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The Hindu Temple v1.c9.s5: The Rhythmic Disposition of the Ground Plan and of the Vertical Section

The Hindu Temple v1.c9.s5

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The Rhythmic Disposition of the Ground Plan and of the Vertical Section

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The process of drawing the initial square is described in the same way throughout the Vāstu-śāstras. In the middle of the site the gnomon of a given length is fixed in the ground; attached to it is a string. A circle is drawn with a radius twice the peg. Where in the forenoon and the afternoon the shadow of the peg reaches the periphery of the circle, there lie the East and West points; the line which then is stretched between the two intersection points of the arcs, described from those two points, lies North to South. With the East-West and the North-South lines ascertained, the square should be drawn.¹ This cord or line is the Pramāṇa Sūtra. It comprises the co-ordinates of the Prāsāda. Outside, forming the perimeter of the temple, the circumscribing line, Paryanta-Sūtra, is stretched. The Vinyāsa-Sūtra comprises the lines which divide the Paryanta Sūtra; they assign their place to the ‘Pāda’-divinities (‘Kāmikāgama’, XVIII, 5-7; ‘Mayamata’, VI. 19-21) and to the buttresses of the walls.² These three groups of lines determine the rhythmical disposition of the plan (talacchanda) of the temple.

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¹ See Part II, pp. 39 f.

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² The ‘Kāmikāgama’, XVIII. 6, and LV. 117, makes it clear that the Paryanta Sūtra ends with ‘Kūṭa, Koṣṭha’, etc., i.e. with the projections of that name, from the wall of the Prāsāda.

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The threefold system of proportionate measure expressed by the Pramāṇasūtra, —originally the two main orthogonals of the square Prāsāda—, the Paryantasūtra, or its perimeter, and the Vinyāsasūtra, which gives the theme of the walls, is the rule of the ground plan of the Hindu temple in its most evolved types (Figs. on pp. 247, 250) and in its simplest form. The simplest form would consist of four internal squares brought about by the two main co-ordinates, the Brahmasthāna being congruous to the Garbhagṛha. If a border of equal squares is added, they are twelve in number and occupy the thickness of the walls. In this plan there would be sixteen squares only; the Paryantasūtra would measure four times the length of a square on each side, and the Vinyāsasūtras would assign to the Devatās their

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The ‘Kāśyapaśilpa’ XXVIII. 2; XXIX. 2; 45; 60, etc., expresses all measurements in parts of the Mānasūtra (Pramāṇasūtra) and of the “space between the Vinyāsasūtras” dispensing with the Paryantasūtra. Although this terminology belongs to South Indian texts its principles are applied in Vāstuśāstra as known to us from the ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’, etc., in the sixth century A.D.

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places within the wall space of the temple. This is in fact the ground plan of the first or general (sāmānya) norm, according to the ‘Matsya Purāṇa’, CCLXIX, 1-6 (Chart I).

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Four kinds of proportionate measurement of the Prāsāda are given in the ‘Matsya Purāṇa’. In the first, the plan is divided into sixteen squares; the height of the wall is equal to its outer length; the body of the Prāsāda is a cube; its high superstructure is twice as high as the width (w) of the Prāsāda (also ‘Garuda-purāṇa’, I, XLVII). If the width of a square is 1 unit, the width of the Garbhagṛha measures 2 such units, the width of the Prāsāda is 4; its height is 4 and that of its superstructure, the Śikhara, is 8.

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The division of the Pramāṇasūtra is 1:2:1. This is also observed in the ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’ (LV. 11-16).³ The adjustment of the Maṇḍala of 64 squares to that of 16 squares has already been discussed (Part II, p. 58); here, it seems to have been suggested by the simplicity of the shrine; its plain, thick walls, without buttresses, belong to small structural temples in central India of the Gupta Age.⁴

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³ Not all the measurements of the temple of the several types are detailed in each text. The proportions of the ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’ being based on the square of 8, are nearest to the ‘principles’ of the temple; the ‘Matsyapurāṇa’ where it deals with architecture, sums up subsequent practice. ⁴ The Nemī, the outer circumambulatory, provides for the buttresses, the Rathāṅga; their projection (nirgama) is given in proportionate measurement in other types of the Prāsāda (see Chart I). ⁵ Sikharas of this proportion or having even a greater height such as the Amṛteśvara Temple at Singhanapur (Cousens, ‘Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan’, Pl. XCII) are rare. In wooden temples this excessive height might have been normal.

