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The Hindu Temple v1.c9.s10: II. Varieties of the Temple and Their Genesis

The Hindu Temple v1.c9.s10

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II. Varieties of the Temple and Their Genesis

A. The "Twenty Temples"

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The description of the Twenty Temples in the ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’, LV, follows immediately the rules of proportionate measurement. They apply to each of the twenty varieties tabulated in Chart II. The same names and descriptions are also given in the ‘Viśvakarmaprakāśa’, ‘Matsya Purāṇa’ and other Purāṇas and in the chapter on Nāgara-prāsādas in the ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’ (LXIII. 1-34). The same varieties were thus considered as representative of the Hindu temples by the middle of the sixth century and about half a millennium later. But there is a difference; for the Twenty Temples are described not only once in the ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’ and somewhat summarily; they are also dealt with in some of their ‘subtle’ details (sūkṣma lakṣaṇa) in the selfsame text, in Chapter LVII. 641 f. and in Ch. LIX where some of them are seen to represent, amongst other temples, a particular local school, that of Mālava.

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The first three names in the ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’, Meru, Mandara and Kailāsa, which are those of the Mountain denote the largest temples; they have also the greatest number of storeys or Bhūmis; another temple, Nandana, is equally high, but has 6 Bhūmis only. These four varieties and a fifth, called Vimānacchanda, form the first and most important group. They have all one and the same shape in plan; this is expressed by the specification that each has six Aśras (ṣaḍaśra). Aśra means here apparently a side or face and not an angle; the ground plan of these temples is not hexagonal but it has six faces, for each of its three sides has a central buttress which is set off from the wall, its face running parallel to that of the wall; the fourth side, where the entrance is, has no such buttress; a porch (prāggrīva) or a Maṇḍapa protects it. Although this side is the entrance side, and generally faces East (prācī) it is not the façade of the temple; the temple strictly speaking has no façade, it faces the four directions; as a monument all its sides contribute equally to its form and meaning. The ground plan of the first group of temples thus is a square, the middle of each face projecting from the total length of that side.⁶⁸ Viewed by an author of the sixth century this shape was evolved but recently; it had the greatest importance at the time when the ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’ was compiled. The plain straight walls of the dolmen had preceded it. This is why the description ‘ṣaḍaśra’ heads the list of the varieties of temples in the ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’ and disappears from later lists when the central face (aśra) or offset on each side had consolidated as the main buttress (bhadra) in the architecture and terminology of the Hindu temple.

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⁶⁸ No hexagonal temples are preserved but this would not be sufficient reason for assuming that hexagonal temples did not exist; no elliptical temples (āyatavṛtta) are in existence either; yet they figure largely in Vāstuśāstra. The usual word for hexagon however is Ṣaḍkoṇa. The specific use of the terms in Vāstu-śāstra has to be reconstructed from the meaning of the passages in which they occur, a comparison with other passages where either the same terms are used or else the same meaning is given though different terms may be employed, and by testing the meaning with the help of actual buildings. Ṣaḍaśra, however, in the ‘Śilparatna’, XXXVIII. 15, means hexagon. This text, one millennium approximately later than the ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’, was compiled by Śrikumāra of Kerala in the latter part of the sixteenth Century and deals wtih the South Indian types (IB)

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Others of the Twenty Temples are circular, or else the walls have 8 or 16 bays which make a cusped ground plan; it is likened to the petals of a lotus flower. Another plan is likened to the bird Garuḍa; the temple Garuḍa as described in the ‘Viṣṇudharmottara’, III. Ch. LXXXVI. 60, might have been its shape (see Appendix). The different shapes of the temple carry suggestive names, one of them being Kuñjara or Gaja, elephant, its shape at the back being that of the posterior of an elephant (hastipṛṣṭha) might have been apsidal.

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The four Prāsādas, enumerated at the end of the list, forgoing all metaphor, convey the geometrical form of their plan by their names: they are the round, the square, the sixteen and eight sided one (Vṛtta or Vartula, Caturaśra or Catuṣkoṇa, etc.). These straightforward names however imply a particular configuration of the temple. No light should enter it; walls are built all round, the image in the Garbhagṛha is of jewels, an embodiment of superluminous darkness. The entrance is from the West so that only the rays of the setting sun can enter the dark passage around the walls of the Prāsāda. It is this meaning expressed by the commentary which is implied in the temple plan. Square or circular, eight or sixteen sided, the Prāsāda has two walls and a dark passage between them. The outer wall is not carried up to the full height of the Prāsāda, it is ‘cut’ (cheda), ends at a lower level than and is connected with the main building within it, by a roof (Br. S. LV. 28, Comm.).⁶⁹

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⁶⁹ A similar construction can best be seen in the temple at Gop, Kathiawar; also in Central India at Bhumara and Nachna Kuthara, and in the Deccan at Bādāmī; these temples however have a superstructure above the ground floor.

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of temples only. The hexagonal type is enumerated as the second but last of seven types of ‘shapes’ of the temple. The first type is Caturaśra, the “four-sided”.

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It seems improbable that the ‘Bṛhatsaṃhitā’ would give the first place to hexagonal temples, in five varieties of which the first and foremost is Meru; Meru, in the ‘Matsya’ and ‘Vāyu Purāṇas’ is described as four sided (caturaśra).

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The temple called Viṣṇucchanda (type IB) of the ‘Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati’, Part III. Ch. XXVIII. 113-115, has a hexagonal Garbhagṛha and cupola (śikhara). A small temple at Toka on the Godavari is described as having a six pointed star for its plan (J. Burgess, ‘Report on the Antiquities in the Bidar and Aurangabad District’, ASWI, vol. III. p.21). The temple type, recorded in the eleventh century, in the I.P. is one in a list of 20 temples of South Indian type; it belongs to a different tradition than the Twenty temples of the Bṛhatsaṃhitā, and the other Vāstu-Śāstras given in Charts I and II.

