vidyā), and who have practised austerities and have a good name.¹

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¹ ‘Agnipurāṇa’, ch. CIX. 1b-2a. ² ‘Mahābhārata’, Ādiparva, II. 2; Vanaparva, Tirthayātrāparva. ³ Kṣetra is sacred ground, a field of active power, a place where ‘mokṣa’, final release, can be obtained. The ‘Garuḍa Purāṇa’, I. XVI. 14, enumerates seven cities as givers of ‘mokṣa’. They are: Ayodhyā, Mathurā, Māyā, Kāśī, Kāñcī, Avantikā, Dvāravatī. The sacred geography of India recognises the whole country as a field of more than human activity. It is carried by the rivers, from the celestial region where they have their prototype and origin, down to the earth. Śaiva tradition knows the special potency of certain places (pīṭha) in India resulting from the fall to earth of the dismembered body of the dead Satī, a form which

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The places of pilgrimage are distributed through the entire country and are called Tīrtha and Kṣetra. The number of these sacred sites is large; the ‘Mahābhārata’ speaks of hundreds of places of pilgrimage.²

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Tīrtha is the name of a place of pilgrimage on the bank of a river, the seashore or a lake. The meaning of the word is a ford, a passage. Water, the purifying, fertilizing element being present, its current which is the river of life can be forded in inner realisation and the pilgrim can cross over to the other shore. The place of pilgrimage is the end of the journey to the Centre; but it is not itself the goal and only the means for crossing over to the Centre. For this reason the number of Tīrthas and Kṣetras is indefinitely large.³ For this very reason too no journey need be undertaken at all.

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There is one Tīrtha where one should always bathe and this is the Tīrtha of the mind (mānasatīrtha). It is deep, clear and pure; its water is truth (satya) and metaphysical knowledge (Brahmajñāna). Those who take this bath see the Principles, the true nature of things (tattvadarśin).⁴

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The Tīrthas and Kṣetras on Indian soil are potent sites where a presence is felt to dwell. Its support is in the place itself. Whatever makes the site conspicuous or memorable is reinforced in its effect by the attention of the people directed towards and concentrated on that spot. In such places "the gods are seen at play".

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"The gods always play where lakes are, where the sun's rays are warded off by umbrellas of lotus leaf clusters, and where clear waterpaths are made by swans whose breasts toss the white lotuses hither and thither; where swans, ducks, curleys and paddy-birds are heard and animals rest nearby in the shade of Nicula trees on the river banks.

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The gods always play where rivers have for their bracelets the sound of the flight of curleys and the voice of swans for their speech, water as their garment, carps for their zone, the flowering trees on their banks as earrings, the confluence of rivers as their hips, raised sand banks as breasts and the plumage of swans their mantle.

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The gods always play where groves are near, rivers, mountains and springs, and in towns with pleasure gardens." ('Bṛhat Saṃhitā', LV. 4-8; 'Bhaviṣya Purāṇa', I. CXXX, 11-15). "It is such places that the gods love and always dwell in" ('Bṛhat Saṃhitā', 8, Comm., quoting Kāśyapa).

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Mahāmāyā had assumed. Where its parts came to lie, the energy associated with the special part or limb was added to the earth, strengthening that particular spot and leading to an attainment of the corresponding faculty by man. Distributed in 51 centres the power of Mahāśakti is integrated in the soil of India. (Svāmī Karpātrīji has explained the 'Secret of the Sacred Places' in an article on 'Pīṭha Rahasya', in 'Siddhānt', No. 35, Benares, 1941).

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The realisation of the descent of more than human power to earth makes India a sacred land. Near the water and at other definite sites its presence is more strongly felt. Some of these consequently are laid out in a particular way, such as Kurukṣetra where the 4 corners of the potent field are marked each by one place of pilgrimage and the middle is occupied by the place of central sanctity ('Mahābhārata', Vanaparva, ch. LXXXI. 207; Cunningham, 'Archaeological Survey Report', Vol. II. pp. 214-217), or Pāṭaliputra, in the middle of 4 towns (P. Mus, 'Barabuḍur', 'Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient', Vol. XXXII, p. 669). In view of the 'descent' of the sacred power to the earth, it is ontologically its own projection from the beyond, along the vertical axis. This symbolism belongs not only to the sacred geography but more ostensibly even to the sacred architecture of India (Pt. V).

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⁴ 'Mahābhārata', Anuśāsanaparva, CLXX. 2-3; 12-13.

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While 108 chief places on earth, etc., and in the mind, are spoken of in the 'Matsyapurāṇa' (XIII. 26-54), chapter CII. 3-5, enjoins that three and a half times ten millions of Tīrthas in heaven, earth and the atmosphere should be conceived as in the water where one takes the ritual bath by realising within it, in a square of four cubits, the sacred Ganges, the most holy of all Tīrthas (cf. ch. CVI. 53).

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The 'Mahānirvāṇatantra', X. 105, knows by still closer identification, that the "three and a half times ten millions of Tīrthas and all the gods, Brahmā, etc., reside in the body of the Kaula and all the shrines and holy places which are in this world they all abide in the body of the Kulasannyāsin (the highest class of ascetic)"; ib., XIV. 174.

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Where the gods are seen at play, in all these places, it is but ‘the one God engaged in eternal play’.⁵ Play is the modality in which the Supreme Spirit displays his presence in the world. It is in its effortless movement and in the perfection of corresponding forms. There is no other reason for the appearance of the world than that which is in Brahman itself. It shows itself most convincingly at certain places. They have beauty; for it is there that the celestial intelligence, —the gods, intermediate between the Lord and man,—has its sport and display.⁶

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⁵ “Eko devo nityalīlānurakta”; ‘Rādhā Upaniṣad’, IV. 3.

