Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

The Hindu Temple v1.c8.s1.t1: 1. Vimāna

The Hindu Temple v1.c8.s1.t1

Language
English

1. Vimāna

v1.c8.s1.t1.1

"Puruṣa bears the measuring rod (māna, from 'mā'), knows division and thinks himself composed of parts. Hence he is known as Mati" (Mind; 'Vāyu-purāṇa', IV. 30-31).

v1.c8.s1.t1.2

To measure ('mā') is to make a thing by giving shape to it and existence. Māyā or manifestation means division of the hitherto undivided Principle; on itself it performs this operation and as Puruṣa it henceforth thinks of itself as composed of parts. Puruṣa who is the first form of the Supreme Brahman ('Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad', III. 19; 'Viṣṇupurāṇa', I. 1. 2), thus bears the measuring rod. He is the great Architect of the universe and in this capacity his name is Viśvakarman.¹ He is as the God of Israel who has disposed everything—in the world, within ourselves and outside,—with measure, number and weight (Sap. XI. 20).

v1.c8.s1.t1.3

¹ 'Mānasāra', II, 2-5.

v1.c8.s1.t1.4

Manifestation comprises all that is seen; it has form, and is measurable; "all that can be measured is in the form of Umā and the measurer is the great Lord" ('Liṅgapurāṇa', LXX. 15). When Puruṣa thinks of himself, it is in the form of Umā, who shows by her name which is from the root 'mā' like Māyā, that she is the 'measured out', the manifest world come into existence by the thinking of Puruṣa. He thinks himself composed of parts while he is the measurer, the great Lord. Ontologically, the act of measuring his form is subsequent and refers back to his undivided presence; it is a reconstitution and similar to it in its purpose is the work of the architects.² It is derived from His activity whose path 'measures' the wide heaven (AV. IV. 2. 3).

v1.c8.s1.t1.5

² 'Prakṛti' is Māyā and the Great Lord the Māyin, 'Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad', IV, 10. In the 'Mānasāra', II, 2-35, it is said that the four progenitors and prototypes of the four divisions of architects are born from the four faces of Viśvakarman. They are Viśvakarman, Maya, Tvaṣṭṛ, and Manu. Their descendants are the Sthapati, the master builder; the Sūtragrāhin or Sūtradhāra who holds the measuring rod or line, the surveyor and draftsman; the Vardhakī, the builder and painter (from 'vṛdh', to make grow) and the Takṣaka, the carpenter, see Part I note 18.

v1.c8.s1.t1.6

The word used here is ‘vimāna’, and it has remained one of the most generally accepted names which designate a temple. Vi-māna, measured in its parts, is the form of God which is this universe, the macrocosm, and the temple as well, as a middle term made by man, the microcosm, according to his understanding and by measure. To measure means here as much as to create; there is identity of measure and object³.

v1.c8.s1.t1.7

³ Gokarnasvāmin (Śiva) is called “the sole surveyor (sūtradhāra) in the construction of the Universe” in a grant of Devendravarman, of the year 254; ‘Epigraphia Indica’, XVIII, p. 309.

v1.c8.s1.t1.8

The Sun measures with his ray the boundaries of heaven and earth (RV. VIII. 25. 18)⁴. Viṣṇu measures the earth (RV. VI. 49. 13; VII. 100. 4). To Varuṇa, the Asura, the measurer of the earth (RV. V. 85. 5; VIII. 42. 1), belongs the line (Varuṇyā rajju)⁵.

v1.c8.s1.t1.9

⁴ The universe is measured by Savitṛ, the Sun (RV. V. 81. 3). The sphere over which a god rules is commensurate with his activity.

v1.c8.s1.t1.10

⁵ Varuṇa’s cord (Ś.B. I. 3. 1. 14), in iconography, is shown as a noose. It is the fetter, while the line is the measure of Time and Death.

v1.c8.s1.t1.11

To measure is to order. The order, which applies to the objects, is also within us, in the regularity of our breathing and the symmetry and proportion of our body. In conformity with the order of the macrocosm, the microcosm lives, ascertains its order and makes it known by uttering it, in the rhythms of its movements and voice; the latter are the metres. As the Gods have done, so does man, he builds and thereby gains the three worlds, knowing them rhythmically in their measured form and sequence. Thus it is said in the ‘Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa’ (VIII. 3. 3. 5): “The metre measure (mā) is this terrestrial world, for this world is measured; the metre forth-measure (pra-mā) is the air world for this is measured from this world; the metre countermeasure (prati-mā) is that heavenly world, for that world is countermeasured in the air”⁶. With this rhythmic formula (mantra) are laid down three layers of the altar (Agni); the fourth layer is the Brahman (Ś.B. VIII. 4. 1. 3).