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Aṣṭāśra however denotes an octagon; it forms the ground plan of the Muṇḍeśvarī temple at Bhabua, Arrah, built before 634 A.D. (ASI. NIS LI. p.143; R.D. Banerji, ‘History of Orissa’, II. Pl. facing p.240) and also of the Śaṅkarācārya Temple at Śrīnagar of the eighth century (ASIAR, 1915-16, Pl. XLIV). Nonetheless ‘aṣṭāśrī’ in the ‘Bhuvanapradīpa’ N. K. Bose, op. cit. p. 125, denotes a Navaratha Temple; having four Rathas on either side of the Bhadra. Similarly we are compelled to consider the Ṣaḍaśra not as a hexagon, but as a square with Bhadras or offsets in the middle of each side. Aṣṭāśra, however, admitting either explanation, appears to mean an octagon in the classification of the texts. The Ṣaḍaśra being a special form of the Caturaśra is omitted from all the later classifications.

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The last named temples have each one storey or Bhūmi only. The remaining of the Twenty Temples have either one Bhūmi only, or else, any number from five to twelve Bhūmis. The height of the temple is not necessarily given by the number of Bhūmis. The temple Meru has the greatest height, 64 Hastas or 96 feet—it is not advisable say the texts that a building should exceed 100 Hastas in height.⁷⁰ 64 Hastas is also the height of the temple Nandana, but the former has 12 Bhūmis and the latter only six.

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The height of 14 of the 20 Temples in the Br. S. is double their width. Following other norms the height is thrice the width of the temple. Śikhara designates the tapering superstructure; Śṛṅga also, but it is without storeys (bhūmi; ‘Viṣṇudharmottara’, LXXXVI. 13). Aṇḍa is another name for Āmalaka (cf. S.S. LVII. 110; 234, etc.). The number of Aṇḍas is one where there is one pointed Śṛṅga. Where however the storeys are many, in the temple Nandin, or the Śikharas, of the temple Sarvatobhadra, or the roof is of a different shape the number of Aṇḍas is many; several such devices supported a row of finials, similar to those of the keel-shaped roof of the Bhīma Ratha at Mamallapuram, where their number is eighteen.

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The ‘four sided’ temple moreover is described as having 5 Aṇḍas; one crowns the high Śikhara; and clinging to each of its sides is a lesser Śikhara each with its Aṇḍa. Each Śikhara or Śṛṅga carries above its crown a Kalaśa or jar of the nectar of deathlessness.⁷¹ The lateral Śikharas, later texts designate as Uromañjarī. They face the four directions.

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⁷¹ Buildings represented in the reliefs of Barhut, Sāñcī, Amarāvatī, etc. (Coomaraswamy, ‘Early Indian Architecture’, op. cit. Pls. XCII; XCIV) show the roof ridge with ‘water pot’ finials.

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This was also originally a function of the four doors which are explicitly prescribed for the temples Meru and Sarvatobhadra; in extant temples, the niche (ghanadvāra) in the centre of each wall corresponds to the original door (dvāra). The temple with a door in the four directions, and the shrine with double walls full of darkness, and one door only, represent each a different tradition. Few Hindu

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This type of temple is particularly that of a Hindu temple, with the light shining forth from the centre in the darkness of the interior which is safeguarded by the circumambulatory itself in darkness. The devotee entering the outer door, turns to the left, having the shrine on his right, when he walks around it. Temples with their covered circumambulatory are known in later texts as Sāndhāra; the dark circumambulatory is the Andhakārikā, or Bhramaṇi, etc.

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⁷⁰ ‘Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati’, III ch. XXX. 32; so as not to be easily damaged by great storms, etc. This rule prevailed at the climax of the temple building activity in the 10th century. A royal palace, on the other hand, in the 6th century was 108 Hastas high; its base is much broader than that of a temple.

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Bhūmi, thus in the chapter of the ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’ dealing with temples is not equivalent to an actual storey as it is in secular buildings. There the height of the first floor is given by the formula that it is one-sixteenth of the width of the building plus four cubits (Bṛ. S. LII. 22-23). In a royal palace which has a height of 108 Hastas, the height of the first floor is ten Hastas and eighteen Aṅgulas and each subsequent storey is one twelfth part lower than the preceding. This restriction applies to brick walls only, and not to wooden ones. The height of the successive Bhūmis of the superstructure of a temple also decreases progressively but far more rapidly; see for example, the chapter on the South Indian proportions and S.S. LXII. 183-191. The storeys of the temple are unlike those of the houses of men though they resemble them in their position and parts.

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temples exist having four doors, in Kashmir; and a small temple in Sinnar, in the Deccan, for example. Jaina temples, however, as a rule have four doors.