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⁶ “Na prayojanavattvāt; lokavat tu līlākaivalyam”. ‘Brahma Sūtra’, II. I. 32-33. ‘Brahmā’s creative activity is not undertaken by way of any need on his part, but simply by way of sport, in the common sense of the word”. A. K. Coomaraswamy, in ‘Līlā’, ‘Journal of the American Oriental Society’, 1941, pp. 98-100.

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The gods are installed not only in Tirthas, on the banks of rivers, lakes and on the seashore, at the confluence of rivers and estuaries, but also on hill-tops and mountain-slopes, in forests, groves and gardens, near the abodes of the blest or hermitages, in villages, towns and cities or in any other lovely place (‘Tantra-Samuccaya’, I. I. 28; see Frontispiece).⁷ Ritually, the site of the temple is a Tīrtha wherever it is situated. The ‘Viṣṇudharmottara’ (Part III, chapter XCIII, 25-31), an early compendium, speaks of the installation of consecrated images (arcā): “Installations should be made in forts; in auspicious cities, at the head of shop-lined streets . . . ; in villages or hamlets of cowherds where there are no shops, the installations should be made outside in gardens, . . . Installations should be made at riversides, in forests, gardens, at the sides of ponds, on hill-tops, in beautiful valleys and particularly in caves. At these places, the denizens of heaven are present. In places without tanks, gods are not present. A temple therefore should be built where there is a pond on the left, or in front, not otherwise. If a temple is built on an island, the water on all sides is auspicious.” The presence of water is essential; but if it is neither available by nature nor by artifice it is present symbolically at the

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⁷ More than a millennium of textual continuity and identity of metaphysical foundation accompanies the practice of building temples in all their variety in the different parts of India at the various phases of its history. The elaborated later temples and explicit texts are an exposition of the meaning which is present in the form, from its beginning.

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The authorities quoted are referred to in the present context not in their chronological sequence, but irrespective of it, in the meaning which they have in common. Their historical and geographical relation to the monuments however are considered in a later Part (VII) where the terminology of Indian temple architecture, their types and ‘styles’ are explained.

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The text-books of Vāstu-Śāstra, the science of architecture, are records of oral traditions which go back into an undefined past. The ‘Bṛhat-Saṃhitā’, for instance, compiled by Varāhamihira in the middle of the sixth century A.D. is based on the authority of master architects whose names are Maya, Viśvakarman (ch. LV, 30), Garga and Manu. The ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’ is but a brief account of their treatises (ib. śl. 31). It is the earliest datable source on Vāstu-Śāstra. The ‘Viṣṇudharmottara’ is of the seventh century approximately. The ‘Tantrasamuccaya’ of Nārāyaṇan Nambūdiri of Kerala, Malabar, belongs to the fifteenth century.

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The Frontispiece gives a general view of Amara-kaṇṭaka in Rewa State, central India; this is the Oṃkāra Kṣetra. The great sage who practises austerities there becomes a ‘jīvan-mukta’. The ‘Matsyapurāṇa’, CLXXXVI and CLXXXVIII, praises this Tīrtha. Its present temples date from the eleventh century to recent times.

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consecration of temple or image. Thus it is described how during the rite of ‘adhivāsana’ by which the divinity is made to assume its abode in an image about to be installed, the image of Viṣṇu is laid to rest on the world serpent Śeṣa (Ananta), on a ford raised for this purpose in a river, lake or tank. Offerings are made to the Lord (Yogeśa), to the Śabda-Brahman,—the principle of articulate sound, or the Word,—to the oceans, mountains, Sages (ṛṣi), Fathers (pitṛ) and Spirits (bhūta). Varuṇa, the presiding divinity (of the waters) and Siva, the Lord of the sacred Tīrtha are worshipped; should neither river, lake nor tank be near, three jars of water are placed in the Brahmasthāna, the centre of the sacred site.⁸

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⁸ ‘Vaikhānasāgama’, ch. XXXI; summary of the respective passage. ⁹ The South Indian temples are distributed over an area which in extent is one-fifth only of India. ¹⁰ The ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’, ch. LV. 10, prescribes the Vāstumaṇḍala of 64 squares for temples. Ch. LII. 42-54, gives the Vāstumaṇḍala of 81 squares, also for other buildings, and for towns, villages, etc. The ‘Agnipurāṇa’, ch. XCIII. 42, lays down 5 cubits (hasta ; 7½ feet) square as standard size of the Vāstu, if not otherwise specified; its ‘best’ measure however is equal to that of the building which contains the sanctuary (gṛha-prāsāda), the temple proper. The latter definition is also given in the ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’, ch. LIX. 3, where however the plan to the end of the two diagonals of the Prāsāda or Vimāna, the temple proper, is stated to have 81 squares. This is in agreement with ‘Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati’, Part III. ch. XXVII, 59; (translated by St. Kramrisch in the ‘Journal of the Indian Society of Oriental Art’, Vol. IX, p. 167). In ch. X, 4; 69; 78-80, of the ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’, the Vāstu of 64 squares, however, comprises the entire building site of a [fortified] town (pura) or of a city (nagara) and this seems to apply also to villages (grāma) and hamlets (kheṭa). The whole building site, the entire planning of town and temple and of the building of the main sanctuary, the Prāsāda, or Vimāna, conform with the Vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala, so that the gods dwell there in peace.

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Temples are built where Tīrthas are; their towering shapes to the last point of their height teem with forms which have the urge and fullness of Indian nature; step by step, level by level they lead the eye and mind of the devotee from this world to the worlds above. The temples rise from a broad base : differently built according to specific types, they have their variations in time and place and their shapes were elaborated in many schools. As they are to-day in southern India their high superstructures ascend in pyramidal form, while in northern India they fling their curvilinear faces towards a meeting point above the sanctuary.⁹

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Sometimes the temples form cities of God with many buildings of great extent and complex design, or the temple is but a small chapel only. Wherever a Hindu temple stands, whatever age witnessed its growth, and to whatever size, as house, body and substance for God (the Essence) to dwell in, it is built in principle on the same plan, the Vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala.