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A height of the Śikhara twice the width of the Prāsāda, and its total height thrice its width as in types I and III of the ‘Matsya-purāṇa’ are rare in preserved temples of any age.⁵ The ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’ on the other hand, and norms II and IV of the ‘Matsyapurāṇa’ show the total height of the temple as twice the width of the square of the Prāsāda. The proportionate measurement of plan and elevation in the three dimensions of space, and the conformity in principle of the plan and the Vāstumaṇḍala, underlie the general rules or norms of the temples in Vāstuśāstra. Their several sets are put together in Chart I. On these fixed systems of proportion the elaborations and specific shapes are superimposed which distinguish each single variety of the temples. These Lakṣaṇas or specific features are listed in Chart II.

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Referred to the Vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala the triple system of proportionate measurement pertains to (1) the co-ordinates of the Maṇḍala, (2) the perimeter of the Vāstu, and (3) to the border zone occupied by the 32 gods. For this reason too, the Vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala is drawn on the ground on which the Prāsāda is to be built (‘Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati’, III. ch. XXVII, 59-60) as the prototype in whose conformity the measure of the plan is meted out. The drawing of that Maṇḍala sets the mind of the architect in tune and he plans the temple and builds it guided by its disposition. The drawing of the Maṇḍala gives the ‘pitch’ according to which the ground plan (talacchanda) has its consistency. When the great temples were built, after the ninth century and which still stand, the drawing of the Vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala had become an architectural rite without necessarily coinciding with the laying out of the ground plan of the Prāsāda.

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The three-fold proportions regulate the rhythmical disposition of the simple as well as of the most complex or evolved ground plan. Different varieties of temples and their plans are described for example in chapter LVII of the ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’.⁶

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The plans, p. 247 f, of the Prāsādas Kṣitibhūṣaṇa, Vijayabhadra and Hemakūṭa are drawn according to the ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’.⁷ They belong to fully evolved structures, the one relatively simple in plan the others more elaborate, in which the original principles are worked out in their implications. These three varieties of temples have each an ambulatory outside the wall of the Garbhagṛha; it is enclosed by the outer wall of the temple.⁸ The name of the walled-in ambulatory is Andhakārikā, being a blind (andha),⁹ in the sense of dark, ambulatory; the inner wall is called ‘the wall’ (bhitti) or inner wall (antarabhitti), or root-wall (kandabhitti); while the outer wall has only one name, (bāhya-bhitti), which means outer wall and shows that the inner wall is the original wall, by which the Garbhagṛha is surrounded. This augmented plan is also organised in three respects: (1) along the orthogonals corresponding to the Pramāṇasūtra : (2) along the outside of each of the two sets of walls or the Paryantasūtra and (3) along the Vinyāsasūtras and their extensions by which the projections and the vertical recesses of the wall are proportionately measured in their thickness or depth.

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The balconies and ‘halls’ (bhadra; śālā), that is the buttresses in the middle of each of the three sides of the Prāsāda which have the greatest projections (nirgama); the lesser offsets or buttresses (ratha, etc.), the vertical recessed chases (jalāntara, udakantara, etc. which means ‘drain’), the width of all these are shown in the plan on the Paryantasūtra and their proportionate thickness is measured on the Vinyāsasūtras.¹⁰ These are extended beyond the Kṣetra. This field is drawn

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⁶ Actually 40 and 19 temples are described; in the other chapters of this most detailed treatise on architecture, ground plans similarly organised are indicated or taken for granted. The published text is not complete; after verse 210, ch. LVII, 50 verses are said to be missing of the manuscript. The prescriptions are not always fully given; this was not necessary as long as a living practice sustained the knowledge embodied in the text.