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The subservient parts (anukāya aṅga) of architectural and symbolic significance of the Twenty Temples are: Prāggrīva, the porch; Toraṇa, the gateway; Candraśālā and also the Citraśālā, the gabled chambers on or above the Kapota, the Citraśālā having been most probably a painted chamber, Valabhī being the vaulted roof itself which contains Candraśālās (Br. S. LV. 25, Comm.). The Candraśālā, as represented on the Prāsāda, might have indicated only an internal space by its Gavākṣa, the round window within its pointed arch. Such gable windows are set singly, or combined in rows; whole rows moreover are superadded so as to form a lattice or Jāla; for the Gavākṣas on the extant temples are blind windows, just as the niches are massive doors.⁷² Either of these are symbolic forms on the Prāsāda. The Gavākṣas are carved on cornices (kapota); the Kapota, the "eaves of the thatched roof" moulding, superadded one above the other had formed the Śikhara of slabs in its pyramidal (IA) and curvilinear variety (IIB) as well. With their closely set rows of Gavākṣas, these superimposed roof-edge-slabs are seen covered in their total extent as one Jāla or lattice of which the unit is a Gavākṣa. On the Pāpanātha Temple at Paṭṭadakal, built more than a century after the compilation of the ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’, the Jāla can be seen in a far advanced state, in the shape of an intricate network of curves which covers the middle buttress of the Śikhara; whereas on its lateral parts the horizontal courses of the Bhūmis,—the strata of roof-edged ‘slabs’,—are marked each by its row of Gavākṣas.

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⁷² Candraśālās in the Valabhī are to be seen on the Ratha of Nakula and Sahadeva in Mamallapuram (Coomaraswamy, ‘Indian Architectural Terms’, JAOS, vol. 48, Pl. facing p. 259). There are three candraśālās on the broad side of the Valabhī, as prescribed in the Br. S.—Kuhara seems to be the ‘cavity’ of Śukanāsā, etc. The single Gavākṣa opening in the superstructure of the Kandariya Temple (Pt. VI. note 65) serves its original purpose.

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The ‘Viśvakarmaprakāśa’, the ‘Matsya’ and ‘Bhaviṣya Purāṇas’, and the S.S. LXIII, show the Twenty Temples rich in form; with many subsidiary Śikharas and Kalaśas, with a large number of Bhūmis and great in height and width; the Meru attaining to the maximum height of 100 Hastas, its width measuring 50 Hastas.

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All these Prāsādas can be constructed either of timber, bricks or of stone. This alternative is important, for those Prāsādas (S.S. XLIX. 6-7) which are built in the "likeness of the chariots of the gods" should be of bricks or stone only.

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The leading varieties of the list of the Twenty Temples represent Type II, and their description adds further characteristics to this type which the few preserved temples of the "early" centuries do not show.⁷³ These are especially the 5 Aṇḍas of the Caturaśra Temple, which means a Prāsāda with a square plan having a central Śikhara with its Aṇḍa, and four lateral Uromañjaris, each with its crown or Aṇḍa, clinging to the sides of the central Śikhara. This type of temple in later versions, exists in Central India, etc., and has attained its fullest and most detailed form in Khajuraho (Pls. I, III).

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⁷³ ASIAR, 1924-25, p. 125, opines that "the Matsyapurāṇa", ch. 259, contains directions for the building of temples of two classes, the one with curvilinear Śikhara and the other with a storeyed superstructure. In the latter type 20 different types of temples are named. In the Br. S. the type with the curvilinear Śikhara finds no mention but 20 types of storied temples are described". This interpretation, as is proved by the terminology, description and proportions assembled in charts I and II cannot be correct.

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These temples, says the ‘Matsya Purāṇa’, are meant to enshrine a Liṅga. The ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’ however speaks, not of the Liṅga, but the image (pratimā), in general, and in connection with the ‘dark’, double walled, fundamental forms of the temple, the square, circular, etc., in particular. The temples of the ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’ were not intended to house the Liṅga, the symbol of Śiva. Whatever the destination of the temple, Śaiva, or Vaiṣṇava, it had originally its bearing on the architectural form. The symbol or an image in the centre, the images on the walls of the Prāsāda—and the symbol fixed on the finial of the Śikhara—show the particular divinity to whom the temple is dedicated.⁷⁴

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⁷⁴ ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’, ch. LVIII. ‘Prāsāda-stavanam’, verses 4-17; “Of these (64) Prāsādas belong to god Śambhu (Śiva), 8 to Hari (Viṣṇu), 8 to Viriñca (Brahmā), 8 to the Lord of the Grahas (the Sun), 8 to Caṇḍikā, 8 to Gaṇeśa, 8 to Śrī (Lakṣmī) and 8 to the rest of the gods. Vimāna, Sarvatobhadra, Gajapṛṣṭha, Paḍinaka, Vṛṣabha, Muktakoṇa, Nalina and Drāviḍa—these 8 belong to the enemy of Tripura (i.e. Śiva). Garuḍa, Vardhamāna, Śaṅkhāvarta, Puṣpaka, Gṛharāṭ, Svastika, Rucaka, Puṇḍravardhana --these 8, the ornaments of the city (pur), belong to Janārdana (Hari). Meru, Mandara, Kailāsa, Haṃsa, Bhadra, Uttuṅga, Miśraka, Mālādhara, these 8 Prāsādas belong to Brahmā. Gavaya, Citrakūṭa, Kiraṇa, Sarvasundara, Śrīvatsa, Padmanābha, Vairāja and Vṛtta—these 8 Prāsādas of auspicious features belong to the Sun. Nandyāvarta, Valabhī, Suparṇa, Siṃha, Vicitra, Yogapīṭha, Ghaṇṭānāda and Patākin, these 8 abodes of God belong to Caṇḍikā. Guhādhara, Śālaka, Veṇubhadra, Kuñjara, Harṣa, Vijaya, Udakumbha and Modaka, these 8 auspicious Prāsādas should be constructed for Vināyaka (Gaṇeśa). Mahāpadma, Harmya, Ujjayanta, Gandhamādana, Śataśṛṅga, Navadyaka, Suvibhrānta and Manohārin, these 8 belong to Lakṣmī. Vṛtta, Vṛttāyata, Caitya, Kiṅkiṇī, Layana (cave-temple), Paṭṭiśa (tent or made of cloth), Vibhava and Tārāgaṇa, these 8 Prāsādas should be constructed by one skilled in the Vāstu-Śāstra, for the rest of the gods.” With this enumeration however has to be compared S. S. LV. 105-108. “Kailāsa is the abode of Maheśvara, Garuḍa of Viṣṇu, Padma of Prajāpati, Gaja (Dvipa) of Gaṇanātha. These are not to be constructed for any other god. Triviṣṭapa is an abode of all the gods. The different forms of Prāsādas, other than these belong to all the gods without distinction.” To this have to be added further specifications, such as ch. LVI. 35. “Meru for Hari, Hiraṇyagarbha, . . . Bhāskara and not for any other god”, ch. LVII passim, and LIX. 4. It would not be safe to attempt a classification of the temples on the basis of their dedication to the deities at the age of the S.S. Nonetheless a definite shape of the temple originally implied a definite dedication which was also expressed by its name. This is shown in the ‘Viṣṇudharmottara’ (see Appendix).