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Although this ritual diagram is neither the ground-plan of the temple nor necessarily the plan of the site, it regulates them. It may be coterminous with the site of the sacred precinct, or with the extent of the main temple building (prāsāda) only; or it may be drawn on an altar, and of standardised size.¹⁰ It is drawn on the ground prior to the building of the temple and on it the temple stands either in fact or symbolically. In principle it is always square and is the record of an architectural rite. The knowledge of its correct execution forms the first part of the science of architecture ('Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra', ch. XLV. 2). The square is divided into compartments and the diagonals are drawn. The name of the square is Vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala. Puruṣa is the universal Essence, the Principle of all things, the Prime Person whence all originates.¹¹ Vāstu is the site; in it Vāstu, bodily existence, abides and from it Vāstu derives its name. In bodily existence, Puruṣa, the Essence, becomes the Form. The temple building is the substantial, and the 'plan' (maṇḍala) is the ritual, diagrammatic form of the Puruṣa. Puruṣa himself has no substance. He gives it his impress. The substance is of wood, brick or stone in the temple.

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¹¹ 'Harivaṃśa', ch. I; R. Guénon, 'Quelques Remarques sur le Nom d'Adam', 'Études Traditionelles', 1931, pp. 726-31. ¹² "Once heaven and earth were united. Separating, they said: Let what is suitable to the sacrifice be common to both." 'Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa', I. 1. 3. 2-3; 'Tāṇḍya Brāhmaṇa', X. 6. 1-3; etc. Heaven and earth, once joined, subsequently separated. The beings, the 5 classes of them, gods, men, and so on, did not keep peace. The gods brought about a reconciliation of these worlds. Both contracted a marriage according to the rites observed by the gods. ¹³ 'Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati', Pt. III, ch. XII. 16; JISOA, Vol. X, p. 225.

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The form of the temple, all that it is and signifies, stands upon the diagram of the Vāstupuruṣa. It is a 'forecast' of the temple and is drawn on the levelled ground : it is the fundament from which the building arises. Whatever its actual surroundings, forest glade, seashore, hill or town, the place where the temple is built is occupied by the Vāstupuruṣa in his diagram, the Vāstupuruṣa-maṇḍala. That it is surrounded by the streets of a town, walls of a fort, ravines or fields, becomes of secondary importance, for its particular topography is but the hinge by which a changeable panorama is linked with the structure of the universe. The site is ritually levelled each time a temple is built; the ground from which the temple is to rise is regarded as being throughout on an equal intellectual plane. It is at the same time terrestrial and extra-territorial. It is the place for the meeting and marriage of heaven and earth,¹² where the whole world is present in terms of measure, and is accessible to man.

Site and Builder

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Man here is the patron or Yajamāna (lit. the sacrificer) on whose behalf the temple is built by the architect who is guided by the priest in the principles of his work. In the diagram of the Vāstupuruṣa a communication is established between man (puruṣa) as the patron of the work and the Puruṣa, the Essence, of all things. At the definite time and place where the temple is to be set up, all times and all places congregate in the symbolic diagram of the Vāstupuruṣa. On this ritual drawing rests the super-structure of the temple, which is the manifestation (mūrti) of God.¹³ The ritual diagram of the Vāstupuruṣa is drawn wherever the site is prepared for this purpose. The preparation is in the readiness and discipline of the mind and heart of the patron and of those who are entrusted with the work because they have the competent skill. The priest has the guidance; the architect, who builds the temple, works in conformity with the knowledge of the priest.

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A pilgrimage or visit to a temple is undertaken for the purpose of looking at it (darśana) with the sight of knowledge. Darśana is also the name of the six traditional points of view or methods of cognising Truth.¹⁴ The architect of the temple was not only a master of the 'ocean of the science of architecture'. Balanced himself in body and mind, he had to be versed in the traditional science (śāstra) in its various branches, and as much in the knowledge of rhythms (chandas),¹⁵ mathematics and astronomy as in the conditions of different places, etc. ('Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra', XLIV. 2-4, and 'Vāstuvidyā', I. 12-15). The various arts and sciences had to be known for one and the same purpose, so that he could apply them in his work which was to be an image and reconstitution of the universe.

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¹⁴ They are: Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta. While Vedānta cannot be realised without Yoga, Darśana, a direct seeing of the meaning which the temple demonstrates, presupposes Yoga.

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¹⁵ This refers to the rhythmical disposition of the ground-plan, for example (Pt. VII).

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In the 'Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra', a treatise on architecture, the author, King Bhoja of Dhārā, who ruled over Mālava in the first part of the eleventh century, says: "He, who begins to work as an architect (sthapati) without knowing the science of architecture (vāstuśāstra) and proud with false knowledge must be put to death by the king as one who ruins the kingdom (rājahiṃsaka); dead before his time, his ghost will wander on this wide earth. He, who though well versed in the traditional science is not skilled in the work will faint at the time of action like a timid man on the battle-field. He, who is expert only in his workmanship, but unable to understand the meaning of the traditional science, will like a blind man be misled by anyone" (S.S. XLIV. 6-10). Even so, he who knows the traditional science and its meaning and masters the craft, is not as yet the perfect architect. For immediate intuition, a readiness (pratyutpanna) of judgment (prajñā) in contingencies, and the ability to fuse them into the requirements of the whole, are the distinctions of a true Sthapati.¹⁶ It is then, that the builder himself, once his work is completed, is struck with wonder and exclaims: "Oh, how was it that I built it."¹⁷

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¹⁶ ib., verse 14, paraphrased.

