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The Hindu Temple v1.c8.s2: The Object in Building a Temple

The Hindu Temple v1.c8.s2

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The Object in Building a Temple

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“Let him who wishes to enter the worlds that are reached by sacrificial offerings and the performance of religious obligations (iṣṭāpūrta) build a temple to the gods, by doing which he attains both the results of sacrifice and the performance of religious obligations” (Br. S. LV. 2)³¹. The commentary explains that sacrificial fire offerings are called ‘iṣṭa’ and all other offerings are ‘pūrta’. The latter include the construction of tanks, wells, lakes and houses of the gods (devatāyatana). The sacrificial offerings secure for the sacrificer a place in heaven (svarga) according to the merit of his sacrifice. The Yajamāna, the sacrificer, is the donor of the temple; his sacramental person, transformed by his sacrificial and other offerings is transferred to heaven. The duration of his stay there is permanent (nitya) according to Kāśyapa, quoted by Utpala, the commentator of the ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’; this is secured by the enduring nature of the shrine. Essentially, the acts and rites in building the temple are sacrificial³². With these go lasting concrete and beneficial results embodied in the building, active in all the planes into which the temple symbolically reaches both in this and the other worlds.³³ Where the Fire-altar, Agni, acted mainly as instrument and sacramental body of the sacrificer for the attainment of his ultimate purpose, the temple ostensibly stays as a monument of its function. Its permanency depends upon its substance and on many factors which work on the monument while it stands, and affect it in time.

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²⁹ The Sasbahu Temple (Gwalior) is called Hari-sadanam, Sadanam of Viṣṇu, in the inscription of Mahīpāla (A.D. 1093), ‘Ind. Ant.’, vol. XV. p. 33; cf. Ś.B. VI. 1. 2. 28; note 19.

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³⁰ Devagṛha, however, is not only a house of God on earth; it is also the name of the luminaries, the abodes in the firmament of those Ṛṣis, etc. who attained Deva-hood by their Karmas. The stars and the luminous spheres in the firmament are Devagṛhas; ‘Matsyapurāṇa’, CXXVIII. 39-41. Cf. also the meaning of Vimāna as ‘prototype’ of the temple; Part VII. The other names which have not been explained as yet, denote: Saudha, a plastered, palatial building; Dhāman, a residence; Sadanam and sadma are from the same root ‘sad’ as Prāsāda; 13, 14 and 25: Laya, Ālaya and Nilaya, a place of rest, a residence; 16 and 24: Pada and Āspada, a station; 15, 17 and 18: Vāsa, Vāstu and Vāstuka from ‘vas’ (pp. 82-3) and 19: Kṣetra, sacred ground and abode (see note 28). The ‘Kāśyapaśilpa’ (XXIII. 1), enumerates as synonyms: Prāsāda, Sadanam, Sadma, Harmyam, Dhāman, Niketanam, Mandiram, Bhavanam, Vāsa, Geha, Divya-Vimānaka, Āśraya, Āspada, Ādhāra and Ādhārapratidhiṣṇya. Āśraya, Ādhāra and Ādhārapratidhiṣṇya signify the support which the temple, being a seat, gives to divinity.

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³¹ Kern translated, l.c. : “meritorious deeds of piety and charity”, a Christian interpretation; Iṣṭa, derived from the radical ‘Yaj’, the commentary explains are Yajña, that is offerings through fire. See Sāyaṇa’s commentary on RV. X. 14. 8.

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³² One of the main sacrifices being the Vāstu-homa.

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³³ “For the purpose of increasing the religious merit of his parents and of himself” says the Gwalior stone inscription of Mihiragula, was the stone temple (śailamaya Prāsāda) of Sūrya set up there (‘Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum’, vol. III. p. 162). For such reasons also, the ‘Agnipurāṇa’ ch. XXXVIII. 25-26, says “having got wealth by luck or exertion one should give it in the proper way to the best among the twice-born and cause temples to be constructed.” In the same chapter it is also said that a poor man building the smallest shrine reaps the same benefit which a rich man does by building the largest (XXXVIII. 10-11). This is in general the stated purpose; the temple by the symbolism of its architecture gives to it a detailed and definite exposition.

