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The Hindu Temple v1.c7.s2: Plaster

The Hindu Temple v1.c7.s2

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Plaster

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Whether an Indian temple is built of wood, brick or stone, the work is done with precision. Bricks and stone are carefully laid and joined (suyuktyā; ‘Viṣṇudharmottara’, III, ch. XCI, 12). The stones are frequently kept in position without any cementing material.⁷⁴ Iron clamps are used for wooden joints, if need be and where the masonry is dry the stone blocks are held together with iron dowels (Deogarh). Sudhāśilā, plaster, and Vajralepa, a glue cement and coating, were applied; there is no lack of prescriptions how to prepare them. Vajralepa is a hardened glue mixed with other substances such as conch shell powder or white earth (caolin). Vajralepa is made either of purely vegetable substances, gums, resins, and viscous residues, or else it is produced from animal substances, hides and horns; to the latter could be added a mixture of metallic substances, or of lime. Vajralepa which means ‘diamond plaster’ is so called because it is specially durable and firm; it is recommended for these qualities, in the ‘Śilparatna’ (XIV. 58-75), in a passage which deals with the different kinds of lime plaster (sudhā). The careful process of mixing the several ingredients with the granulated and powdered lime from gravel and conch shell lasted from two to four months with the result that the plaster was not only durable but also that it had none of the stark deadness of effect which for instance whitewash imparts. It is a rich and creamy white, discreetly shining, like polished ivory or some ancient enamel.⁷⁵ Under this white, smooth, polished plaster, stone and brick are often combined in one and the same structure, stone in the lower parts and brick above, a practice found not only in south Indian temples, but also in

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⁷⁴ The practice of building with cyclopean stones (cf. Jarasandha-ka-baithak, Rajgir) (Kramrisch, in Vol. VI, p. 235 of Springer’s ‘Kunstgeschichte’) persisted in the Hindu temple: in the courses of dry masonry of carefully dressed and relatively very large stones (Gupta temples in Central India; early Cālukya temples in the Deccan, early Cola temples in South India). In the Cālukyan temples, dry masonry, with no cementing materials between the stones, was employed in the earlier sandstone buildings (H. Cousens, ‘The Cālukyan Architecture’, ASI. NIS. Vol. XLII). This is also true of the mediaeval temples of the Deccan built of amygdaloidal trap (H. Cousens, ‘Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan’, ASI. IS. Vol. XLVIII), of those in Gujerat (J. Burgess-H. Cousens, ‘Architectural Antiquities of Northern Gujerat’, ASI. Vol. IX), and of Orissa (M. M Ganguli, ‘Orissa and Her Remains’, p. 257). Metal has been used for bonding from the Mauryan pillars onwards (bronze dowels or copper cramps). Wrought iron beams form a grid as framework for the stone masonry of the ceiling of the Maṇḍapam at Konarak, Orissa, in the 13th century.

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⁷⁵ Some of the most perfect temples in Central India, at Khajuraho, have their facing stones of fine sandstone embedded in lac (lakh), apparently resinous Vajralepa; chunam concrete being generally used in the core. Iron clamps are also freely employed; (B. L. Dhama, ‘A Guide to Khajuraho’, p. 4). In the Panjab the Kafirkot stone temples are cemented with lime mixed with quartz (Cunningham, ASI, Vol. XIV, p. 26). The earliest preserved dry masonry is the stone facing of Stūpa I, Sāñcī; the earliest occurrence of lime mortar in historical times is in the brick foundation of the Viṣṇu temple at Besnagar (ASIAR, 1913-14). Brick temples have frequently a thin layer of a clay mixture as an adherent between the bricks (P. Brown, ‘Indian Architecture’, Pt. I, p. 16). The brick temples in Sirpur, C. P., seventh century, were completely covered by a thin layer of white plaster. The bricks are carved (ASIAR, 1909-10, p. 11). The ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’ Ch. LVI, 1-3, 5-8, and the ‘Viṣṇudharmottara’, Pt. III, Ch. XCII,

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1-15, among the ‘early’ texts, give the ingredients of the various kinds of Vajralepa which were used in stone and brick buildings. Vajralepa formed also the ground for wall paintings; this is described in detail in the ‘Mānasollāsa’ or ‘Abhilāṣitārtha Cintāmaṇi’, a compendium compiled in the twelfth century.