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¹⁷ This is expressed in a copper-plate inscription from Baroda of a Rāṣṭrakūṭa king of Gujerāt, and is said to refer to the Kailāsanātha temple at Elura (Elāpura), a Kirtanam which the king "caused to be made in the hills at Elāpura, a wonderful building, on seeing which the best of immortals who move in celestial chariots, struck with wonder think much constantly, saying: This temple of Śiva is self-existent; in a thing made by art such beauty is not seen. The Śilpin (architect) of this temple in consequence of the failure of his energy as regards (the construction of) another such work, was himself suddenly struck with wonder, saying: Oh, how was it that I built it!" ('Epigraphia Indica', Vol. I, p. 159; R. G. Bhandarkar, 'The Rāṣṭrakūṭa King Kṛṣṇarāja I', 'Indian Antiquary', Vol. XII, p. 228 f.).

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The architect, Sthapati,¹⁸ is the foremost of the craftsmen (śilpin), of whom there are four classes, Sthapati, Sūtragrāhin, Takṣaka and Vardhakin, the designing architect, surveyor, sculptor and builder-plasterer-painter. These craftsmen carry out the instructions of the Sthāpaka, the architect-priest, who has the qualification of an Ācārya. The relation of priest and executive craftsman corresponds to the rule laid down for Christian art in the second Council of Nicaea (787 A.D.): "His art alone belongs to the painter, its organisation and arrangement belong to the clergy." It is defined in the 'Śilparatna' (I. 29-42) in which it is said of the Ācārya or Guru, who is the Sthāpaka :

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¹⁸ Sthapati, in 'Āpastamba Śrauta Sūtra', XXII. 7. 6, designates the Yajamāna, the sacrificer who is to be consecrated as priest. As builder of the Hindu temple, the Sthapati, by his special knowledge guided by the Sthāpaka is competent to act for his patron, the Yajamāna. ('Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati', Pt. III, ch. XXVI; JISOA, Vol. IX, p. 152 f). The patron is also designated as Kāraka, who makes the architect, the Kartṛ, do the work ('Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra', LVI. 303).

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"He who wishes to build villages, etc., or royal palaces, etc., tanks, etc., or temples, should select a Guru and Śilpin for this purpose. Let the Guru be a Brāhmaṇa of high born family, who has performed all the sixteen purificatory rites, who knows the essence of the sacred texts, the Vedas and Āgamas, and who observes the rules of conduct according to his caste (varṇa) and stage of life (āśrama), who has received initiation (dikṣā), is competent, exerts himself in his work (tapasvin) and is a believer (āstika) in the sacred tradition.

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The Sthapati who is called Viśvakarmā, in 'Mayamata', V. 13 f., is described as a disciple (anuśiṣya) of the Sthāpaka, ib. XII. 35 f. This essential relation is ignored by P. K. Acharya, in his 'Dictionary of Hindu Architecture', s. v.

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The Sūtragrāhīs or Sūtradhāras, who hold the cord (sūtra, śulva, rajju, etc.) [originally the bamboo rod (veṇu)] in the construction of the Vedic altar, have been, it appears, described by Democritos (440 B.C.) as Harpedonaptai.

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The descent and fall of the Hindu architect and the craftsmen, from their celestial origin, and from Vedic tradition is told in the 'Brahmavaivarta Purāṇa', I.X. 20-23f.

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Viśvakarman begot nine illegitimate sons on a Śūdra woman: They are named Mālākāra (garland maker), Karmakāra (blacksmith), Śaṅkhakāra (conch shell carver), Kuvindaka (weaver), Kumbhakāra (potter), Kāṃsyakāra (metal worker), Sūtradhāra (architect, carpenter), Citrakāra (painter), Svarṇakāra (goldsmith). All of them are expert in the arts (kalā) but the last three being cursed by a Brāhmaṇa became unholy and were deemed incompetent by the Śāstras to offer sacrifices.

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Viśvakarman cursed by Ghṛtācī (an Apsarā) descended to earth and was born by a Brāhmaṇa woman. Viśvakarman when he came to the world as a Brāhmaṇa was regarded as an unparalleled architect in view of the very grand, extraordinary and royal mansions which he constructed. He also instructed ordinary people on matters relating to architecture in various ways.

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Svarṇakāra became outcasted and unholy on account of the curse pronounced against him by a Brāhmaṇa whose gold he had stolen. Sūtradhāra neglected to carry out the orders of a Brāhmaṇa to collect fuel for sacrificial purposes, and being cursed by him, was likewise degraded. Citrakāra transgressed the orders of a Brāhmaṇa in respect of a picture the composition of which was defective and not according to the rules and underwent the same fate.

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It was then that the original function of art (śilpa) was lost. The destination of works of art is defined in the 'Aitareya Brāhmaṇa' VI, 5. 27: "Śilpāni, works of art of men, are an imitation of divine forms; by employing their rhythms a metrical reconstitution is effected of the limited human personality" (trans. by Coomaraswamy; in 'La Nature du Folklore', E. T., 1937, pp. 206-18).

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The descent and fall of the Hindu architect and the craftsmen, from their celestial origin, and from Vedic tradition is told in the 'Brahmavaivarta Purāṇa', I.X. 20-23f.

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First a Sthapati is to be selected—one well versed in the Śilpa-śāstras; similarly, a Sthāpaka also, knowing the Śilpa-śāstras and possessing all the qualifications of an Ācārya, being selected by the patron, should perform the architectural rites (vāstu-karma). The temple (vimāna) or any other (construction), begun by these two should be continued by them only and by no other. In case they be not available, the work should be done by either their sons or disciples who are competent in the work.” Then follows the description of the four classes of craftsmen (śilpin).