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Other factors, of the period and place influence it, while it is being built and leave their mark on its style. Whereas temples are built in differing styles, the Fire-altar is subject to no such variation; its shape is independent of time and place, independent even of extensiveness, so much so that one of the types of the Vedic Altar is prescribed to be made of rhythms only (chandaściti) and not of bricks which are their representatives³⁴. Ancient extant temples and preserved texts date from about the same age³⁵. In the northern half of India it coincides with the rule of the Gupta Dynasty. The ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’ and the ‘Matsya Purāṇa’, the former of the sixth century A.D. refer to the standard works on which they are based. Varāhamihira, the author of the ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’,

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³⁴ ‘Baudhāyana Śulva Sūtra’, II. 62-86; “In the case of the Chandaściti, the Agnicit, the builder of the Fire-altar, draws on the ground the Agni of prescribed shape. He then goes through the whole prescribed process of construction imagining all the while that he is placing every brick in its proper place with the rhythmic formula (mantra) that belongs to it. The mantras are recited but the bricks are not actually laid. The Chandaściti thus is the Citi or altar made up of Chandas, rhythms, or mantras instead of bricks or loose mud pieces (B. B. Dutt, ‘The Science of the Śulba’, p. 3, note).—Cf. the 36,000 Fire-altars made of mind, speech, breath, etc. ; ‘Vedānta Sūtra’, III. 3. 44 (Śaṅkarācārya’s comm.).

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³⁵ The ‘Gṛhya Sūtras’ refer to the shrines of gods as ‘devagṛha, devakula’, also ‘devāyatana’ (cf. note 23). The ‘Āpastamba Gṛhya Sūtra’, VII. 20 describes the carrying about of images by the house-holder and the placing of them in huts built for them. The ‘Adbhuta Brāhmaṇa’ (Ṣaḍviṃśa Brāhmaṇa, X. 5) speaks of ‘devāyatanam’ which may, but need not mean a temple.

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The rhythmic formulæ, the mantras however, even mentally recited, are extended in time. This time is not the dated time of history. It has its architectural analogy and notation in the Talacchanda, the ground plan of the temple (Pt. VII).

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An apparent exception to the aloofness of the Vedic altar from any geographical or ethnical factor is given in Ś.B. XIII, 8. 1. 5 (note 60). The northerners and easterners had round sepulchral mounds in contradistinction to those who knew the Three Vedas and whose sepulchral mounds were square. This is but an application of the supremacy of the four cornered shape; a lesser value is assigned to the circular shape.

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Temples, under the control of Government are mentioned by Megasthenes. Re. remains of temples such as foundation walls only, see Part IV.

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Representations of temples, abound in reliefs at Barhut, Sāñcī, Bodh-Gayā, Mathurā. Shrines are also represented on a few coins prior to and at the beginning of the Christian era (J. N. Banerjea, ‘The Development of Hindu Iconography’, Pl. I, Fig. 16, see note 89; Coomaraswamy, HIIA, Pl. XXX, Figs. 116, 117, 126A). These early representations of various types of shrines do not correspond, as a whole, to the actually preserved temples of subsequent ages, although in some of their parts there is continuity and development. Some of the early types of temples, however, such as those on the Audumbara coins of the Punjab have their structural equivalent in Bengal temples of the present day.

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‘Shrines’ (koṣṭhaka ; apartment, separate chamber or place) of Aparājita, Apratihata, Jayanta, Vaijayanta, Śiva, Vaiśravaṇa, and the Aśvins in a fort, and the house (gṛha) of the goddess Madirā, and “koṣṭhaka-ālayas” for the Vāstudevatās are spoken of in Kauṭilya’s ‘Arthaśāstra’, II. iv. (56) which, according to A. B. Keith seems to belong to the fourth century A.D. (‘The Age of Arthaśāstra’, ‘B.C. Law Volume’, p. 490).

