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The Hindu Temple v2: Volume 2

The Hindu Temple v2

Language
English

Contents

Volume 2

Front matter

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THE HINDU TEMPLE

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BY STELLA KRAMRISCH *Professor of Indian Art* *University of Calcutta*

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VOL. II

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY RAYMOND BURNIER

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UNIVERSITY OF CALCUTTA

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Copyright, 1946 by the University of Calcutta Stella Kramrisch Raymond Burnier All rights fully protected and reserved.

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PRINTED IN INDIA Published by the University of Calcutta Printed by P. C. Ray, at the Sri Gouranga Press, 5, Chintamani Das Lane, Calcutta. Plates by the Calcutta Chromotype Ltd., Calcutta.

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VIII

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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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प्रकृतिर्विकृतिस्तस्य रूपेण परमात्मनः । अलक्ष्यं तस्य तद्रूपं प्रकृतिस्सा प्रकीर्तिता ॥ साकारा विकृतिर्ज्ञेया तस्य सर्वं जगत्स्मृतम् । पूजाध्यानादिकं कत्तुं साकारस्यैव शक्यते ॥

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"The Supreme Spirit has two states of Form: the [one, the] Nature of the World (prakṛti) and [the other,] its transformation as appearance (vikṛti). Prakṛti is His invisible form. Vikṛti is the aspect (ākāra) in which He pervades the Universe. Worship and meditation can be performed in relation to His aspect (sākāra) only." 'Viṣṇudharmottara', III. ch. XLVI. 2-3.

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अनाम रूपिण्यचिन्त्ये चिन्त्ये वै विश्वरूपिणि । चिन्त्याऽचिन्त्यात्मिके देवि नारायणि नमोऽस्तुते ॥

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"Nameless and Formless Thou art, O Thou Unknowable. All forms of the universe are Thine; thus Thou art known. Known and Unknowable, Goddess Nārāyaṇī, Obeisance." 'Devīmāhātmya', XI, 'Nārāyaṇistuti'.

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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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VIII

Part VIII. The Images of the Temple

Position and Proportion of the Images of the Gods

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The Hindu temple is a monument, whose outer surface consists of sculptures. The Maṇḍapas, the various halls, preceding the Prāsāda itself in which is contained the innermost sanctuary, the Garbhagṛha, are architecture in the accepted meaning. The Prāsāda itself however is almost completely a solid mass but for the Garbhagṛha, which is a small, dark, cubical chamber even in the largest temples. But for the main image or imageless symbol enshrined within, the walls of the Garbhagṛha, as a rule, are plain. The carvings cease at its door; there they confront the devotee for the last time as he approaches the innermost sanctuary; he may not himself, as in the temples of South India proceed further, the officiating priest performing the rites for him.

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Thus when going to the temple (abhigamana) with speech, body and mind centred on the divinity whose presence is installed in the image or symbol, the devotee becomes part of the architecture of the Maṇḍapa whose interior he traverses, in which he also may pause and gaze at the images that confront him; images which are carved on the pillars, the capitals and on the ceiling; guiding him onwards to the main image or symbol in the Garbhagṛha, or upward to the dome and its central point.

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While approaching (abhigamana) the innermost sanctuary and passing through the halls in front of it, the Bhakta is within the sacred architecture; together with the images he is enclosed in a dim, soothing atmosphere caressing the eye after the fierce light of the day outside. The atmosphere of the Maṇḍapa is charged not only with the scent of flowers, burning oil lamps, and the incense coming from the sanctuary, but is tense with the impact of the pillars and carvings.

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This closeness of the carved images and the worshipper in one space is brought to its maximum in the inner ambulatory which, in the larger temples (sāndhāra), surrounds the Garbhagṛha. The rite of circumambulation (pradakṣiṇa) is more a communion by movement with the images stationed on the walls than a visual recognition of their identity and the perfection of their workmanship.

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The rite of circumambulation however is also performed outside the temple, whether there be an enclosed inner ambulatory (sāndhāra) or not (nirandhāra). It is then that the Prāsāda is beheld in its full effect imparting a total exposition of its meaning.¹

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¹ Pradakṣiṇa in a Śaiva temple, is not performed by going round and round the temple as in temples of other gods, but from the Bull to Caṇḍa (whose image is stationed to the west of the Northern 'door'; I.P. III. XII. 59) and back to Nandin, thence to the Somasūtra, the water chute, and back again to Nandin, thence to Caṇḍa and from there again to the Bull.

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"The body (ākṛti) of the temple is Prakṛti" ('Agnipurāṇa', LXI. 25), it is in the likeness of the primordial substance of the manifested world, has its aim and purpose beyond it and is supported by it.

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Viewed from the outside, the Prāsāda is a monument on whose multi-buttressed walls are displayed the images; above the walls and in continuation of the buttresses rises the superstructure whose sloping walls lead towards a point, the apex of the finial. The finial is raised above the body itself of the Prāsāda, placed as it is on the crown of the temple ('āmalaka', or 'harmya', the latter in South Indian temples).