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“The Sthapati should be fit to direct (sthāpana) the construction and should be well-versed in all Śāstras, the traditional sciences, perfect in body, righteous, kind, free from malice and jealousy, a Tāntrik and well-born; he should know mathematics and the Purāṇas, the ancient compendia of myths, etc., painting, and all the countries; he should be joyous, truth speaking, with senses under control, concentrated in mind, free from greed, carelessness, disease and the seven vices (‘Manu-Saṃhitā’ VII. 47-48), famous, having firm friends and having crossed the ocean of the science of Vāstu.

v1.c4.s2.30

The disciple or son of the Sthapati is the Sūtragrāhin. He should always carry out the orders of the Sthapati, should be expert in all sorts of work, and should know the proportionate measurement by the cord (sūtra) and rod (daṇḍa) as applied to the whole building and its parts (see Pt. VII), the horizontal and vertical proportions (māna, unmāna).

v1.c4.s2.31

The Takṣaka is so called because he cuts off and carves (takṣ) the large pieces and the subtle detail. He is also expert in working in clay. He should be qualified, able, and capable to perform all sorts of work on his own initiative, in the right way, devoted to the Guru, ever cheerful, and obedient to the Sthapati.

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The Vardhakin is so called because he increases (vṛdh) [by placing together what the Takṣaka has carved and by adding to the finished work, the painting] and he always follows the Sūtragrāhin.

v1.c4.s2.33

Without these four nothing can be undertaken. Therefore all these four, the Sthapati and the others, should always be honoured.”

v1.c4.s2.34

Vāstu-śāstra, the traditional science of architecture, is subordinated to, and forms an auxiliary part of the Veda, the primordial Knowledge; in it intellectual intuition is laid down as sacred word.

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Vāstu-śāstra belongs to, and is, applied astrology. Varāhamihira, in his ‘Bṛhat-Saṃhitā’ introduces the chapter on architecture (LII) saying: “Vāstu-jñāna (the knowledge of Vāstu), architecture, will be explained by me for the pleasure of the astronomers and astrologers, as it has been transmitted from Brahmā to our days through an unbroken series of sages.” Building is begun under favourable stars. They are consulted when the ground is taken possession of and when the rite of depositing the Germ of the temple is performed. The regents of the planets and the stars have their allocation in the diagram of the temple and their images are carved on its walls. By them are regulated the measurement of the whole building and its parts; the life of the donor (yajamāna), and the age of the temple too. The temple is built in the likeness of the universe and is its reduced image. The architect of this world image, the temple, is looked upon as descended from, and in his sphere alike to, Viśvakarman, who made all that exists in the universe.¹⁹ The architect in charge of the building is therefore generally called Sthapati. The name means "master of what stands or abides". The science of architecture, called as a rule, Vāstu-śāstra, is also named Sthāpatya-śāstra-veda. It is the knowledge of ordered and planned extension (vāstu) and is put into practice by the master who makes existing things (vastu) abide in order. Sthāpatya-śāstra-veda is enumerated as an Upaveda, a lesser, applied knowledge subordinated to the Atharvaveda.²⁰ Vāstu-śāstra in its fullest exposition belongs to Tantra which is the applied knowledge of the Atharva Veda. As a ritual, architecture is moreover doubly linked with the primordial Knowledge, the Veda, and is included in two of the six Vedāṅgas. These are appendices which are auxiliary to the Veda. The fifth Vedāṅga, astronomy-astrology, Jyotiṣa, and the sixth Vedāṅga, Kalpa, in which are laid down the rules of the sacrificial acts, the ritual, are both, in parts, essential constituents of the science of Indian architecture.²¹ The Śulva-sūtras contained in the Kalpa-sūtras, represent the rules and give proportionate measurement for laying out and piling up the Vedic altar.²² On them, basically rests the building of the Hindu temple.

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¹⁹ With regard to the making of the universe, Viśvakarman is the working, Brahmā the thinking aspect of the Supreme Principle.

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²⁰ The other Upavedas are: Āyurveda (medicine), attached to the Ṛg Veda (acc. to Suśruta, I. 3, to the Atharva Veda); Dhanur Veda (military science) attached to the Yajur Veda, and Gāndharva Veda (music) attached to the Sāma Veda; cf. Apte, Dictionary, s. v. Sthāpatya Veda, the science of architecture; Āyurveda, the science of longevity, medicine; Dhanurveda, military science, and Jyotiṣa, the science of the luminaries,—astronomy and astrology,—are enumerated by the side of one another, in the 'Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra', X. 77; also 'Bṛhadśilpaśāstra', I. 10. Tantra, as a rule, is enumerated as Upaveda attached to the Atharva Veda. Tantra includes Vāstu-śāstra. According to the 'Śukranīti-sāra', IV. 3. 27-30, Śilpa-śāstra is included in the 32 Vidyās. Śilpa-śāstra is defined, 58, as the science which treats of palaces, images, parks, houses, etc.

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²¹ The six Vedāṅgas are: Śikṣā, recitation (articulation and pronunciation); Chandas, metrical science or the science of rhythms; Vyākaraṇa, grammar; Kalpa, ritual; Nirukta, hermeneutics, etymology; Jyotiṣa, astronomy-astrology ('Śukranīti-sāra', IV. 3. 28-29).