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concludes his chapter on the Description of Temples (prāsādalakṣaṇam) with the modest statement that it is a brief summary of the work of Garga, and that reference has been made in it also to the elaborate treatises by Manu and others (ch. LV. 31). Elsewhere (29 f.), in the same chapter, Maya and Viśvakarman are quoted as authors whose seemingly different statements have the same meaning. The body of architectural knowledge behind the short compilation of the ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’ is supported by the names of eighteen chief preceptors (ācārya), of the traditional science of architecture, Vāstuśāstra, listed in the ‘Matsyapurāṇa’³⁶. The many names seem to indicate an equal number of branches or schools of Indian architecture prior to the sixth century A.D. and subsequently. The reconciliation of apparently conflicting statements about proportionate measurement (Br. S. LV. 30) can be taken as symptomatic of the diversities of the schools and their exponents³⁷. They represented as many variations as lay within the fundamental purpose of the temple. The merit of the works of the schools which made it seem worth while to record the names of their most eminent preceptors lay in the manifold and ever varying solutions of their central purpose. This was the setting up of the Prāsāda as Vimāna, proportionate in its parts and directing the form and measure of all the other buildings which accrued in the service of the Prāsāda.

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³⁶ The names of the 18 great architects are enumerated in Chapter CCLII, verses 2-4. They are: Bhṛgu, Atri, Vasiṣṭha, Viśvakarman, Maya, Nārada, Nagnajit, Viśālākṣa, Indra, Brahmā, Svāmikārttika, Nandīśvara, Saunaka, Garga, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Aniruddha, Śukra and Bṛhaspati. To Viśvakarman, Maya and Garga, are attributed definite statements by Varāhamihira. Besides these three Ācāryas, others too, of whom nothing is known as yet but their names, are relied upon in the texts on architecture. The number 18, of the great architects is also the number of Purāṇas; and of the places (sthāna) of calculation (‘Viṣṇupurāṇa’, VI. 3. 4., ‘Vāyupurāṇa’, CI. 102 f.).

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³⁷ The structure of the temple is a work of art and science. Their knowledge and practice are conducive towards the same end, the making of a perfect instrument whose sight and ritual use procure release. Hiuen Tsiang (S. Beal, ‘Records of the Western World’, I. p. 78) speaks of 5 Vidyās or Śāstras, traditional sciences, the second of which is Śilpasthānavidyā. As the name of this science indicates, it included the arts (śilpa) and architecture (sthāna; houses, squares, courts etc.) and mechanics; it explains the principles of Yin and Yang and the calendar. In the ‘Śukranītisāra’, IV. 3. 30, also, Śilpaśāstra, enumerated as one of the 32 sciences, includes architecture and the making of images. Architecture, moreover and painting (ib. 83-84) are enumerated by Śukrācārya amongst the 64 arts (kalā); and architecture (vāstuvidyā) and sculpture (takṣakarma) are similarly enumerated in Jayamaṅgala’s commentary to Vātsyāyana’s ‘Kāmasūtra’, Ch. I. 3 (see Part I, note 20). The double listing as science as well as art of architecture and sculpture does justice to their two-fold nature. This is also implied in architecture being part of Jyotiṣa (astrology) and Kalpa (ritual), two of the six Vedāṅgas. (See Part I, note 21).

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The diversity of the types of temples at one and the same site even may be seen for example within the enclosure of the temple of Makūteśvaranātha, near Bādami, in the Bijapur district. The widest range to which the architecture of the Prāsāda attained in the tenth century in northern and southern India is also represented by these early shrines. The temple dedicated to Śiva Makūteśvaranātha was built in the sixth century³⁸.

