The Hindu Temple v1.c7.s2.29

v1.c7.s2.29

"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.