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Four and five recipes respectively of the preparation and ingredients of Vajralepa are given in the ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’ and in the ‘Viṣṇudharmottara’. Two of the preparations are purely vegetable, one consists of animalic glue and vegetable substance, the fourth contains metallic substances and into the fifth (V. Dh. l.c., 10-11) a concoction from cowhides, etc., and lime has been mixed.

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These different kinds of Vajralepa, the ‘adamantine glue’, are used for external application, on stone and brick buildings, according to both the early texts. V. Dh. ib., 12-13, indicates that these mixtures are also used for cementing the stones or burnt bricks of the buildings.

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In the ‘Mānasollāsa’, II, iii, 1, 132-40 (Cf. also the ‘Nārada Śilpa Śāstra’ of which two chapters on painting are translated by V. Raghavan, JISOA, Vol. III, p. 19 f.), the walls, to which lime plaster (sudhā) has been applied should then be coated with a paste of hide-glue mixed with white earth (kaolin ?) in three layers, and above it another final coat of the same paste mixed with powdered conch, etc. This passage clearly shows that the ‘adamantine glue coating’ or ‘plaster’ the Vajralepa, is applied in several thin coats above the lime plaster, Sudhā. The final coat of Vajralepa, when completely dry, forms the ground of wall paintings. The ‘Mānasollāsa’ describes as further use of the Vajralepa that it is mixed with all colours. In that case, the glue of the boiled buffalo skin is collected on small sticks and allowed to harden. It is then put in an earthen pot with water and melted. This pure glue is to be mixed with the respective pigments. It is thus a tempered medium for painting on the Vajralepa-ground (the reference in V. Dh. III, Ch. XL, to a decoction of hides, may imply this too).

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The wall paintings, according to the ‘Viṣṇudharmottara’, 1. c., are executed on plaster. The plaster there, in the main, consists of bricks, variously powdered, mixed with clay and carefully prepared with gum resin, bees wax, liquorice, ‘muḍga’ bean and other vegetable substances. Sand, etc., has to be added in due proportion; the mixture is allowed to consolidate for one month, and is then applied to the wall and left to dry. If this dry plaster is not perfectly smooth, it is coated with clay plaster mixed with resin and oil which is carefully smoothed and polished. On this dry, smooth wall the paintings are produced acc. to Ch. XL, Pt. III, of the ‘Viṣṇudharmottara’.

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The kinds of glue Vajralepa, given ib., Ch. XCII, are not referred to in connection with the preparation of the ground of the wall paintings which is a brick and clay plaster with a certain amount of resinous and viscous substances in its fabric.

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The ‘Śilparatna’, XIV, 58-75, describes different kinds of lime plaster, mainly from powdered, etc., gravel but also of powdered shell and with a proportion of sand to which the following liquids are added: the sap of various milky trees, Aśvattha, Butea Frondosa, Kadamba, Myrobalan and Mango-juice, or curd, milk, cocoanut water, ghee, as well as ripe bananas, pulse, rice gruel, etc., according to the different types or desired qualities of the plaster. Last of these varieties of plaster, Vajralepa is described. 100 parts are lime, 2 parts resin (karala), and small quantities of ghee, bananas, cocoanut-water, pulse, Aśvattha sap and jaggery. Re. Vajralepa, a buffalo hide glue, see Ch. on Painting, ib. XLVI. 131-2.

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Vajralepa acc. to the ‘Śilparatna’ XIV, 75, is a high grade lime plaster with two per cent. resin in its composition, and other binding and adhesive substance. The term Vajralepa denotes a special kind of plaster used in buildings; in wall paintings however it is a glue-coating and glue medium (see above, and “ ‘Śilparatna’, Ch. 64”, Trans. Coomaraswamy; cf. infra).

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Coomaraswamy, ‘Indian Architectural Terms’, JAGS, Vol. 48, p. 263, says of Vajralepa, the adamantine medium, that it is actually glue. It should be distinguished from Sudhā, plaster. This is correct, but when various glue-substances are mixed with the plaster, the whole mixture is also called Vajralepa.

