The Hindu Temple v1.c4.s3.9

v1.c4.s3.9

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.