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The Twenty Temples form the nucleus of a development of each variety and its ramifications. Some of these, widely dealt with by the texts, have not survived in actual buildings. So vast is the ‘ocean of the science of architecture’ and so rich in forms that Viśvakarman, quoted in the ‘Bhaviṣya Purāṇa’, I.. CXXX. 36, does not appear to exaggerate when he is said to have spoken of three thousand kinds of temples of various shapes.

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The ‘Agnipurāṇa’ embodies knowledge which must have been formulated and recorded over a long stretch of time. Twice it gives a chapter on Prāsāda Lakṣaṇa, the features of the temples. The earlier one, XLII, is practically identical to the respective passages in the ‘Hayaśīrṣapañcarātra’ from where it seems to have been absorbed into the ‘Agnipurāṇa’. The later chapter CIV, also has its prototype in the ‘Hayaśīrṣapañcarātra’; the proportions given there are less pure than in all the other ‘early texts’, it appears further removed from the principles and origins and nearer to the contingencies of actuality. The Śikhara is given particular attention, for not only are its vertical proportions dealt with as in the other texts also, but the horizontal proportions are also stated, although of its upper part only. The width of the Vedikā is given as 10; this is the width of the Śikhara where the Śukanāsā ends; the width of the Śikhara at its base is not given; assuming however that it is of the type of an Orissan Śikhara, the two may be same. The width of the shoulder course is 5 parts, or half as wide.⁷⁵ The neck occupies three parts and the Aṇḍaka (Āmalaka) has a width of four parts (CIV. 23). The preceding verse goes even further and details the proportions of the finial (Cūla).

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⁷⁵ The width of the shoulder course is generally given as 6 parts out of the 10 parts allotted to the base of the Śikhara. See p. 208, note 61.

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These proportions however are no longer those of the Twenty Temples but of a different variety of the same type (II). They are known as the Forty-five Temples.

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The Twenty Temples represent a liberal assortment of architectural shapes. A selection was made and five basic shapes were to ramify in the several schools of mediaeval architecture, in forty-five variations and also in different sets of sixty-four shapes each.

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The Twenty Temples however are not forgotten. They are the Nāgara Prāsādas of ch. LXIII of the ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’; their names are incorporated in those of the temples in chapters LVII and LIX, and in the hundred—and one—temples of the ‘Viṣṇudharmottara’.

B. The Five Vimānas and the 45 Temples

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Vairāja, Puṣpaka, Kailāsa, Maṇika and Triviṣṭapa, these 5 chariots of the Gods, are the primary shapes. Meru heads the list. The first is square, the second rectangular, the third is round, the fourth elliptical and the fifth is octagonal. Each of them has 9 subvarieties. So there are altogether 45 varieties of these Prāsādas ('Agnipurāṇa', CIV. 11b-21).

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The chart on p. 278 gives their names according to the 'Agnipurāṇa', Garuḍapurāṇa' and the 'Prayogamañjarī'. The last named text is a later, South Indian compilation.⁷⁶

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⁷⁶ The 'Prayogamañjarī' VI. 15, says: People of this world have neither enthusiasm and knowledge nor the money to have the temples constructed in all these varieties. The text seems to be considerably later than the two Purāṇas, see note 67, and explains, to some extent, the absence amongst preserved monuments of certain shapes, such as especially the elliptical temples.

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Meru is the foremost and highest of the twenty Temples (p. 270A). It is also the foremost of the 32 Jātitara temples of the Southern school as represented in the 'Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati'. III. ch. XXVIII. 10. The most eminent of various lists of the temples is likened to the World Mountain.

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The 45 temples are distinguished by Śikhara, Kaṇtha and Āmalasāraka (A.P. CIV, 10-11). Their names are those of Nāgara and Lāṭa Prāsādas (verse 22). They are Nāgara Prāsādas (chart I) built in a particular region, Lāṭa or Gujarat. Their classification (p. 278) is rational; it discards certain shapes of the earlier lists (chart II) such as the six and sixteen sided plans; a consolidated school within the Nāgara tradition has laid down its programme.

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A digression may be permissible here. Verses 11-12 may also mean that the 5 Vimānas, the Chariots of the Gods, are placed on the head of the Meru. This has no bearing on the 45 temples. Meru however not only heads many lists of temples; it should also be contemplated as the support of some. These are the High Temples (Vimāna; pp. 194 f, 293). Meru, as the support of the Vimāna of the gods has the shape of the mountain or of the pillar; it is the cosmic axis. Its architectural form is the Prāsāda"; and also the Stambha", the free standing pillar. The Stambhas on which Aśoka in the third centry B.C. had his Dharma inscribed are better known than others, such as the Mānastambhas of the Jains or the Āyakakhambhas of the Buddhists and other free standing pillars which carry a small High Temple. The former bear on their capital a small pavilion supported on four pillars; the latter terminate with an abridged chapel shape.