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²² The main subjects included in the general education of a Hindu were: Lipi or Lekhā (the alphabet, reading and writing), Rūpa (drawing and geometry) and Gaṇanā (arithmetic). These subjects were taught from the age of 5 till the age of 12, and in their higher stages up to the age of twenty-five. The Hathigumpha inscription, 163 B.C. says that King Khāravela spent 9 years, from the age of 16 onwards in the study of Lekhā, Rūpa, Gaṇanā. A knowledge of form (rūpa), number and proportion was an indispensable equipment; mathematics and architecture had their root in the Vedic altar. The indissoluble connection of number and form remained a consciously employed knowledge throughout. In the middle of the ninth century A.D. the mathematician Mahāvīra, in his 'Gaṇitasāra-saṃgraha', I. 9-19, speaks of the use of the science of number (gaṇita) in architecture and in all that constitutes the peculiar value of the arts (B. B. Datta and A. N. Singh, 'History of Hindu Mathematics', Pt. I, p. 5).

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The Vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala, the diagram of the temple, is a Yantra. ('Vāstu-vidhāna' of Nārada, Ms. 1602, Adyar Library; VIII. 26).²³ A Yantra is a geometrical contrivance by which any aspect of the Supreme Principle may be bound (yantr, to bind; from the root 'yam') to any spot for the purpose of worship. It is an artifice in which the ground (bhūmi) is converted into the extent of the manifested universe. The nameless, formless entity which is bound in this case to the spot within the square maṇḍala is known henceforth as Vāstu-puruṣa. The components of the artifice are: the ground on which the maṇḍala is drawn; the form of the maṇḍala; and its name together with the names comprised in its form.

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²³ The MS. is in Grantha script; Chapters VIII and X are published in the Appendix, in Devanāgarī.

The Stability of the Site

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The temple must be built according to definite rules, and it must be firm (dṛḍha; ‘Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati’, III. ch. XXVII. 82; ‘Vaikhānasāgama’, ch. VII). The latter injunction seems too obvious to have been made. But it does not primarily refer to a substitution of flimsy materials, such as mud, sand, wattle walls and bamboo posts by those of greater permanence; nor to the avoidance of careless construction in brick or stone nor to the desirability of such additional wall strength which would withstand earthquakes. With particular emphasis the earth itself is evoked as firm (dṛḍha) in the Rgveda (X. 121. 5; X. 173.4) and firmly established (pratiṣṭhā; ‘Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa’, VI. 1.1.15), and Earth, the goddess, is invoked to stand firm for our well-being (‘Vājasaneya-Saṃhitā’ XI. 69; ‘Taittirīya Saṃhitā’, IV. 1.9.2; Ś.B. VI. 6.2.6.). When a house is about to be built, an oblation is poured into the pit to the “steady one”, Vāstospati (‘Āśvalāyana Gṛhya Sūtra’ II. 8.15; ‘Pāraskara Gṛhya Sūtra’ III. 4.3). A fear is allayed by these epithets, oblations and invocations. It is the fear of uncertainty, of the changeable and transitory. By being ‘firm’ the earth becomes secure and a reliable support. For ‘before she was fixed, mother earth’ is spoken of as ‘the ever wandering’ (AV. V. 2.6). The rule of order under which buildings can be set up and in which men and gods are at home, is not from the beginning. There was unrest and instability. Yama, the god of Death, the first of mortals who preceded men on the path to heaven (RV. X. 14.1) assigns a station to everything that is movable. Yama, the Order of things in the cosmos and Righteousness in men, who is the Dharmarāja, ‘King Law’, establishes in this manifested world the immutability of the Supreme Principle. “Yama indeed rules over the earth” (Ś.B. VII. 1.1.3.). As it was in the beginning, so is it repeated with each building; Yama gives the residence when man builds the small world of his own, his house, or a temple in the likeness of the world, which is God’s residence.

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With regard to the builder, such a settlement too takes place in the intellect itself at the moment when its work is being given concrete form. The substance is its support and form is the nature of its activity. The form of the concrete work is the final seal of the process which leads to it; it bears the impress of Yama.²⁴

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²⁴ ‘Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa’, XI. 2. 3. 5. These indeed are the two great manifestations (yakṣye) of the Brahman (the Supreme Principle) . . . One of these two is the greater, namely, Form (rūpa) for whatever is Name (nāma), is indeed Form.

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King Bhoja, in the ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’ (VI. 5-27; VII. 7-34) recounts the afflictions of men when the wishing-trees (kalpadruma) which in the Kṛta Yuga had been their home and sustenance, and when the gods too withdrew to heaven.²⁵ It was, then, that King Pṛthu, the first of men who was installed as a king, attacked Pṛthivī, the earth, with his bow in order to level her (‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’, I. 6-24) for she was full of mountains, obstacles to communications and order which he had set himself to establish. But she ran away in fear, changing her shape into that of a cow and took refuge with Brahmā, the creator, whom also King Pṛthu then approached. Brahmā mediates between them, makes King Pṛthu the protector of Pṛthivī, the earth, and makes her yield to him the crops and the sites for building towns of men and gods.

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²⁵ The Kṛta Yuga or Satya Yuga, which is the Perfect or Golden age, is followed by the Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali Yugas successively. Their duration is, respectively, 4,000, 3,000, 2,000 and 1,000 years of the gods. One day of the gods is equal to one year of men (‘Manu Smṛti’, I. 67). 400, 300, 200 and 100 twilight years of the gods precede and follow each Yuga. The four Yugas with their Sandhyās are one Yuga (mahāyuga), of the gods.

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King Pṛthu does his work at a definite stage in the ‘history’ of the world : his prototype is Yama, the Dharmarāja, ‘King Law and Order’. King Pṛthu who has made the earth yield, and she, the wide, the ‘broad one’, Pṛthivī (Ś. B. VII. 4.2.6), are thence connected in fact and name. Her fugitive, errant state has found rest.²⁶ The earth will no more run away. She exists protected by law and order. This contract is sealed when her plains are ploughed and her ground is levelled for buildings. It is then that the earth is a place of abode (āyatana) for all gods (Ś.B. XIV. 3.2.4.) and the building ground (bhūmi)²⁷ the share of the gods (‘Śāṅkhāyana Gṛhya Sūtra’, III. 3.2).

