Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

The Hindu Temple v1.c8.s5: 3. The Shed of Initiation and the Tabernacle

The Hindu Temple v1.c8.s5

Language
English

3. The Shed of Initiation and the Tabernacle

v1.c8.s5.1

The dolmen shape raised on a socle or base (adhiṣṭhāna) can be recognised in the flat roofed temple. It remains, however, the nucleus, the sanctuary, of the temples with high superstructures whose walls are rich in buttresses and manifold sculptured images. They always enclose its small cubical inner space, unbroken by any opening, except the entrance.⁶⁹

v1.c8.s5.2

⁶⁹ Temples having entrances at the cardinal points are however described in Vāstu Śāstra and a few have been preserved (see Part V, note 73).

v1.c8.s5.3

While the primeval shape of the dolmen is, architecturally, the prototype of the sanctuary enshrined in the Hindu temple, other closed types of sacred buildings also have preceded the Hindu temple. They too, have lent their meaning and added their shape to the cube of the Garbhagṛha. They are the Vedic shed of initiation and the undatable ‘Tabernacle’ made of bamboo, or branches or of large palm leaves only, in which a divine presence is known to dwell while being worshipped.

v1.c8.s5.4

Neither of these structures has contributed its particular form to the sanctuary itself. The shed furnished additional ritual secrecy to the interior of the Hindu temple; the Tabernacle of the forest, similar to the dolmen in this respect, was raised on a socle or altar and while it enclosed the sacred space it marked it by the high shape of four curved branches fixed in the corners of a square and with their ends gathered to a point. Such a conjoining of various shapes and resources to form the Hindu temple is seen not only in its beginning but also in the different phases of its history and in its types (Parts VI and VII). It would result in a compilation, and in the literal sense of the word this is indeed the case, were it not that the congregation of all the available possibilities is to one point only, to the gradual and measured reduction of all the wealth of three dimensional form in one direction, that of ascent, towards a point which is that of the finial above the high superstructure. In this surge of measured units imbued with meaning, the metaphysical aim is supported by principles of vegetation; by growth and ramification, by symmetries and proliferation of form.

v1.c8.s5.5

The architectural rite of depositing the seed of the temple is continued in the ‘natural’ discipline of its form which the architect (Sthapati, Kartṛ) masters by his aptitude, training and skill. An integration of his personality, that of the patron, the Kāraka, and of the shapes of many origins is effected by his work and is visible in its form. Such one-pointedness (ekāgratā) is the motive of the Hindu temple with its high superstructure; ostensibly it leads to the one point which is even beyond its own shape. This one-pointedness resulted in the predominance of the temples with the four sided, pyramidal, or curvilinear superstructure over the other temple types, with flat or keel and barrel shaped roofs, etc. (Part VI).

v1.c8.s5.6

The various Vedic hearths were in the open or in sacrificial sheds.⁷⁰ One of these sheds, the Sadas, in which are seated (sad) the sacrificer, his wife and the priests, is set up on the Mahāvedi. It is covered on all sides with mats and faces the East where is its door."¹ That it is enclosed has a meaning akin in its context, though divergent in its purport from that of the houses, at the time when the trees withdrew from this earth (p. 116). "That Sadas they enclose on all sides with a view to that generation, thinking : Quite secretly shall be carried on that generation, for improper indeed, is the generation which another sees. Therefore to any one looking into the Sadas except through the door, let him say : 'Look not'; for it is as if he were seeing intercourse being carried on. Freely (one may look) through the door, for the door is made by the gods" (Ś.B. IV. 6. 7. 9). It is an act of generation which is performed in the enclosed hut, an initiation which leads to a second birth, in which the initiated is the embryo ('Maitrāyanīya Saṃhitā', III. 6. 7) and the hut is the womb ('Taittirīya Saṃhitā', VI. 2. 5. 5).

v1.c8.s5.7

⁷⁰ The Prācīna Vamśa-śālā (see p. 23) is outside, to the west of the Mahāvedi. Sāyaṇācārya, speaks of the Prācīnavamśa (śālā) as the womb of the Dīkṣita ('Ait. Br.' I. 3. 11-14, comm.)

v1.c8.s5.8

The enclosed space is a Garbhagṛha, a house which is the womb; this is the name of the innermost sanctuary of the temple.⁷² The Garbhagṛha is the womb of the higher Self. It is said: "The initiated departs from this place, he goes into foreign land, he ascends to the space of the gods. When enclosing (the hut with mats), (door) openings are made; thus he does not (altogether) leave this place, thus he stays in this world" ('Maitr. Saṃ.', III. 6. 1), for not only to the east but at all the cardinal points, door-openings should be made (Āp. Ś.S. X. 5. 4). This is no final departure but a return to his spiritual home and origin from where the initiated comes back to the world of man. Thus are made "apertures in the four directions for the winning of both the worlds" ('Taitt. Sam.', VI 1. 1. 1). Within the hut which faces the East, the sacrificer, the embryo within the womb, also faces the East where the gods live; facing them he beholds them, he is one with them. "The hut is enclosed (on all sides by mats) for the world of the gods is divided from the world of man" (Āp. Ś.S. X. 5. 1).