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⁷⁷ One of the generally accepted forms of the 'Meru' is the stepped pyramid; in that form (cf also Type I A) it has wide currency under the very same name Meru, in Greater India; miniature models of the Meru are kept in Burmese monasteries and sanctuaries. They too, have the shape of a stepped pyramid (R. Heine-Geldern, l.c. Fig. 23).

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⁷⁸ Fergusson HIEA, vol. II. p. 81; Figs. 302, 308. A. H. Longhurst, 'The Buddhist Antiquities of Nāgārjunakoṇḍa', Memoir 54, ASI. Pl. XI b, c. A miniature temple on a pillar, from Kashmir, is illustrated by Fergusson, op. cit., vol. I. p. 256; cf. also the slab or 'pillar' carved in the shape of a Śikhara temple surmounted by an

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THE FIVE VIMĀNAS

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AND

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according to : ‘Agni Purāṇa’, CIV. 11-12⁷⁹;

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⁷⁹ The names [A.P.] are those of the Agni Purāṇa. The names [G.P.] of the Garuḍa Purāṇa, the others are common to G.P. and A.P. The names marked* occur also in the lists of the “Twenty Temples”.

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‘Garuḍa Purāṇa’, I. XLVII. 21 f. and ‘Prayoga-Mañjarī’, VI. 4-13.

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| | 1. Brahmā : Vairāja : Caturaśra (Square) | 2. Kuvera : Puṣpaka : Āyatāśra (Rectangular) | 3. Śiva : Kailāsa : Vṛtta (Circular) | 4. Varuṇa : Maṇika : Vṛttāyata (Elliptical) | 5. Indra : Triviṣṭapa : Aṣṭāśra (Octagonal) |
| The Vimānas of : | | | | | |
| The “45 Temples” derived from the “5 Vimānas” : | Meru* | Valabhī* Gṛharāja* Śālāgṛha Mandira Viśālā [A. P.] Vimāna [G. P.] | Valaya Dundubhi Padma* Mahāpadma Mukuli [not in A. P.] | Gaja* Vṛṣabha* Hamsa* Garuḍa* Siṃha* Bhūṣaṇa | Vajra Cakra Muṣṭika [G. P.] Babhru [G. P.] Vakra [G.P.] |
| | Mandara* | Brahmā-Mandira | Uṣṇīṣi | Bhūmukha [G.P.] | Svastika |
| | Vināna* | Bhuvana Prabhava [A.P.] | Śaṅkha | Bhūdhara | Khaḍga |
| | Bhadraka | Uttambha [G.P.] | Kalaśa* Khavṛkṣa [A.P.] | Śrijaya | Gadā Śrikaṇṭha |
| | Sarvatobhadra* | Śivikā-Veśina | Guvāvṛkṣa [G.P.] | Pṛthivīdhara | Śrīvṛkṣa* |
| | Caruka [A. P.] Rucaka Nandana Nandivardha-māna* Śrivatsa | | Vardhanī [A.P.] | Rkṣanūyaka | Śveta [G.P.] Vijaya Citra Vajra-Svastika |

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An indispensable part of the Buddhist Stūpa is the Harmikā, the railing which surrounds its shaft where it emerges from the dome-shaped pile of the monument. This railing is square (caturaśra koṣṭha); it encloses moreover a small pavilion or chapel—similar to that on the Āyakakhambhas and also to the High Temple of a Drāviḍa Prāsāda—where it is not represented in the shape of a solid cube. The part where the shaft of the central pillar of the Stūpa emerges above the Harmikā is called Devatā Kotuva in Ceylon. It is there that the 33 gods reside, in their heavenly world, above the sphere guarded by the Regents of the directions of space. The hierarchy of divine manifestation is thus accommodated in the monument, it is especially located within its vertical axis, the Cosmic Pillar. The Harmikā and Devatā Kotuva are above the expanse of the Stūpa, and are part of as well as

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Āmalaka and Kalaśa ; the date is ‘late mediaeval’ (J. Ph. Vogel, ‘Catalogue of the Archaeological Museum at Mathurā’, p. 193). The pillar on the other hand, which supports an Āmalaka (Bedsa, Karli, Nasik, etc.) is a cognate symbol (Part VIII).

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surrounding its axis; they exactly correspond in place and function to the 5 Vimānas as ‘High Temples’.

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Not only in India itself, but also in Indian colonial architecture, the gods are known to reside on the top of Meru. In Bali, the central pillar, where it forms the peak of the temple is hollowed immediately below its point. Nine gems are deposited there of which the one in the centre denotes the presence of Śiva. This central post does not exist actually in the stone and brick temples of India. Its position and extent however are indispensably part of the Prāsāda (Part VI).

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The position is marked by the central, vertical axis around which the temple is built; its extent is shown by the shaft or neck (grīvā, kantha) which emerges above the shoulder-course (skandha) of the highest level (bhūmi) of the truncated superstructure. The shaft or neck, in the temples of South India, assumes the shape of the walls themselves of the High Temple (vimāna); they are, moreover, also called by the name of neck (kantha; gala). In such Prāsādas, however, where there is no High Temple, the round shaft emerges from the shoulder course and is clasped at a given distance, by the Āmalaka.