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³⁸ An inscription dated 601 A.D. and found on the site, engraved on a pillar, speaks of this temple (devagṛha). It is a storeyed building crowned by a dome shape. Other temples

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In the Hindu temples, such as they are known, and for which the texts lay down rules, the Prāsāda is the shell of the Garbhagṛha. The Garbhagṛha is essentially a small dark chamber, square in plan³⁹. In this respect it is unchangeable throughout the ages. The problems of architecture, developed in the West, to build a space resonant with the rhythm of the prayer and concentration of an assembled community, remained outside the Prāsāda. The Hindu temple is built with the fervour of devotion (bhakti) as a work of offering and pious liberality, in order to secure for the builder, a place in heaven, which means a high level of inward realisation and to increase the religious merit of his near relatives : by a transfer of merit, the Prāsāda functions similarly, for every devotee, who comes to and enters the temple. The temple is built as a work of supererogation, with the utmost effort in material means and the striving of the spirit so that the Prāsāda attains and leads to the Highest Point⁴⁰.

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³⁹ Or, rarely, rectangular and still less often, polygonal or circular, cf. the shape of sacrificial altars, Part II.

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⁴⁰ The liberating effect in building a temple is expressed in the 'Śaivāgamanibandhana', XIII, second but last verse (a Ms. from Tripunithura, cited without translation, by N. V. Mallaya, 'Studies in Sanskrit Texts on Temple Architecture', JAU. vol. IX, p. 172). It says that he who builds a temple of Śiva leads his ancestors of 21 generations to the world of Śambhu (Śiva).

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Congregational worship has no place in Hinduism⁴¹. It determined however the apsidal plan of the barrel-vaulted Caitya-hall, the Buddhist temple. The resolve to build and generally also the funds for the building were the contribution of the Yajamāna or Kāraka and he entrusted the work to priest and craftsman. The merit of their knowledge came back to him who had employed, remunerated and then dismissed them⁴².

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⁴¹ In the 'Mahānirvāṇa Tantra', XIII, 240-44, the Temple is praised : "Thou grantest merit (puṇya) and fame . . . ; all the holy places are in thee." The temple, like worship itself, serves more than one purpose. "One should worship with Sattva tendencies [in conformity to the Essence] for liberation ; with Rajas tendencies [expansively] for enjoyment and with a mixture of these tendencies for the fulfilment of mixed purposes" ('Viṣṇu-Saṃhitā', IV, 12).

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⁴¹ The single worshipper, or in South India, only the priest of the temple and the 'pūjārī' enter the Garbhagṛha and perform the sacred rites for the worshipper. When, as with the Vaiṣṇavas, congregational songs, etc., are performed, this takes place in front of the Garbhagṛha, in the Maṇḍapa, and leaves unaffected the form of the Prāsāda, with its small Garbhagṛha. The apsidal plan and barrel-vaulted structure is classified as Hastipṛṣṭha or 'elephant-back' in Vāstu-śāstra (see Part VII). It was re-adjusted for the purposes of Hindu worship by the introduction of internal walls so as to seclude the Garbhagṛha from the rest (Durga temple, Aihole, 6th century ; Cousens, op. cit. Pl. XI) or by a flat stone ceiling to exclude the vaulted roof in the brick temple of Kapoteśvara at Chezarla, Guntur District (Report of the Southern Circle, ASI., 1917-18, p. 35, Pl. XVIII).

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⁴² The Sthapati, the master builder, himself a Śilpin, is the Guru of the three other classes of Śilpins, the Sūtragrāhin, Vardhakin and Takṣaka. In the performance of certain architectural rites the Sthapati may officiate as priest ('Mānasāra', VIII.). In these, as well as other, prescriptions there is no absolute or dead uniformity in Vāstuśāstra (see Part I. p. 9). The Śilpin is the Kartṛ in relation to the Kāraka, the patron.

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within the enclosure have superstructures of a different type, curvilinear and also in the shape of a stepped pyramid—see Part VI, and H. Cousens, 'The Chālukyan Architecture', op. cit., Pls. XXVI, XXVII.

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To the pilgrim and devotee who goes to the temple, it is a Tīrtha made by art, as others are by nature, and often it is both in one. A Hindu temple unlike the Vedic altar does not fulfil its purpose by being built; it has of necessity to be seen. Darśana, the looking at the temple, the seat, abode and body of divinity and its worship (pūjā), are the purpose of visiting the temple. To fulfil this purpose in addition to being an offering and work of pious liberality the temple has not only its proportionate measurement but also the carvings on its walls, and the total fact of its form.