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the Deccan as in the Temple at Kokamthan, Ahmednagar.⁷⁶ On the superstructure of this temple the figure-symbols are cut or formed in the plaster only, while the carvings on the Kailālanātha Temple at Conjeeveram are of stone with their ornaments and lesser details carved in plaster.⁷⁷ The calm radiance of the white temples is extolled in inscriptions.⁷⁸ In this whiteness, it appears, their ‘sāttvika’ quality, their conformity with the pure Essence (sat), shone forth.⁷⁹ This luminous splendour corresponds to the ascending tendency within the ‘sattva guṇa’, which is expressed by the vertical of the high superstructure of the temples and the total disposition of their mass. From the broad base they are built up towards the high point in the centre above even their mountainous superstructure or Śikhara.

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⁷⁶ Cousens, ‘Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan’, op. cit., p. 50. The walls are of stone, the Śikhara or superstructure is of brick. The carvings in stone are overlaid with plaster; in the brick portion, the carving is solely in plaster.

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⁷⁷ Carving in plaster, and also in terracotta gives precision and dignity to these substances; cf. the carved bricks of brick temples from the Gupta Age (Deogarh, Paharpur, etc.) to those of the nineteenth century in Bengal.

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⁷⁸ “The temple resembling a mountain shines white.” Mandasor (in Lāṭa) Inscr., A.D. 473-74, line 16, ‘Indian Antiquary’, Vol. XV, p. 196. This temple was consecrated to Sūrya.

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⁷⁹ The 3 Guṇas are Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Their colours are white, red and black, and their inherent tendencies are ascending, expanding and descending, respectively. The three Guṇas are the three constitutive qualities of Prakṛti, the nature of the world.

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Bricks and stone are frequently combined in one and the same building. The body of the temple is of brick and the door frame of stone,⁸⁰ or the body of the temple is of stone and the superstructure of brick,⁸¹ or in a single architectural relief panel, the major part is stone and it is completed in brick on one side.⁸² These varied combinations, for reasons of added strength or decreased weight or for the sake of expediency, are due to the relation of the craftsman to his work and towards the means of making it. Once he has taken the stone for instance from

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⁸⁰ Sirpur, C. P.

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⁸¹ This is frequent in the later South Indian temples.

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⁸² Paharpur, Bengal: ASIAR, 1926-27, Pl. XXXII a; Kramrisch, ‘Indian Sculpture’, p. 215.

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Various recipes for producing an ‘adamantine plaster’ were used in the millennium, from the ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’ and ‘Viṣṇudharmottara’ to the ‘Śilparatna’ in different parts of India. Lime plaster particularly described in the ‘Śilparatna’, the ‘Mānasollāsa’, and the ‘Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati’, IV, Ch. XXXIII, 66-69,—‘Vajrabaddha’, an adamantine plaster used as ground for paintings,—South Indian text books, is also briefly mentioned in ‘V. Dh.’ III, Ch. XCI, 15, as Sudhāsīlā, where its use is advised in temples, but not in houses. The same chapter (14) speaks of Vajralepa which is described in detail in the following chapter, as cementing material for baked bricks and stones, whereas mud cement is prescribed for unbaked bricks. Re. plaster, cement and the ground of wall paintings, see also ‘Mayamata’, XVIII, 92—115.

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the earth and the tree from the forest and its living context, with expiation and apology for his interference, he takes on himself the responsibility for giving them appropriate use in the new context. This is to set up the temple as an image of the Puruṣa and as His dwelling. The natural connection has been severed, the earth has been burnt, the stone has been cut, the tree has been felled and they arise as the temple and its parts. Their texture survives and it is given consideration by the traditional and hereditary craftsman. It would, however, amount to a retrogression from the state of grace into the state of nature were one to expect that the ‘material’ would guide the builder. On the contrary, brick and stone alike, or in combination, may disappear under a coating of plaster, which might partly have been coloured too.⁸³

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⁸³ To what extent each structural temple was originally plastered, or plastered and painted, is difficult to say. The cave temples of the Deccan, however, almost without exception were originally coated with plaster and painted, on their plain and straight, as much as on their carved and modelled surfaces. Ellora, especially in the Daśavatāra cave, Bādāmi and Ajaṇṭā have still painted plaster preserved on their images; especially in Ajaṇṭā, the large Bodhisattva figures in the sanctuaries of caves I and II, and on carved capitals and pillars, etc. In temples no longer in use whatever plaster there may have been has since disappeared or perhaps never existed at all, whereas it has been overlaid by the use of whitewash in those still in worship.