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The top of Cam temples in Cambodia is crowned by a Liṅga; it is the seat proper of divinity. The shaft of the central pillar, if extended to the bottom of the Prāsāda holds the central Liṅga in the Garbhagṛha of a Śiva Temple (Fig. i, on p. 212). The top of Indian temples is invariably surmounted by a finial of which the Kalaśa is the most important part. In this jar the Golden Prāsāda -Puruṣa is installed (Part VIII).

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The central shaft of the temple holds the divine presence; it is specially manifested on the lowest level, in the womb, the Garbhagṛha, and on the highest level, above the body of the temple. The vertical column of the temple is the cosmic trunk and its quadruple ramifications are the four directions of space in which the Prāsāda has its extension.⁸⁰ The vertical column of Prāsāda and Stūpa alike has its prototype in that vertical shaft across the strata of the Vedic altar formed by the naturally perforated ‘bricks’, the Svayamātṛṇṇā stones, which were placed in vertical succession above the Golden Puruṣa.

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⁸⁰ ‘Dikśākhāmūlakāṇḍa’, of the Deopāra inscription of Vijayasena, as understood by P. Mus, op. cit. p. 413. Cf. ‘Ep. Ind.’ I. p. 314, and R. C. Mazumdar, ‘Inscriptions of Bengal’, vol. III.

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The Āmalaka, the cogged ring stone, is an equivalent of the highest of these perforated stones: it was placed above the last, the fifth layer of the Altar. Where no Āmalaka clasps the ‘neck’ of the pillar of the temple, the High Seat of divinity is placed in the High Temple, the ‘‘very small’’ (kṣudra-alpa) Vimāna, which crowns the South Indian Prāsāda. The shapes of this High Temple are square or circular; or rectangular or elliptical, the latter two being considered special forms of the former; the octagon too is one of its shapes.

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The shapes only and not the names of the 5 Vimānas or Chariots of the Gods, have been given to the High Temples. Triviṣṭapa is the heaven of Indra, and of the 33 gods; Triviṣṭapa is also the name of chariot of Indra. Another name is Vairāja; it belongs to the cosmic intellect, Virāj, who rules over and unites the whole manifestation which is integrated in himself, Virāj, the non-supreme Brahman. It is therefore also the name of the chariot of Brahmā. The other names are those of the celestial chariots, the Kailāsa of Śiva, the Puṣpaka of Kuvera, and the Maṇika of Varuṇa. The chariots of the gods, the sky-travellers, have alighted on top of the World-Mountain in which inheres the cosmic pillar, and show by their shape to whom they belong. The Five Vimānas on the top of the temples correspond to the other small ‘High Temples’ set up on pillars such as the Caturaśra-koṣṭha, the Harmikā, below the Devatā Kotuva, within the central shaft of the Stūpa, and to the small chapels which crown the Māna-stambhas and Āyaka-khambhas. Meru which supports them is a free standing pillar or the central shaft of the monument, the temple.

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The pillar, the shape of the Cosmic Axis on which rests the Āmalaka or the Vimāna of God, is sheathed in the body of the temple. The mass of the monument, the temple, is fitted around the pillar and its mantle has many forms. That of the 45 temples is hemmed by the shape of the 5 Vimānas and has an Āmalaka for its crown. In the South Indian version, a small Vimāna, alike to one of the five celestial chariots, is given the place of Āmalaka and Kaṇṭha.

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The Vimāna placed on top of Meru is the small domed shrine, which is placed on top of the flat roof of a dolmen temple of one storey (Fig. c, Part VI) or its repetition in the vertical and forming a pyramid of many storeys. In its simplest and original form this type of the temple consists of one such storey only, the prism or cube of the dolmen type Garbhagṛha. On this flat roofed shrine thus another is placed. This indeed is the form of the small shrines of South India which are called Alpa-prāsāda. In their aggrandised shape, having one Garbhagṛha above the other, or a series of storeys in receding tiers, these temples, called Meru, would be stepped pyramids, like those preserved in South India but without the parapet of chapels around each storey. In Northern India too, this shape occurs but in a different version. In the ‘terrace temples’, in Ahicchatra and Paharpur, it is the solid stepped pyramid consisting of terraces which forms the Meru. It is traversed by a shaft, square in section and equal in area to the High Temple in the centre of the topmost terrace.

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The Meru below the Vimāna, the Mountain on which rests the High Temple, is not only an Indian architectural concept. The cubical or rectangular sub-structure of the Zikkurat⁸¹ is also the Mountain; on it is placed the Hut, the dwelling of divinity.

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⁸¹ W. Andrae, ‘Das Gotteshaus und die Urformen des Bauens im alten Orient,’ (1930), speaks of the cubical or prismatic sub-structure of the Zikkurat as being the Mountain. On it is placed the Hut, the abode of God.

C. The Five Vimānas and the 64 Hall Temples

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From the Five Vimānas on which the gods travel in the air and from the five temple shapes built in their likeness were derived forty-five varieties of temples, square, rectangular, circular, elliptical and octagonal, nine of each kind.

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From the self-same five shapes of the Vimānas, the ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’, Chapter XLIX, derives 64 kinds of temples, Vairāja, the square one, having 24 varieties and the other 10 varieties each (Chart on p. 281). They are to be built in towns and are made of stone or burnt brick (S.S. XLIX. 6-7). Their names are

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THE 64 TEMPLES DERIVED FROM THE 5 VIMĀNAS ACCORDING TO ‘SAMARĀṄGAṆASŪTRADHĀRA’, ch. XLIX. 22-202.