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²⁶ This story is told in other versions in the ‘Viṣṇu Purāṇa’, I. Ch. XIII. and in other Purāṇas.

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²⁷ Ś. B. VII. 4. 2. 6-7. Earth, the wide, the broad one, is Pṛthivī; Earth, as substance, is Bhū; Earth, as ground, is Bhūmi.

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Full of life is the earth : it lurks in her and hovers above her. The ‘genii loci’ are many.²⁸ It is necessary that they should depart when a particular spot on the surface of the earth is chosen at the proper time for being commuted into the level and plan of the temple. The site is taken possession of for that divinity whose presence will be invoked and beheld in the temple. Those entities that were active in the site hitherto would be redundant;²⁹ they are asked to leave, with the rhythmic formula (mantra) : “Let spirits (bhūta), gods (deva) and demons (rākṣasa) depart and seek other habitations. From now this place belongs to the divinity whose temples will be built here” (‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’, LVIII. 11; ‘Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati’ Pt. III., ch. XXVI, 73-74; ‘Mayamata’, IV. 1, f; ‘Viṣṇusamhitā’, XII. 36 f; ‘Agnipurāṇa’, XXXIX. 16-18; ‘Mānasāra’, V. 4-9; etc.). With offerings, gods, spirits and demons are bid to leave. This gracious gesture releases their forces and sets the site free from all particular associations. In this way, too, it is steadied and expurgated. Emptied of its former contents, it retains its receptiveness and the power to assimilate new ones; finally it will have to be levelled and the plan and forecast of the temple will be laid out on the ground.

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²⁸ In the last verse of the Vanaparva, LXXXI, of the ‘Mahābhārata’, the sacred site of Kurukṣetra is known as the Uttara Vedi of Brahmā (p. 4). Its four corners bear the names of the resident Yakṣas, Ratna, and so on. The Yakṣas are held to be the resident divinities, also by the Buddhists; see S. Lévi, ‘Catalogue Géographique du Yakṣa dāns la Mahāmāyūrī’ (3-4th century A.D.), ‘Journal Asiatique’, 1915, I. p. 19 ff., ‘Sumaṅgalavilāsinī’, S. B. B. III, Pt. 2, p. 92; cf. P. Mus, ‘Barabuḍur’, op. cit., p. 660. “The geomancers recognise the divinities down to a depth of 30 cubits. Here dwells a Nāga, here a Yakṣa”.

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²⁹ Ś.B. VII. I. I. 5. “With a Palāśa branch (he sweeps). The Palāśa tree is the Brahman. He thus sweeps away those already settled.”

Purification, Insemination and Levelling of the Site

v1.c4.s4.1

Before this can be done the fitness of the soil has to be ascertained by several tests. A pit is dug and the earth which has been taken out is put back again. In a descending degree of its quality, it then either exceeds the pit in quantity, is level with it or lower; or, water is put into the pit over night: the quality of the soil is judged according to the quantity of the water found there in the morning; or, a flame put into the pit burns, or else is extinguished, in the latter instance the soil is unsuitable and has to be abandoned. These and other practical tests are described in the ‘Bṛhat-Saṃhitā’ (LII. 90-92) and elsewhere,³⁰ they are performed after the sound, smell, taste, shape or the consistency and colour have been examined; finally, the fertility of the soil must be tested. The ‘Matsyapurāṇa’ (ch. CCLIII. 12-18), prescribes according to the colour of the soil, white earth for Brāhmaṇas, red for Kṣatriyas, yellow for Vaiśyas, black for Śūdras. The castes and the earth correspond magically to the colours. Then comes an examination of the flavour of the earth, whether sweet, pungent, bitter, astringent, and its suitability is determined in the same ‘hierarchy’. When the suitable land has been acquired and the ground is ploughed, seeds are sown and the quality of the soil is tested according to their germination in 3, 5, or 7 nights, etc., and according to the size of the young plants.³¹ All this is being done to assure oneself of the fitness, and ritual purity of the soil. For the same reason all extraneous matter (śalya, ‘thorns’) has to be removed from the soil,³² so that it does not stand in the way of the divinities who henceforward will be assigned their places; its presence also forebodes evil to the builder and is felt as an uneasiness and local irritation in various parts of his body. Magic is active and divinatory science establishes the correspondence between the soil to be built on and the body of the builder.³³ Either has to be made pure by the respective rites, ready for setting up the temple, beginning each work on an auspicious day, and under a favourable star. The purification of the soil is complete when the ground has been ploughed repeatedly ('Kāśyapaśilpa', I. 42-56), watered, sown and planted with all kinds of grain and when these have flowered and ripened. Then it should be ploughed again. Then the earth is clean ('Viṣṇu-Saṃhitā', XII. 36-42).

v1.c4.s4.2

³⁰ The ‘Bhaviṣya Purāṇa’, ch. CXXX. 45-46, prescribes that this pit should be dug in the middle of an area of 4 cubits (hasta) square. Its measure should be 10 aṅgulas (the width of the upper phalange of the thumb) square and one cubit deep.

v1.c4.s4.3

³¹ See also ‘Mayamata’, III, IV; ‘Kāśyapaśilpa’, I. 56-57; ‘Mānasāra’, V, etc.

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³² ‘Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati’, Pt. III, ch. XXVI, 92 f.

