The Hindu Temple v1.c7.s3.21

v1.c7.s3.21

During a night which is in every way auspicious to the inception of the building, the Garbha vessel is lowered to the prescribed level of the foundation. On its floor the Serpent Ananta, the Endless, is drawn. On the hood of Ananta, the Garbha-casket has its place. On the lid of the casket, on a square surface, the maṇḍala of the Earth is drawn with its seven continents, seas and mountains. The Casket as the goddess Earth contains all kinds of living beings, the moving and immovable, the Seed (bīja) and womb (garbha) of the building. She is invoked and consecrated with the rhythmic incantation: "O Thou who maintainest all the beings, O beloved, decked with hills for breasts, O ocean-girt, O goddess, O Earth, shelter this Germ (Garbha)." Earth is here the Bhūmi, the ground of being and becoming. The Seed of the temple is laid in her in the centre.⁹⁵ Its germination has been prepared in the rite of the sowing of the seeds and of the growing plants (aṅkurārpaṇa).