The Hindu Temple v1.c8.s5.17

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.