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The Hindu Temple v1.c5.s4: The Remainder

The Hindu Temple v1.c5.s4

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English

Contents

The Remainder

The Form of Mārtaṇḍa

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At sunrise another day begins, and time is added to time.⁶⁴ There was a yesterday where no sun shone and time did not exist, there was neither beginning nor end to anything so there was no thing, no limit. The non-limited, beyond limits, beyond the conditions which bring about the limits is Brahman. Being beyond all conditions, Brahman is all and everywhere and necessarily also in those conditions. So they too are within Brahman. Thus it is said "there are two forms of Brahman, time and non-time ('Maitrāyaṇī Upaniṣad', VI. 15). The one is deathless, the other is mortal; the mortal form of Brahman is the Sun. This Sun, whose children are men, is called Mārtāṇḍa.⁶⁵

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⁶⁴ Time in its cyclical appearance is manifested by the sun, moon and planets. It is the contingent aspect of duration. Duration is beyond division, it has no parts. Yet it is different from the unconditioned, unqualified Brahman (nirguṇa) of which it is the first qualified aspect. The unconditioned, unqualified Brahman is beyond duration and time. Duration is the principle of time and of death. The Sun (Mārtāṇḍa) is the Father of Death, and of Prototypal man, Manu, the Law-giver of each cycle (Manvantara; 4,320,000 years. [This is 10 x 432,000, the number of syllables of the Ṛg Veda]). Duration as the principle of cyclical time is Śiva-Bhairava or Kāla Mahākāla (see ch. on Rāhu; Pt. VIII).

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⁶⁵ RV. X. 72. 8; 'Maitrāyaṇīya-Saṃhitā', I. 6. 12. The egg which appeared as dead, "Mārtāṇḍa"...

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Mārtāṇḍa is the eighth son of Aditi, him the Boundless (=Aditi) brought forth inarticulate, a lump of bodily matter, as broad as it was high. Some however say that he was the size of a man (Ś.B. III. 1. 3. 3).

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The shape of Mārtāṇḍa is the result of Aditi's hybris. The 'Maitrāyaṇīya Saṃhitā' (I. 6. 12) tells the story. Aditi, wishing to get children, cooked rice. She offered it to the gods and ate the remnant. The result was that two sons were born of her. Again, she cooked rice, offered it to the gods and ate the remnant. Two more sons were born of her. She repeated the performance and again the result was the same. In consequence she concluded that she bore each time two sons because she had eaten the remnant of her offering. So she was tempted to eat first and then to offer the remnant. The result was that the two eggs within her were blighted. One recovered; the other appeared as dead and when born was Mārtāṇḍa.⁶⁶

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⁶⁶ The eight sons of Aditi (RV. X. 72. 8) are the eight Ādityas, the seven and one suns; Mitra and Varuṇa, Dhātṛ and Aryaman, Aṃśa and Bhaga, Indra and Mārtāṇḍa are their

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Leaving aside the many implications of this story, the Sun Mārtāṇḍa, the son of Aditi, born of the unconsecrated remainder, is the father of Man and of Death (Manu and Yama). Each of the other seven sons too, is born of the 'remainder'. From the Remainder, Aditi, the Boundless, brings forth the Sun in its various forms, the measure of time, the condition of mortal life.

Vāstu, the Remainder

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The shape of Mārtāṇḍa which is that of the Sun as father of Man and of Death,—the shape of the remainder, born from the boundless, is "as broad as it is long". Of this shape the diagram is a square. Its eight main points situated at the corners and the middle of each side, at the cardinal and intermediate directions, are occupied and identical to the 8 Vāstupuruṣas, who themselves are but 'remainder' in each particular instance (p. 38). Altogether, as its name implies, Vāstu is the remainder.

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The remainder or residue is that which remains or subsists when everything else has come to a conclusion. If something is complete in itself, perfection, nothing is left over, there is an end of it. If there is a remainder there is no end to it. So the remainder is the germ and material cause for what subsists. It is the concrete reality of a thing.

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The residue of the sacrifice is called Vāstu (Ś.B. I. 7. 3. 18-19).⁶⁷ What has been left over, should not be added later on. For it is left over for Rudra ('Maitrāyaṇīya Saṃhitā', I. 5. 13). A hymn of the Atharva Veda is sung in praise of the Residue of the offering: "Name and Form are in the Residue. The world is in the Residue. Indra and Agni are in the Residue. The Universe is in the Residue. Heaven and Earth, all Existence is in the Residue." (AV. XI. 9. 1-2 a). This residue where all existence is set together, is Vāstu. Rudra is called Vāstavya, for a remainder (vāstu) is that part of the sacrifice (Ś.B. I. 7. 3. 7). And the 'Taittirīya-Saṃhitā', III. 4. 10. 4, says: Vāstoṣpati (the lord of the Vāstu or remainder) is Rudra.

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⁶⁷ The passage can equally be rendered "The site of the sacrifice is Vāstu"; for when the sacrifice is completed, and all is burnt up or consumed, what remains of it is but the site where the offering took place. This site is the Vāstupuruṣa just as the sacrificial altar is the Puruṣa.

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Rudra is Vāstoṣpati. Vāstoṣpati is but another name for Vāstupuruṣa, the Puruṣa who is Vāstu. The Vāstu, in which reside (vas) the gods, is the residue, and the place of the germ of things to be and of the order of the extended, the plan, in principle, of the temple. Before dealing with the Vāstu as Puruṣa (Supernal Man) the Vāstu as maṇḍala (diagram) has to be explained in its parts and range, so that the whole Vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala becomes clear in meaning and application.⁶⁸

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⁶⁸ The Vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala is discussed here, as everything else concerning the Hindu temple in three of its aspects; metaphysically (parā), in its subtle aspect (sūkṣma), and descriptively (sthūla), in its physical aspect, its delineation.

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names in the 'Maitrāyaṇīya Saṃhitā', I. Here the remnant is of food. By eating some kind of food children are born to the immortals, or by inhaling some scent, or by mere touch.

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Cosmogonically, the Sun is produced from the Boundless and the Remainder. Ontologically, the Remainder, Vāstu, Existence in its cosmic order, is the diagram where the Sun and the other Luminaries are shown in their respective places.

Cites (6)