v1.c8.s1.t1.12

⁶ The rhythmic formulae for the Bṛhati and Vālakhilya bricks, are (‘Taitt. Saṃh.’ IV, 3. 7. 1): Thou art Earth metre (mā), Air metre (pramā), Heaven metre (pratimā) . . . The Season metre, the Star metre, the Mind metre, the Speech metre. . . The inner rhythms of man and the worlds, and their presiding divinities Agni, Vāta, Sūrya, the impelling and regulating agents in and of the special metre, are invoked in these mantras or rhythmic formulae which are addressed each to one brick, identified with the deity. Mahidhara, comm. ‘Vāj. S.’, XIV, 18, explains Chandas, metre, as derived from the root ‘chad’, to cover. Each brick, each building-unit is imbued with rhythm. It is a charged and compelling weight and shape, in the hands of the builder. Cf. Āp. Ś.S., XVI, 28. 1. ff., the 12 mantras when laying the bricks in conformity with the golden Puruṣa.

v1.c8.s1.t1.13

Rhythm evokes a reality and measure builds it up. Whatever is produced is called ‘meya’ (‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’, IX. 28). It is measurable, capable of being known, a quantity (gaṇa; ‘Gaṇitasārasaṃgraha’, I. 10-15).⁷ Proportionate measurement (pra-māṇa) is essential to the temple (vi-māna) and to the image (prati-mā) alike. They are ‘made’ by it to the same extent as the Vedic altar and also the Vedi. When the Vedi is outlined on the ground, with the tip of the wooden sacrificial sword, this rhythmic formula (mantra) is recited: ‘‘With the sacrifice’s forth-measure (pra-mā), peri-metre (abhi-mā), counter-measure (prati-mā) and upward measure (un-mā), I comprise thee’’ (‘Āpastamba Śrauta Sūtra’, IV. 5. 4). Three fold and four fold measure is here meted out; it has direction and building power. It is the object, its energy and form. To have measured the measure, ‘‘so that one may not measure further; in a hundred autumns, not before’’ (AV. XVIII. 2. 38) means, that life has been lived consciously, adequately in every direction. ‘‘This measure (of life) man measures forth (pra), off (apa), apart (vi), out (nir), up (ut), together (sam), so that when he has measured it, it is said of him that he has gone to heaven’’ (AV. XVIII. 2. 39-45).

v1.c8.s1.t1.14

⁷ Gaṇita, the science of quantities and their computation, mathematics, is applied to architecture, Vāstuvidyā; to Chandas, the science of rhythms, etc.; to the dimensions of this earth, to the space world (the interspace, ‘antarikṣa’) and to the world of light and the gods; and to the configuration and destinies of the beings therein.

v1.c8.s1.t1.15

The temple as Vimāna, proportionately measured throughout, is the house and body of God. By temple is understood the main shrine only in which is contained the Garbhagṛha, the womb and house of the Embryo, the small, inmost sanctuary with its generally square plan.⁸ All other buildings within the sacred precinct, are accessory and subservient to it: the hall, Maṇḍapa, in front of the entrance, is itself, as in Orissa, a semi-separate structure to which may be added several more such buildings preparing the devotee for the entry into the temple. These accessory buildings conform in each case with the proportionate measure of the temple, the Vimāna; the Maṇḍapa, generally, coalesces with the Vimāna.

v1.c8.s1.t1.16

⁸ Garbha, however, is also commonly used in the sense of cell or separate room. Similarly too, the name Prāsāda, the other most important word for temple in common use, denotes a palace or palatial structure. In this sense it is generally employed by the Buddhists in the ‘Jātakas’, etc., and also later in the ‘Mahāvaṃśa’, etc. References to these passages are given by A. K. Coomaraswamy, in ‘Early Indian Architecture: III. Palaces’, ‘Eastern Art’, Vol. III. The ordinary designation of the separate rooms in a Prāsāda is Gabbha, ibid. p. 191. Gabbha denotes ‘cell’ in the cave inscriptions, note 102. To these words in their Pāli usage, correspond many others, such as Vedikā, ib., which here denotes any balustrade and not only one around a sacrificial platform (vedi).