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| I Vairāja, the Vimāna of Brahmā. | II Kailāsa, the Vimāna of Śiva | III Puṣpaka, the Vimāna of Kuvera. Prototypes of : | IV Maṇika, the Vimāna of Varuṇa. | V Triviṣṭapa, the Vimāna of Indra. |
| 24 varieties of Square Prāsādas. | 10 varieties of Circular Temples. | 10 Oblong Temples. | 10 Elliptical Temples. | 10 Octagonal Temples. |
| Rucaka³² Siṃhapañjara Citrakūṭa Bhadra Śrīkūṭa Uṣṇīṣa Śālāgrha Gajayūthapa Nandyāvarta Avataṃsaka Svastika Kṣitibhūṣaṇa Bhūjaya Vijaya Nandi Śritaru Pramādapriya Vyāmiśra Hasti Jātīya Kuvera Vasudhādhara Sarvatobhadra Vimāna Vimuktakoṇa | Valaya Dundubhi Prānta Padma Kānta Caturmukha Maṇḍūka Kūrma Taligrha Ulūpī | Bhāva Viśālā Sānumukhya Prabhava Sibiragrha Mukhaśālā Dviśālā Grharāja Amala Vibhū | Amoda Raitika Tuṅga Caru Bhūti Niṣevaka Niṣedha Siṃha Suprabhā Locanotsava | Vajraka Nandana Śaṅku Mekhalā Vāmana Laya Mahāpadma Haṃsa Vyoma Candrodaya |

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³² Rucaka like Meru, is the name of more than one type of temple. Rucaka is the name of a mountain ridge which projects from the base of Meru, on the South. Other mountains, whose names were given to temples are: Mālyavān (ch. 65), described as a Bhūmija Prāsāda ; Trikūṭa (ch. 57) ; Niṣadha (ch. 65), a Bhūmija Prāsāda ; Gandhamādana (ch. 59) ; Nandana, Himavān, Śṛṅgin, Nīla, Śveta, etc.

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partly the same as in the list of the Agnipurāṇa (p. 278); the square varieties vastly increased in number; moreover, certain temples (Haṃsa), described in one instance as elliptical in the first list, are amongst the octagonal temples in the second; or, Mahāpadma, circular in the one list, is octagonal in the other. The names thus do not denote the same shapes; the name of Meru, however, which is particularly mentioned and actually heads the first list is absent from the second. In short, the 64 temples of Chapter XLIX of the ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’ differ from the 45 temples of the other list although their prototypes in heaven and the shape of their horizontal sections are the same.

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The 64 temples of Chapter XLIX are low buildings; in the centre is the Garbhagṛha; its position is marked by four pillars only (verses 64, 80, etc. Fig. on p. 282). It is surrounded by pillared or walled corridors (ālinda, etc.); these alternate with broader pillared halls (śālā); pillared porticoes (prāggrīva) are placed in front of the doors of the inner walls; Prāggrīvas also project beyond the outer walls, which, as a rule, have two windows (gavākṣa) on each side. The plan of the building is laid out in concentric zones, the method being that the square or any other of the five shapes of the plan is divided into a given number of equal parts (bhāga); they range from four to twelve in the different temples, the width of the Garbhagṛha occupying 2 parts; the rest measure the extent of the ground of the various pillared halls and corridors, separated in the larger temples by an internal wall; they have two or three Ālindas all round. Their colonnades are formed by pillars with equal intercolumniations, one Bhāga being the unit, whereas the pillars are doubly spaced on the 4 sides of the Garbhagṛha so that a cross results in the plan formed by the four broad, east-west and south-north corridors.

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Scheme of Plan or Saṃsthāna of the temple Svastika, S.S. XLIX, 62-67.

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Agnipurāṇa’, II, ch. 11). Some of the names of the Bhūmija Prāsādas are amongst those of the temples of the ‘Viṣṇudharmottara’ (see Appendix).

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The Garbhagṛha, if it has four walls, has sometimes four doors or it has only one entrance.⁸³ Toraṇas or gates are set up in the larger temples, in the middle of two pillared Ālindas (in the temple Pṛthivījaya, for example; verses 80-88); the distance between their posts has the width of the Garbhagṛha or Devakoṣṭha; the latter term is more appropriate where the innermost sanctuary is marked by four pillars only, one in each corner and has no walls.

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⁸³ The circular temple ‘Valaya’ is called Caturmukha if it has 4 doors and Maṇḍūka if it has one entrance only (S. S. XLIX. 119-121).

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The Prāsāda is raised on a socle (pīṭha) whose height is one part (bhāga); stone steps (sopāna) from one or two sides lead up to it in the temple Gajayūthapa (verse 44).

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The temple Rucaka (verse 25-28),⁸⁴ the first of the ‘64 temples’, within its pillars, etc., is so to say the nucleus of the others; it has a width of four parts (bhāga); the vertical proportions of the square Garbhagṛha, measuring two parts are : one part for the socle (pīṭha) and 3 parts for the height of the Prāsāda of which 1½ parts are the height of the pillars (stambha); above them is the ‘upper part’ of the Prāsāda; it has 3 roofs (chādya trayam), a neck (kaṇṭha) and Āmalasāraka. (Cf. the upper portion of Fig. c, Part VI). The temple is as high as it is broad. The height of the door is 1 part, its width is half of it.

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⁸⁴ The temple Rucaka, of ch. XLIX. 25-28, differs from the temple of the same name and described in ch. LVI. 44-50, of the ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’. In ch. LVI, it has a Śikhara; but the rhythm of its ground plan is the same as in ch. XLIX.