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³³ Magic consists of actions expressive of a will for reality. The correspondence is constructed as a token of identity between the soil which will be ‘transubstantiated’ into the body of the Vāstupuruṣa and the person of the patron as Yajamāna or sacrificer. The external signs are a superstition, a residue of the belief in the identity of sacrifice and sacrificer, and with reference to the temple, in the identity of the sacrificial structure and the transformed body of man, the patron.

v1.c4.s4.6

At the beginning of the various phases in the construction and consecration of the temple, the "rite of the seeds and their germination" (aṅkurārpaṇa) is most important. It precedes the building of the temple ('Vaikhānasāgama', ch. II) and again the rite is observed before the last brick or stone is put into the superstructure (ib., ch. VIII), and once more prior to the installation of the main image and before the rite of opening its eyes (akṣi-mocana; ib., ch. XI) and also prior to the consecration of the sacrificial vessels (ib., ch. XXIX).³⁴ On the ninth, seventh, fifth or third day, prior to the performance of any of these rites, the seeds of different varieties of rice, kidney-bean, pulse, sesamum, mustard, etc.³⁵ are placed on a copper vessel, in front of Soma, the Moon, Soma, the totality of all oblations, the Lord of germs, the divinity who presides over formation. The 16 vessels used in this rite are circular like the lunar disc, the number corresponds to the digits of the moon, and further lunar symbols pervade this rite.³⁶ Their potency is given to the plants as they grow, to each variety in due season.

v1.c4.s4.7

³⁴ Also 'Vaikhānasāgama', ch. XIII. 'Without the rite 'aṅkurārpaṇa', all rites performed are futile' (ib., ch. XXX).

v1.c4.s4.8

³⁵ Or also of barley, wheat and other alternatives.

v1.c4.s4.9

³⁶ 'Vaikhānasāgama', chs. XXIX, XXX ; sixteen vessels of each kind if the Yajamāna is a Brāhmaṇa but 4 less respectively for a Kṣatriya, Vaiśya and Śūdra.

v1.c4.s4.10

Vedic rites introduce and accompany the building of the temple. The ploughing and the sowing of the sacrificial ground with all kinds of grain preceded the piling of the Fire altar (agni-cayana).³⁷ After the introductory libation (prāyaṇīya) of the Soma sacrifice, the altar site was ploughed by twelve oxen, twelve furrows were made and then the seeds were sown. From the making of the Mahāvedi of the Fire altar and the sowing of the sacrificial ground, the rite of auspicious germination (maṅgalāṅkura; 'Kāmikāgama', XXXI. 18, etc.) has remained an indispensable preparation of sacred architecture. "Even as this broad Earth received the germ of all things that be" (AV. V. 25.2), is the Germ (garbha) of the temple deposited in her. The structure of the temple that grows from this Germ absorbs the essence of the earth and transmutes it. Its shape is produced from the power of the earth (bhū); and its form corresponds to the plan laid out on its levelled surface (bhūmi).

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³⁷ 'Kāṇva-Saṃhitā', XX. 3. 4 ; 'Maitrāyaṇīya Saṃhitā', III. 2. 45 ; Ś. B., VII. 2. 2. 1-14.

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The spirits that previously occupied the site have been asked to leave. Tribute has been scattered to them at night and again when they depart before day-break.³⁸ When the ground is tilled, the past ceases to count; under auspicious stars new life is entrusted to the soil and another cycle of production begins, an assurance that ready for setting up the temple, beginning each work on an auspicious day, and under a favourable star. The purification of the soil is complete when the ground has been ploughed repeatedly ('Kāśyapaśilpa', I. 42-56), watered, sown and planted with all kinds of grain and when these have flowered and ripened. Then it should be ploughed again. Then the earth is clean ('Viṣṇu-Saṃhitā', XII. 36-42).

v1.c4.s4.13

³⁸ 'Mañjarī', quoted in I. P., Pt., III, Ch. XXVI, 74 f.

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First 99 of 133 passages. Read on

Linked texts (43)

Śatapathabrāhmaṇa — Yājñavalkya & Śāṇḍilya (Vedic teacher), Sanskrit
Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra — Bhoja, Sanskrit
Āpastambaśrautasūtra — Āpastamba, Sanskrit
Mayamata — Maya, Sanskrit
Bṛhatsaṃhitā — Varāhamihira, Sanskrit
Mānava Dharmaśāstra — Manu & Bhṛgu, Sanskrit
Aitareyabrāhmaṇa — Mahidāsa Aitareya, Sanskrit
Ṛgvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Atharvavedasaṃhitā — Atharvan & Aṅgiras, Sanskrit
Brahmavaivartapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Agnipurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Taittirīyasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Maitrāyaṇīsaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati — Īśānaśivagurudeva, Sanskrit
Matsyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Mānasāra — Sanskrit
Viṣṇusaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Taittirīyabrāhmaṇa — Sanskrit
Śāṅkhāyanagṛhyasūtra — Śāṅkhāyana, Sanskrit
Pāraskaragṛhyasūtra — Pāraskara, Sanskrit
Bhaviṣyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Vājasaneyisaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Viṣṇupurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Kāmikāgama — Sanskrit
Garuḍapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Mahānirvāṇatantra — Sanskrit
Kāśyapaśilpa — Sanskrit
Gaṇitasārasaṅgraha — Mahāvīra (mathematician), Sanskrit
Āśvalāyanagṛhyasūtra — Āśvalāyana, Sanskrit
Hayaśīrṣasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa — Sanskrit
Pañcaviṃśabrāhmaṇa — Sanskrit
Rādhopaniṣad — Sanskrit
Brahmasūtra — Bādarāyaṇa, Sanskrit
Mahābhārata — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Harivaṃśa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Sāmavedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Pāṭaliputra
Kurukshetra
Kailasanatha Temple
Tantrasamuccaya — Chennasu Nārāyaṇa, Sanskrit
Śāradātilaka — Lakṣmaṇadeśika, Sanskrit
Second inscription of the Vāïllabhaṭṭasvāmin temple at Gwalior, year 933 — Sanskrit