v1.c8.s5.9

⁷² Vedic initiation is performed to-day in the centre of the house, either in a room in the interior of the building or in a specially erected 'pandal' or Maṇḍapam in the centre of the courtyard within the building. The secluded place in the house or in the Maṇḍapam, set aside for the initiation, is called Garbhagṛha. Garbhagṛha, in domestic architecture, designates the interior part of the house ('Samarāṅgaṇa-sūtradhāra', ch. XIX, 27).

v1.c8.s5.10

The secluded interior of the Sadas on the Mahāvedi is a precursor of the Garbhagṛha in the Prāsāda on its raised terrace or base; with its main door in the east, and the other, vestigial ones as niches or 'massive doors' (ghanadvāra) at the remaining cardinal points.⁷³

v1.c8.s5.11

⁷¹ Ś.B. III. 1. 2. 2. (Kāty. VII. 1. 25) ; III. 6. 1. 2. The Sadas is rectangular and may be a double square. Its long side faces the East. Its measures are 18 or 21, 24, 27 cubits and its breadth is one-third (6 cubits), less than one-half, or half of the long side. In the middle of it is the post of Udumbara wood. It has the height of the sacrificer (SBE. vol. XXVI. p. 141). The proportion of its plan 1:2 or 1:3 recurs in the height of the exterior of the Hindu temple. Here, however, it is the interior which matters most and this has the height of the sacrificer.

v1.c8.s5.12

⁷³ The temples which are preserved, generally have only one door to the Garbhagṛha; the place of the others is taken by 'ghana-dvāras' or massive doors, as they are called. ('Tantrasamuccaya', I. II. 20. comm.). These are niches in the walls of the Prāsāda; the walls of the Garbhagṛha, in the interior, as a rule, are plain.

v1.c8.s5.13

The going from here into another world, that of the gods, is an ascent—and also a descent and a return to the beginning, the Mūla-Prakṛti, the root-evolvent, the dark, non manifest power, receptacle of all there is to be. In this female identity, the Garbhagṛha is the womb, the house of the embryo, of the ‘avyaktam’ that which is not manifested or not yet manifest.

v1.c8.s5.14

The Vedic shed of initiation, by its scope and also as far as it is constructed on the Mahāvedi precedes, the Garbhagṛha of the Hindu temple. Built of wood and mats, it had a pent roof with a ridge; it was without a superstructure.⁷⁴

v1.c8.s5.15

⁷⁴ Gabled or pent roofs over rectangular temples and their equivalent, i.e., conical roofs, single or double over circular temples are the rule in the indigenous wood-stone temples of Malabar, ancient and contemporary. Repeated in tiers, compressed in height, and translated into stone, the pent roof is the unit of the pyramidal superstructure of the Maṇḍapas only, of Orissan temples, and of the Prāsāda itself at Gop, in Kathiawar; re. gabled temples in Kashmir and Nepal, cf. P. Brown, op. cit. Pl. CII. pp. 155-157. The temple at Gop ends with a crowning shape above a two-storeyed pyramid and horizontal courses of originally overlapping wooden planks; from this background project the Gavākṣas or Candraśālās.

v1.c8.s5.16

While the shed of initiation contributed the significance though not the shape of its secluded interior to the meaning of the Garbhagṛha, the Tabernacle of bamboos, banana leaves, coconut palm leaves or of bended branches in its primeval form is set up to-day and encloses a small space where the articles of worship are placed on the seat of the imageless divinity, Satya Nārāyaṇa⁷⁵. The elongated

v1.c8.s5.17

⁷⁵ The designation ‘Tabernacle’ is used here as an equivalent to house of god (‘devāgāra’, or ‘dev-ghar’) which is the name given to this primeval form of the temple by the people who set it up to-day even. The ‘dev-ghar’ of banana leaves the writer saw being set up and used in the worship of Satya Nārāyaṇa, performed by Malis, gardeners, near Gayā, Bihar. Its shape when translated into brick or stone facilitates a unification of the perpendicular walls of the Garbhagṛha and the superstructure, which is curvilinear. A more or less stilted arch results in the vertical section and the possibilities of its curvature are many (see Part VI). The survival of the tabernacle of leaves in the worship of Satya Nārāyaṇa, a cult of recent origin, and in other, ancient forms of Pūjā connected with the performances of vows (vrata) is an equivalent, in the sphere of architecture, to certain survivals in the sphere of images. Durgā, the Great Goddess, is worshipped in Bengal by means of an elaborated earthen image of her 10 armed form together with the figures of her attendant divinities. Added to this image is a young banana plant wrapt in red cloth, the Kalabau or Navapatrikā. This is the plant symbol of the Great Goddess.

v1.c8.s5.18

Extant Prāsādas with four doors are: a Temple at Sinnar; the temple of Siddhanātha, at Mandhata, on the Narmadā; and another in the village at Unkal, Dharwar; re. Jain temples, see Part VII.