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⁷ The drawing of the plan of the temple is explained on pp. 247 f.

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⁸ For early examples with Andhakārikā and Andhārikā, see chart “The 20 Temples” and also the Temple of Golaganāth, Paṭṭadakal, (Photo ASI, Western circle, 1909-10, No. 3343), in addition to the temples already enumerated.

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⁹ The synonyms are: Bhramaṇī, etc. see Part VI, note 44.

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¹⁰ The measurement by these Sūtras or lines applies to the plan of the temple; the Mānasūtra however is the module not only of its horizontal but also of its vertical proportions (Chart I).

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A lesser module however is used for the ‘accessory parts’ (aṅga). Aṅgas are, for example, the mouldings of the socle, the Adhiṣṭhāna. Their recesses (praveśa) and projections (nirgama) are measured by Daṇḍa (or rod; ‘Vaikhānasāgama’, VI. ; see also Part I. p. 10). This injunction, recorded about the 8th century, is repeated in the ‘Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati’, IV. ch. XXXI. 36 (quoting Parāśara) of the 9th-11th century and in the ‘Śilparatna’, XXI. 46, of the late 16th century. There it is said “all Aṅgas of the Vimānas are measured by Daṇḍa. The width (vipula) of the wall pillar (kuḍya-stambha) at the top is called Daṇḍa”. Later texts, it is shown below, apply the Daṇḍa measurement to pillars without any qualification or to the wall pillar (kuḍya stambha) or pilaster only.

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The Daṇḍa as module for measuring proportionately pillars, pilasters, mouldings, etc. was used generally though not exclusively in South Indian Śāstras. The ‘Vaikhānasāgama’ speaks of three possible ways of the proportionate measurement of pillars:

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first as square, as a rule; its rhythmical theme is given by the number of squares into which it is divided. In the ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’ the division is according to one or the other of the even numbers in the series of 10 to 28 as a rule. The figures on pp. 251, 47, 50 show a Kṣetra divided on each side into 12, 26 and 28 parts respectively.

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The name for ground plan is Talacchanda, or rhythm of the floor; it is also designated as Saṃsthāna, though this term includes the vertical section of the ground-floor as well (S.S. ch. XLIX), its proportion (māna) and the assignment of the parts (talanyāsa) to their positions.

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The plan of the Temple of Ambarnātha (p. 230A)¹¹ in the Konkan, Bombay Presidency, built in A.D. 1060, shows, to the left, the Prāsāda with its (nearly) square Garbhagṛha and thick wall. It has no inner ambulatory and only one set of walls. The theme of its projections consists in one central Śālā on each side as broad as the interior of the Garbhagṛha, and having a further offset narrower by one third approximately. The lateral bays ‘pratyaṅga’ of the main buttress have 3 offsets on each of their two sides. A stepped and facetted wall of this Nirandhāra Prāsāda or ‘temple without ambulatory’ results from this simple plan with the Garbhagṛha a square of 3, the Prāsāda covering an area of 5 such units square and the furthermost projection of the wall extending to a distance of 3 such units from the Garbhagṛha so that the square of three occupies the centre of a ‘cruciform’ plan measuring nine such units across its arms.

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¹¹ This plan of the temple at Ambarnāth has been published in the ‘The Indian Antiquary’, vol. III; another in ‘Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan’, ASI. vol. XLVIII, Pl. IX. The latter plan shows in detail the wall facets of the ‘pratyaṅgas’.

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(1) by Daṇḍa; in this connection it is stated that, at the top of the Pāda (pillar, i.e. its shaft) the parts called Poṭikā, Virakaṇṭha and Phalakā should measure 1 or 3 Daṇḍas in height.
(2) It is said of the pillar (above the Adhiṣṭhāna) that its Vedikā (lowermost part or base) should have a height 1/6, 1/7, 1/8 or 1/9 of the height of the pillar (pāda) from top to bottom. The width of the Pāda should be 1/7, 1/8, 1/9 or 1/10 of its height. In this method of measuring, the height itself of the pillar is the unit of measurement. The height of the pillar (pāda=jaṅghā, see Chart I) however is given with reference to the Mānasūtra.
(3) It is also said that the width of the pillar (pāda-viṣkambha)—at the top—has as many Aṅgulas as the Vimāna or Mānasūtra has Hastas (i.e. the width of the pillar would thus be 1/24 of the Mānasūtra or width of the temple (vimāna). Later South Indian Śāstras connect or combine the possibilities (1) and (2) of the ‘Vaikhānāsa-āgama’. Their differences are referable possibly to wooden pillars on the one hand and pilasters of the timber or masonry wall on the other.

