The Hindu Temple v1.c8.s7.9

v1.c8.s7.9

The piled up altar, the base, the dolmen-cell, the Garbhagṛha, and the superstructure are the architectural constituents of the whole image of the temple; it rises like a mountain. Its mass diminishes while it is drawn along the vertical to a high point, straight above the centre in the dark small space of the interior. The image of the mountain and the cave is known in nature, and is given form by the architect. This total aspect of the temple is not in continuation of an extant architectural type like its parts, the altar, the dolmen, the Tabernacle and the other constituents of its superstructure. It preserves however as they do, the memory of a cult, the cult of caverns; and this corresponds moreover to the immediate realisation of the cavity of the heart. These are immediate symbols in nature and in man; to this day the Himālayas are full of natural caves, small or large, and sacred.