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The Prāsāda as far as preserved temples show, consists of thick walls and a roof forming a dark square chamber entered through a door with a more or less elaborate frame. Whereas in the later temples the superstructure is raised to

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When the building of the temple is completed, the Sthapati prays that the people be 'healthy, wealthy, happy, well known and famous for a long time and that the victorious king protect the whole earth, full of cattle and plants' ('Īśanāśivagurudevapaddhati', IV. Ch. XXXIV. 51).

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The relation between a definite type of temple, its patron and architect is illustrated by verses 35-43, Ch. LVI, of the 'Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra': "Meru, the Lord of Prāsādas, as described in this chapter must be built by a Kṣatriya only and the architect should be a Vaiśya or he may also be a Brāhmaṇa, versed in Vāstu-śāstra. . . A Kṣatriya, however, though versed in Vāstu-śāstra must by no means be the architect." Re. the King as patron of the Meru, see the inscription, Part V, note 78.

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The craftsmen were members of a guild or feudal servants of the king or the chieftain of a temple; cf. Coomaraswamy, 'The Indian Craftsman', 1909, passim.

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The "Sarvasiddhi-ācārya", however in an inscription from the Pāpanātha temple at Paṭṭadakal (after 650 A.D.) was not "a guild". Caṭṭara Revaḍi Ovajja, the builder of the Pāpanātha temple was given the title of Sarvasiddhi Ācārya. Another Sūtradhāri, of the southern country, named Guṇḍa, the builder of the Virūpākṣa temple at Paṭṭadakal, was given the title 'Tribhuvana-ācārya', ('Indian Antiquary', Vol. X. pp. 162, 165, 170 where an erroneous translation is given of Sarvasiddhi Ācārya).

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The hereditary transmission of architecture is well illustrated by an inscription in the Jagannātharāya temple in Udaipur, Rajputana, of the year 1653 A.D. Its architects, Sūtradhāra Mukunda and his younger brother Bhūdhara, belonged to the family of architects known as Bhangora. Their ancestors came to Mewar from Gujerat, about 1389 A.D. and were the chief architects of the rulers of Mewar since then. This is stated in a record in the possession of their descendant, Bhanvaralal, from where the above account was published in 'Epigraphia Indica', Vol. XXIV, p. 56. To this family of architects also belonged Mandana, who built the Kīrtistambha at Chitor (1440-48 A.D.) and who was the author of the 'Vāsturājavallabha', Rūpamaṇḍana', and other works on architecture and iconography.

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The connection of the craftsmen with the temple was not only for the purpose of work on the completion of which the architects received their remuneration and presents, such as gold, etc. (Part VIII, last chapter), or a village ('Ep. Ind.', l.c.). The guilds of the architects (sthapati) and potters, for instance, levied a small cess on every one of their members, working at a particular temple, when a donor intended to make a permanent provision for the maintenance of the temple or the supply of materials for the worship of the deity (Kaman inscr. of about the eighth century; 'Ep. Ind.', XXIV, p. 329).

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The Indian craftsmen, it is generally believed, were anonymous. Many however signed their names and some even proclaimed the pride which they took in their work in inscriptions like the one from temple No. 9 in Aihole (Fig. in Part VI) of about the 7th century: "There has not been, and there shall not be in Jambudvipa any expert (vidvān) in the art of building temples (vāstu-prāsāda) equal to Naraśobha" ('Indian Antiquary', Vol. IX, p. 74, Cousens, 'The Chālukyan Architecture', p. 44).

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great height in one form or another, towards its culminating point, in the earlier of the preserved shrines the roof is also flat. A raised plinth or terrace is a substructure of the body of the temple and frequently accommodates a path of circumambulation. In this its simplest and indispensable form, the Garbhagṛha is embedded in thick walls; if it has as is the rule, a high superstructure, it carries upward the architectural theme of the walls from which it arises. Their ever more complex articulation serves as ever more explicit exposition of the meaning of the temple in many figures, each with its name and place in the body of the building.

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