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The proportions of the Garbhagṛha and its parts do not change. In the square hall temples, its width is invariably 2 parts, whether the temple covers an area of which the side has 4 or 12 parts. Its door is always 1 Bhāga (part) high, and half as broad. The Garbhagṛha is the unchangeable nucleus of the several zones which are made to encompass it;⁸⁵ the temple Rucaka is its shell. If circular, the disposition of the ground plan remains the same in principle, the single corridors measuring 1 Bhāga in width, the intercolumniations also being the same. A simple example of this type is the wood-brick temple excavated at Bairat (Jaipur), of c. the 3rd century B.C. Low pitched roofs (chādya) crowned by an Āmalasāraka (Āmalaka) raised on its neck (kantha) cover the temple ‘Rucaka’.⁸⁶ The other temples described in Chapter XLIX, are covered by one Chādya which is circular on round temples, or by a double roof, Dvichādya; the portion of the colonnade under the protracted eaves, is called Valabhī.⁸⁷

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⁸⁵ The innermost sanctuary, in the oblong temples, is a double square; in one of the oval temples (Suprabhā) it is octagonal, demarcated by 8 pillars (verse 181). The rectangular temples have the shape of a double square; in the elliptical temples the lengths of the two main co-ordinates are, analogously, 8 and 4. Similar in plan, though without walls, but having a railing instead are the circular sanctuaries represented in the reliefs of Barhut and early Amarāvatī. The rectangular temples shown there are open pillared ‘hall’ temples. cf. p. 118, 145.

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⁸⁶ A miniature Dvichādya with its Āmalaka would thus also be the proper description of the roof of the water pavilion of Mahākūṭa. Different kinds of roofs are here referred to, the one of slabs being perfectly flat; cf. also the central Indian Gupta temples, the other having a low pitch.

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⁸⁷ Valabhī, takes sometimes the place of Prāggrīva (verse 201). Valabhī is also one of the names and shapes of the Kapota or Mekhalā, the cornice-moulding of the entablature

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The ‘hall temples’, without internal walls, with rows of pillars, resemble in plan the Ladh Khan Temple in Aihole and also the circular temple in Bairat, if one is to compare these preserved examples with the richer and later varieties of Chapter XLIX of the ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’. Such are its 64 Prāsādas built in accordance with the five shapes of the chariots of the gods.

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Although they are generally low, spreading structures, the arrangement of their roof having an Āmalasāraka, with its Kaṇṭha in some cases, was similar to the superstructure (Type I A) as it is known in its early phases. All these temples however having one roof, or a double and even a triple roof are without a superstructure proper. This is clearly stated in a following Chapter (LII) of the ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’. The rudiments of a superstructure (Type I A) are, however, in the description of the upper portion of the temple ‘Rucaka’ as much as they are in the slabs and the Āmalaka of the Liṅga shrine at Mahākūṭa and various chapels represented in the ancient reliefs and paintings.

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The hall temples were buildings not primarily destined, it seems, for Hindu worship. They lent themselves to Buddhist rites and had to be condensed to serve the purpose of the Hindu temple. While they did not contribute towards the origin of the Hindu temple they also did not essentially determine its ultimate form. They were, however, utilised and adapted for its purposes.

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The 64 temples had to undergo a process of condensation of their plan, until the internal galleries and their pillars were compressed in one internal circumambulatory between thick walls, when its Śālās, Prāggrīvas and Valabhīs became ‘Anukāya-aṅgas’ or parts of the wall itself. The hitherto diffuse balance of the plan laid out around the centre became organised from within. The new compactness was a necessity so that the high superstructure might tower over the centre and rest securely on the walls of its base.

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While following the one account of the 45 Prāsādas (‘Agnipurāṇa’, CIV), Nāgara and Lāṭa Prāsādas were built alike in shape to the five celestial chariots, in the other tradition the 64 Temples, alike in plan to those of the Five Chariots, had to ‘carry’ divinity; this was expressed subsequently in a monumental sense by the addition of the superstructure (S.S. LII. 20-22), which thus ‘conveyed’ divinity to the devotee coming from afar.

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The ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’ (Ch. XLIX) describes 24 temples having a square plan; their prototype is Vairāja. From these, one storeyed temples, further eight Vimānas were formed and they have Śikharas (S.S. LII. 20-22). Five of them, Rucaka, Bhadra, Sarvatobhadra, Avataṃsa and Muktakoṇa are in the list of the square temples (Chart on p. 281); the shrines of a certain type remained Rucaka or Bhadra, etc., even though a Śikhara was superposed. The three other temples are Meru, Mandara and Vardhamāna; these, and especially the images of the Mountain, are absent from the list of the 64 chariot-like temples; the

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or upper zone of the wall of the temples which have a superstructure. The eaves of the Chādya too, are retained amongst the profiles of the entablature; on some temples they are doubled or trebled (dvichādya ; trichādya) and form the canopies by which the images on the walls are shaded and protected (Pl. III). A special variety of this architectural Anukāya is known as Mallacchādya (S.S. LX. 85, etc.).

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images of the mountain now appear super-added to the various hall temples (Fig. d, p. 183) and are its Śikharas.⁸⁸

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⁸⁸ Some of the temples in Aihole are hall temples with a Śikhara superadded either in the original design (Fig. d, Part VI.) or as an afterthought (Durga temple). As part of the original design, the curvilinear superstructure, the Śikhara, rises above the Garbhagṛha of the rectangular hall temples at Alampur (Raichur, Hyderabad) from their flat roofs ('Report of the Archaeological Department of the Nizam's Dominions,' 1926-27, Pl. X). Cf. also the Pāpanātha Temple in Paṭṭadakal. The hall temples in Alampur serve as Maṇḍapa and Sāndhāra Prāsāda combined. These combinations lacked consistency and were not continued beyond the ninth century.

Cites (26)