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The ‘material’ does not demand from the Hindu craftsman in his treatment of it a consideration of its nature for it has ceased to exist as such. The wood of a living tree fulfils a different function from that of a carved image, pillar or vaulted beam. It has been converted to its new function by a series of processes, by art as well as by magic. As little as Indian thought knows of ‘matter’ so little is the craftsman concerned with the material for the sake of its effectiveness. He knows, on the other hand, its texture and the various qualities which make it suitable for one special purpose and not for another. He does justice to them and applies his knowledge and sensibility to the lustrous malleable metals for instance or to the stones of different hardness and light-absorbing power in their carved surfaces. These qualities act as evocative influences by the contact with his hand and eye and they make more close his identification, by his work, with his vision. It is in the form of his work and its intense consistency. This does not belong to any single statue or image only, for all the carved form, figure or architectural unit, however small, is part of a comprehensive whole, the temple. It may show itself as made of wood, brick or stone or else be covered by a coat of egg-shell like plaster and painted detail. Sometimes, as in the Kailāsanātha Temple at Conjeeveram, the detail is carved only in the thick plaster which overlays the stone, such embellishment far from being supernumerary tends to focus attention on every part to which it clings.

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Stone, brick or wood and also plaster and paint are substances of realisation. In them the image or vision takes form, settles down, imbues their grain and fibre and gives them the new life, as part of the temple, the seat of God. All the same these substances are true to this name also in another sense. In them ‘subsists’ their grain and texture, the frame-work given to them by Yama, and it carries with it the memory of their original state. This finally outlasts its own

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particular substance; the curves of light woods for instance such as bamboo and branches, retain their resilience whether they are cut in brick or carved in stone.

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"The clay is permanent but things constructed with the clay are not so" ('Brahmavaivarta Purāṇa', I. XXVIII. 29). The clay persists in nature, however many things made of it may perish. On the other hand, even when substances other than the clay are used, its feel, its qualities, and the ideas associated with it, persist; the form which resulted from a long and intimate contact remains a living memory and by it such other substances are shaped which are substituted for definite reasons. The clay, the brick, the wood and to some extent too the 'cyclopean' boulder of stone have each outlasted their original state and also their actual employment in the form and proportion of the temple.

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The well known transfer of the construction forms of one material into the other is so caused. The curves of the bamboo for example are copied in bent wood and cut in brick and stone. In any material, it is the bending nature of bamboo stems or wooden branches, yielding the elements and the form of the arch. Whatever the material, it is made into the same form and conveys the same meaning. It is the form by which the memory of the original is made permanent.

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The inherent quality, the subtle nature, of bamboo for instance, is thus restituted by giving it a permanency which its physical nature could not guarantee. This is done by art. This permanence, in art, is a quality of the form and belongs to memory. The transfer of form from the one more perishable, to the other, less perishable substance is a restitution of the 'subtle' body, of the original clay or wood. Though all things made of clay or wood might perish including clay and wood themselves their subtle nature is expressed in stone. It is the way of redemption, a relative guarantee of immortality which things constructed are able to give.

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The substance of which the temple is built gives body to the indwelling Essence; from this point of view it is immaterial what it is, and it is also immaterial whether different substances are combined or the one is overlaid by the other, provided that the Essence imbues and impresses the form.

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By their new destination, wood, clay, stone and plaster, etc. are transubstantiated. This comes about while they are being worked on. In this, however, they are not altogether passive, for they offer their obstacles as well as their particular facilities and these contacts are felt and remembered by the craftsman. Sensibility contributes its own share to a wider memory which comprises all those associations that have accumulated round the bricks or the wood in their traditional employment. A triple memory, that of traditional knowledge, of sensibility and of piety helps to preserve the subtle body, that is the particular quality and aptness of the several substances, severed as they are from their natural life and habitation, in a more permanent body which has but one ultimate destination.

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