The Hindu Temple v1.c5.s8.1

v1.c5.s8.1

While the Vāstumandala is laid out by the subdivision of the total square, the temple with its parts has its meaning displayed in the opposite direction, from the Centre of the square, the Garbhagṛha, towards its perimeter. The Vāstumandala is a prognostication, a forecast and ‘tonic’ of the contents which will be built up in the temple; it is in a literal sense, its programme. This does not imply an identity of the actual plan of the temple, with the mandala. The actual and indefinitely varied temple plans have in the Vāstumandala a prototype; it gives the widest margin to their possibilities. The two generally accepted Vāstumandalas, of 64 and 81 squares on the other hand are not the only varieties of their kind, but are part of an arithmetical series of 32 plans. It progresses from a plan of one square to one with 1024 square subdivisions, that is having a side length of 32 units. The number 32 is half of 64, and it is 4 × 8; it belongs to the series of ‘opposites in balance’, to a progression beginning with the simple square of the Pṛthivīmandala; which is again resolved in every one of the 32 types in the Brahmasthāna, in the middle with its 4 or 9 squares around the central point or in one central and only square.. Thirty two is also the number of the Pāda-devatās, arrived at by a subdivision of the border of the square.