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The ‘Mayamata’, XV. 28, and the ‘Kāśyapaśilpa’, VI. 15, speak of the pillar (pāda) without qualification and not of the wall pillar (kuḍya-stambha) only, whereas the ‘Kāśyapaśilpa’, VIII. 4-9, says that the width of the pillar (dārupāda) at its base should be 1/7, 1/8, 1/9, 1/11 or 1/12 of its height. Similarly also the ‘Tantrasamuccaya’, I. II. 10 where 1/8, 1/9 or 1/10 of the height of the wooden pillar (dārustambha) are given as the width at the base. The width of these pillars at the top is 7/8, 8/9 or 9/10 of the width of the respective base. The width of the Kuḍya-Stambha here is given as 1/2, 2/3 or 3/4 of that of the Dārustambha.

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Various methods were in use not only with regard to the pillar and its proportionate parts, but also when measuring the mouldings of the socle, (see Part V, note 50), and the projections were expressed in terms of their respective height. Whereas the diameter of the column at the base was often taken as a module of the Greek temple, in the Indian temple, the width of the ‘pillar’ at the top is the module of the mouldings, etc. or ‘accessory parts’ (aṅga) only.

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The first of these, the *Gospel of the Hebrews*, was used by the Jewish Christians of Palestine, and was probably a version of the Gospel of Matthew, though it contained some traditions not found in our canonical books. The *Gospel of the Egyptians* was used by the ascetic sects of Egypt, and was marked by a strong tendency towards mysticism and asceticism. The *Gospel of Peter* was used by the Docetists, and taught that Christ did not really suffer, but only appeared to do so.

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These gospels, and others like them, were not accepted by the Church as a whole, and were gradually lost or suppressed. The Church, however, felt the need for a standard collection of writings that would serve as a guide for faith and practice. This led to the formation of the New Testament canon, a process that took several centuries to complete.

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The first step in this process was the collection of the letters of Paul, which were widely circulated among the churches. Then came the four Gospels, which were accepted as the authoritative accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus. The Acts of the Apostles and the other epistles were gradually added, and finally the Book of Revelation.

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By the end of the second century, the core of the New Testament was generally accepted by the Church. The process of canonization was not a formal act of a council, but rather a gradual recognition by the churches of the writings that were most valuable for their life and worship. It was only in the fourth century that the canon was formally closed by the councils of the Church.

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The formation of the New Testament canon was a crucial event in the history of the Church. It provided a standard of faith and practice that helped to unify the Church and to protect it from the influence of heretical sects. It also ensured that the teachings of Jesus and the apostles would be preserved for future generations.

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The first of these, the *Gospel of the Hebrews*, was used by the Jewish Christians of Palestine, and was probably a version of the Gospel of Matthew, though it contained some traditions not found in our canonical books. The *Gospel of the Egyptians* was used by the ascetic sects of Egypt, and was marked by a strong tendency towards mysticism and asceticism. The *Gospel of Peter* was used by the Docetists, and taught that Christ did not really suffer, but only appeared to do so.