v1.c8.s1.t1.17

Vimāna is the name of the temple built according to tradition (śāstra) by the application of various proportionate measurements or various standards of proportionate measurement.⁹ The module is either purely architectural or being taken from the Liṅga or image in the Garbhagṛha is, in principle, common to the building, the main object of worship and the builder. The Vimānas are thus variously proportioned. This is explained in detail in the ‘Matsyapurāṇa’ and ‘Garuḍapurāṇa’, and also in the ‘Hayaśīrṣapañcarātra’¹⁰. The purely architectural standard of proportionate measure¹¹ is generally the width of the square of the Prāsāda. This is the width of its wall, measured on the outside. The wall, as a rule, is thick; its inside width which is that of the Garbhagṛha is generally half of its external width¹². The total height of the Vimāna is double the external width of the wall¹³. These pure octaves of proportionate measurement however are not the only architectural relations (Part VII).

v1.c8.s1.t1.18

⁹ This definition is given in the ‘Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati’, III. Ch. XXVIII, 2; and repeated in the ‘Śilparatna’, XVI. 2. Vimānam denotes as well a chariot of the gods, the sky-travellers (AV. X. 8. 3; 4th Rock edict of Aśoka; cf. ‘Arthaśāstra’, II. 32. 49, ‘devaratha’) and a temple-construction, either of which are proportionate in their parts as laid down by tradition. ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’, XLIX. 2-9; ‘Vaikhānasāgama’, XLI., see also Part VII. Vimāna, in Buddhist texts, usually means a palace of the gods, cf. ‘Mahāvaṃśa’, XXVII. 9, 10, 13, where the Lohapāsāda is to be built ‘like’ a palace of the gods, or aerial palace (‘dibba-vimāna’ or ‘ākasaṭṭha-vimāna’), Coomaraswamy, l. c., p. 181. The ‘Vimāna-Vatthu’ deals of the celestial abodes destined for different beings according to their merits. In the Epics, Vimāna means a seven storeyed building, acc. to the commentary (‘Tilaka’ of ‘Rāmāyaṇa’, II. 33. 3 and II. 57. 18).

v1.c8.s1.t1.19

¹⁰ See Chapter VII, first chart, giving the proportions of Prāsādas, the ‘cominon’ (Sarvasādhāraṇa) standard and others.

v1.c8.s1.t1.20

¹¹ The absolute measures which were generally accepted, see Part II, note 89.

v1.c8.s1.t1.21

¹² The rule, that “the width of the wall on the outside should be twice the width of the Garbhagṛha is observed in the sixth century A.D. (‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’, LV. 12; subsequently ‘Matsyapurāṇa’, CCLXIX, 1, and up to a recent past if not to this day, where traditional practice has not as yet become extinct, as for instance in Orissa, cf. ‘Bhuvanapradīpa’, LXXXIII, quoted and translated by N. K. Basu, in ‘Canons of Orissan Architecture’, p. 119. Re. other proportions, see however Part VII.

v1.c8.s1.t1.22

¹³ Bṛhat Saṃhitā’, LV. 11.

v1.c8.s1.t1.23

The other standard of proportionate measurement of the plan and section of the building is not architectural; it is the height of the Liṅga¹⁴ or the image¹⁵ in the Garbhagṛha. The measure of the donor, the Kāraka or Yajamāna enters into that of the building, if the Liṅga or image is considered as measured according to the ‘aṅgula’, his finger measure¹⁶; in this vestigial survival, the measure of a ‘puruṣa’, the length of man, is in certain temples at least, also the module of the Vimāna. Ś.B. X. 2. 1. 2; 2. 6, gives the measure of the Altar by finger breadths and also by the measure of man with arms stretched up.

v1.c8.s1.t1.24

¹⁴ ‘Matsya Purāṇa’, CCLXIX. 8; ‘Garuḍa Purāṇa’, I. XLVII. 10-13.

v1.c8.s1.t1.25

¹⁵ ‘Hayaśīrṣapañcarātra’, XIII. 318; ‘Agnipurāṇa’, XLII. 9-11. The more general reference seems to be to the Liṅga. The connection of Liṅga and temple appears more close and may be more original than that of image and temple.

v1.c8.s1.t1.26

¹⁶ The ‘svairāṅgulapramāṇa’ given in the ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’, LVII. 4, and elsewhere denotes a division of the image. In the ‘Śukranītisāra’, IV. 4. 82, however, ‘aṅgula’ measures one-fourth part of the fist of the donor. According to the ‘Piṅgalāmata’, however, P. C. Bagchi, ‘Piṅgalāmata’, ch. IV, JISOA, vol. XI, p. 157, aṅgula is the breadth measurement of the upper phalange of one’s own thumb. This relative unit of measurement became standardised as 8 yavas=1 aṅgula. In the ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’, LXVII. 27, which deals of Maṇḍapas, the ‘hasta’ measure is that of the donor himself (gṛheśitā, lit. householder), cf. Part II, note 89.

Linked texts (26)