The Hindu Temple v1.c5.s2.62

v1.c5.s2.62

The drawing of the square plan, of the Vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala, is imperative prior to building a temple. The knowledge of its meaning and execution is the first discipline which the architect must master: there is no text on Indian architecture which does not deal with it or takes its knowledge for granted. At the height of temple building activity, when some of the noblest and largest Prāsādas were set up about the year 1000 A.D., the actual drawing of the diagram on the ground which the temple (prāsāda) was to occupy seems to have been the rule. From the stretching of the cord, or the drawing of the lines of the maṇḍala, every one of the movements is a rite and sustains, in its own sphere of effectiveness, the sacred building, to the same extent as the actual foundation supports its weight. These movements, rites and meanings are not accessory nor are they a mere accompaniment to the building itself. They go into the making of the Hindu temple, its shape and proportion and that of every carved detail and every figure, each at its proper place, with the rhythms and gestures, appropriate to it.