v1.c8.s5.19

Prāsādas with 2 doors, the one opposite to the main entrance are also in the Deccan; the Siddheśvar Temple near Akola (Ahmednagar), another one at Ratanvadi (H. Cousens, ‘Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan’, op. cit. p. 53).

v1.c8.s5.20

In Hindu cave temples of the Deccan, dating from the 7th century onwards, the Garbhagṛha in the Duinar Lena at Elura; in the Śiva temple at Elephanta and in the Yogeśvarī cave on Salsette, has four entrances; the surrounding Maṇḍapa can be entered from three sides. The Garbhagṛha of Mahādeva's temple of Karusa has three, and that of the Dhokeśvara cave temple, two entrances. (Fergusson-Burgess, ‘Cave Temples of India’; Burgess ‘Report on the Antiquities in the Bidar and Aurangabad Districts’, Pl. XIV).

v1.c8.s5.21

The rites of entry, purification and worship in the ‘pūjāgeha’, the house of worship, are described in the ‘Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati’, III. ch. XII. 24-109; (transl. St. Kramrisch, JISOA, X. pp. 240-250).

v1.c8.s5.22

curves of such a structure converge to a point and close their lines to form a house of God. They are the prototype of the temple having a curvilinear Śikhara and were to rise above the Garbhagṛha as its superstructure. Four bamboos, etc., or branches fixed at the corners of a square, their stems bended and tied horizontally by withes or strings at regular intervals is its pristine shape.

v1.c8.s5.23

The Tabernacle consists in all directions of the Arch of Vegetation. The Arch by itself was also set up, made of two branches of Palāśa or Śamī trees (‘Āpastamba Śrauta Sūtra’; Part IV). No written record describes the primeval and impermanent houses of God, the spirits and powers.

v1.c8.s5.24

Another kind of temporary ‘house’ is set up in Bengal during the spring festival Holī. It is constructed of seven or eight dry, bent bamboos; the ends of each being planted in the ground produce a beehive shape.⁷⁸

v1.c8.s5.25

⁷⁸ It houses an effigy made of rice paste of the Old Woman, which is worshipped by the priest. Then the house of the Old Woman (buḍirghar) and the effigy are burnt to ashes which are magically effective. I am indebted for this information to Sudhir R. Das. A peculiar brick (?) structure of elongated beehive outline and with a Gavākṣa, carved on its lower part, is represented in a relief from Amarāvatī (First Period); cf. C. Sivaramamurti, ‘Amarāvatī Sculptures in the Madras Museum’, Pl. XVI. The Gavākṣa is surmounted by a very tall finial of several components (Āmalaka (?), etc.).

v1.c8.s5.26

Neither the shape of the Tabernacle of leaves, etc. nor that of the ‘beehive house’ are identical to that of the temple having a curvilinear Śikhara, for the latter is always truncated; its point is divided from its body which terminates with a platform or shoulder-course (skandha); from its centre rises the neck (grīvā, kaṇṭha) on which rests the Āmalaka. Above this is placed the finial of the temple; it leads to the Highest Point.

v1.c8.s5.27

The central Pillar, the axis of the temple, where it exceeds the bulk of the Prāsāda was given shape in the brick and stone built temples above its curvilinear superstructure; it is its neck (grīvā). The neck, the Āmalaka (Pt. VIII) and the finial (stūpi) are the shapes and symbols of the vertical axis of the temple where it emerges into visibility (Pls. I; XLV).

v1.c8.s5.28

The Tabernacle was put on top of the flat roofed Prāsāda, or alternatively, the upright, lower part of the Tabernacle was assimilated into the walls of the Garbhagṛha. The meaning of this prototypal shape is not given in scripture; it is shown in the curvilinear shape of the high superstructure of the majority of mediæval Hindu temples built in brick or stone; its form remains nearer to its origin, when, built of bamboo or wood it is carried on the wheels of the temple chariots. The temple chariot is neither a copy of the temple nor is it its model. The temple is the stationary (sthira) form, the chariot is the movable (cala) form of the seat and house of god, the Tabernacle. The same distinction applies to the image; it is either immovable, the Dhruvabera, permanently fixed in the Garbhagṛha, or it is movable (cala) and carried about in procession. Both these varieties of the Tabernacle and the image express the two-fold nature of divinity, who as Pure Principle, Śiva, is immovable and has an immovable seat (acalāsana), and as Śakti, Energy, is movement itself and is therefore enthroned on a movable seat (calāsana).⁷⁷ This two-fold aspect of divinity has its corresponding rites, images and architectural forms such as the Prāsāda, its seat, and the chariot (yāna), its vehicle.

v1.c8.s5.29

⁷⁷ ‘Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati’, III, ch. XXVI. 73 f. T. A. Gopinatha Rao, ‘Elements of Hindu Iconography’, vol. I. Introduction, p. 17. There are also ‘calācala’ images, which as a rule immovable, may yet be taken in procession in certain rites. Chariots of Jagannātha are drawn in procession during the car festival, Ratha-Yātrā, annually; in Bengal they are constructed of bended branches, etc. and resemble the ‘devghar’ (note 75).

Linked texts (10)