The Hindu Temple v1.c8.s5.28

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.