The Hindu Temple v1.c8.s6.2

v1.c8.s6.2

⁷⁸ Bṛ. S. LV. 17 f., ‘Matsyapurāṇa’, CCLXIX, 28 f. Inscriptions extol eloquently and unceasingly, the temple as the Mountain. The Mandasor inscription of the temple of Sūrya built in 437–438 A.D. describes it with its broad and lofty spires resembling a mountain; ‘Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum’, III. p. 83. This temple was repaired in 473-74 A.D. and then described as temple of Sūrya, which touches the sky, as it were with its beautiful Sikharas (‘Indian Antiquary’, XV. p. 196). The Gaṅgādhara stone inscription of Viśvavarman in Jhalawar, Mālva, speaks of a temple of Viṣṇu (Viṣṇu-sthāna) resembling the lofty peak of Kailāsa (‘Corp. Insc. Ind.’, III. p. 44) which is Śiva’s mountain, but is referred to as representing the World Mountain. The Hansot Plates of Cahamāna Bhartrivaddha (Broach: 756 A.D. ; ‘Ep. Ind.’, vol. XII. p. 203) designate Meru as Jayādhāra, support of Jaya, the Sun (see Part VIII. ch. ‘Āmalaka’). According to the ‘Prabandhacintāmaṇi’, King Karṇa of Gujerat constructed the Karṇameru-prāsāda in Anhilwad, the name of the king being linked with the temple type Meru. Meru is the ‘king of Prāsādas’ (‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’, LV. 3). In Vijayasena’s inscription at Deopārā (‘Ep. Ind.’ I. pp. 310, 314; P. Mus, op. cit., p. 413; Inscr. of Bengal, vol. III), the high temple of Pradyumneśvara is compared to the (central) Mountain on which rests the sun at midday, and this is the only Mountain worth mention among all the mountains. The temple as the Mountain is not only so described in the inscriptions, etc. The Pārvati temple at Nachna Kuthara (ASI. vol. XXI. p. 95) has the outer faces of its walls covered with carved rock shapes—a none too satisfactory experiment in form. The final shape of all these ‘mountain peaks’ is the Sikhara-cluster (Part VI).—In the geography of the Purāṇas, Mandara is the mountain east of Meru (‘Viṣṇu-P.’ II. ch. II. 17); it can be imagined as its eastern Ūruśṛṅga. Kailāsa, the abode of Śiva or of Kuvera, is situated to the north of Mt. Meru, or it is said to be one of its three peaks (‘Siddhānta-śiromaṇi’, II. III. 36), so that either of these peaks, Mandara and Kailāsa, is a part of Meru.