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These gospels, and others like them, were not accepted by the Church as a whole, and were gradually lost or suppressed. The Church, however, felt the need for a standard collection of writings that would serve as a guide for faith and practice. This led to the formation of the New Testament canon, a process that took several centuries to complete.

v1.c9.s5.36

The first step in this process was the collection of the letters of Paul, which were widely circulated among the churches. Then came the four Gospels, which were accepted as the authoritative accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus. The Acts of the Apostles and the other epistles were gradually added, and finally the Book of Revelation.

v1.c9.s5.37

By the end of the second century, the core of the New Testament was generally accepted by the Church. The process of canonization was not a formal act of a council, but rather a gradual recognition by the churches of the writings that were most valuable for their life and worship. It was only in the fourth century that the canon was formally closed by the councils of the Church.

v1.c9.s5.38

The formation of the New Testament canon was a crucial event in the history of the Church. It provided a standard of faith and practice that helped to unify the Church and to protect it from the influence of heretical sects. It also ensured that the teachings of Jesus and the apostles would be preserved for future generations.

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The theme of the Prāsāda is transferred to the large Maṇḍapa, the hall in front of the temple. Such Maṇḍapas were added and form part of the Hindu temples in the later period only; in the earlier temples, the Maṇḍapa is but a broad porch in front of the Prāsāda (Chart I).

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Central Part of the First Layer of the Agni of the Soma Sacrifice

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Central Part of the Fifth Layer of the Agni of the Soma Sacrifice

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The stepped plan of this temple follows closely the lay-out of the strata of the Agni of the Soma sacrifice (shown above).¹² A living memory builds the buttresses of the Hindu temple in a pattern similar to that by which the bricks were laid in the Vedic Altar. These offsets of the walls of the temple have but the appearance of buttresses without however fulfilling their structural purpose. While they strengthen the walls, they do not counteract any thrust; fundamentally they are the monumental consequence and form of a theme laid out from the centre, ‘brick’ by ‘brick’ (vinyāsa). When the Vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala is drawn on the square floor of the Prāsāda to be built the number of its squares is also that of the divisions of the ground plan of the temple. This however is in practice not the case in the later temples; the side of the principal Vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala of a Prāsāda is divided into 8 or 9 equal parts, respectively, etc., whereas the division of the square Kṣetra in the later mediaeval temples requires at least 10 parts (see infra). The Vāstumaṇḍala however remains the guiding principle or the prototype of all architectural division unaffected by the variety of temple types that rest on it. If, on the other hand, the Vāstumaṇḍala is co-extensive with the entire site plan of a temple establishment, the position of the shrines of the different divinities are assigned according to the plots occupied by the Vāstudevatās.¹³

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¹² SBE. vol. XLIII. pp. 17; 98.

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¹³ A plan indicating the position of the images (and shrines) of the Parivāradevatās within a Viṣṇu temple of 7 enclosures is drawn by T. A. Gopinatha Rao, ‘Elements of Hindu Iconography’, Pt. ii, vol. I, Appendix A. The images are assigned to the 4 quarters and the intermediate directions and also to points in the middle or at other regular intervals between the quarters and sub-quarters. From there, diagonally towards the centre the images are placed. While the image occupies the Brahmā-part (Brahmabhāga) in a Garbhagṛha whose side is divided into seven (‘Agnipurāṇa’, LX. 1 f.), the Liṅga should not be placed exactly in the centre of the Garbhagṛha but slightly north-east of it at the distance of half a barley corn or a barley corn (yava) in order to avoid the piercing (vedha) of the centre (‘Agnipurāṇa’, XCVII. 4-5). By this slight deviation the rules of the Vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala are obeyed and mechanical symmetry is being avoided.

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With the prototype of the Vāstumaṇḍala as the tonic, the ground plan is laid out rhythmically 1) from the centre, 2) along its perimeter and 3) once more from there in rhythms in which is summed up the inner impact of movement; it acquires visibility on the outside of the building which is clasped by its indentations and arises in the gradations of its planes.¹⁴

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¹⁴ See Plate XLIII. These offer their vertical surfaces into which are sunk niches containing images of the gods, or else the images protrude from the walls as if they had stepped forth from their vertical surfaces. They are set in niches (Pl. XLIII) or framed by any device (in Orissa, etc., also Pls. LXXI, III). In them the impact from the centre seems to be given iconographic shape. In this way also the images on the walls of the temple have their place rhythmically determined with ultimate reference to the Vāstumaṇḍala.

Cites (12)