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The main display of the figure sculptures is on the perpendicular walls. (Pls. I, III, XLIII, LXXI). The temple has no façade; it faces the four directions. Its walls however are not four surfaces meeting at right angles. Each wall projects with a number of offsets, the main pier being in the centre. The buttresses vary in thickness; in the majority of temples built throughout India (except in the South) the offsets are moreover frequently superimposed resulting in a stepped, cross-shaped plan. Whereas the plain walls of the dark Garbhagṛha form a square in plan, the carved walls of the exterior of the temple, exposed to the light of the sun, the moon and the stars, form an indented plan. The plan of the centre of the temple, the square, is translated by its walls into a perimeter of variedly stepped and indented design which even may be 'star shaped'. The outside of the Prāsāda far from exhibiting carved surfaces only, itself has volume. It consists of the piers of varying thickness whose front and side walls have images and carvings; recesses, narrow vertical chases and steps hold shaded space, or darkness. The volume of the wall space of a Hindu temple forms a unity of relations in height, breadth and depth; in it are integrated space volumes. The texture of the walls is not only that of the stone of which they are built or of the plaster with which they may be overlaid; these lend a particular quality of the surface only to the closely built texture of the buttresses and offsets and their intervals which form space volumes and rhythms of graded light and darkness.

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In this texture, the carved figures belong to the body of the wall and also to the spaces between, inasmuch as their own volume projects into the intervals; the carved figures, moreover, reach even further into space or else they are also more deeply part of the wall than are the outer or main surfaces of any offset. Niches are sunk in the main buttresses; there the chief images are placed, the Pārśva-

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"Vṛṣam caṇḍam vṛṣam caiva
Somasūtram punarvṛṣam
Caṇḍam ca somasūtram ca
Punaścaṇḍam punarvṛṣam".

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Looking up from the Somasūtra, the devotee worships the flag on the Sikhara (I.A. IX. 149; re. Somasūtra or Praṇāla, see Part V, note 107; both the terms are used here to indicate the channel (ambumārga) and the chute.

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devatās, the main aspects of the divinity whose image or symbol is enshrined in the Garbhagṛha. Placed within the body of the wall, within a niche or "massive door" (ghanadvāra) as it is called, on the co-ordinates of the Prāsāda these main images are nearer to their centre which is also that of the entire monument, the temple. The surrounding images (āvaraṇa-devatās) are however more exposed; carved, as they sometimes are, almost completely in the round, they are yet of one piece of stone with the surfaces in ressault and remain connected with them by the strut-like extensions of their modelled limbs at angles not meant for view.

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The carved figures on the surface of the temple are thus at different distances from the centre. They are part of it, not only ritually and iconographically but also in their position in space. They appear projected from the centre through the thickness of the wall or they are embedded in it as it steps forth. The entire volume of buttresses and interspaces, the whole monument, is dynamically in a state of movement; its stages are marked by the relative depth of the surface "en ressault". A movement more powerful than that of any single figure propels, as it were, from the centre each single figure together with the wall to its position on the perimeter. The paradoxical name of the niche, Ghanadvāra, which means "massive door" expresses the coming forth of the image from and through the massive wall.

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A movement from the centre propels, as it were, the walls of the temple with their interstices and carvings. The perimeter of the temple thus generally has the shape of a cross with recessed angles. From each of its walls or piers with their offsets, carved images project further into space. This ultimate progression too is embodied in the volume of the walls, bound as they are, in the horizontal, by bands of mouldings above and below the rows of images so that the single figures on their socles are held within space-zones parallel to the wall and in depth equal to the projecting bands of mouldings. This closely enmeshed dynamic mass, its impact coming from the centre, whence every figure derives its power and name, meets the gaze and movement of the devotee as he circumambulates it. Profile after profile meets his vision, each a fresh leaf in the book of revelation of which every temple is a copy. Effect and effectiveness of the Prāsāda are one to the eye, mind and realisation of the devotee.² In the rite of circumambulation he himself draws and becomes the outermost perimeter to the building; he 'com-prehends' it while walking round it; sees the images not from one side but covers them by his look, one at a time, during his approach and onward progress; while he identifies the image thereby evoking its name, the total power of the place which the image occupies is sent as it were into his presence from the centre of his devotion.

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² The usual position of the spectator in front of a relief or, from various angles and distances, if the sculpture is in the round, does not comprehend the effectiveness of the rite of circumambulating an extensive monument.

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The sculptures on the outside of the Prāsāda are stationed around its body; and while they give an exposition of its meaning they are also its ornaments. By their sequence they form belts around the body (ākṛti) of the entire temple and its several projections. The latter often form part volumes of their own, massive monumental supports of miniature replicas of the whole temple, each with its own superstructure (śikhara; śṛṅga; Pl. III).³ Thus the ultimate meaning of the temple is brought near to the devotee; at every turn he sees the figures on the walls forming the basis of an ascent⁴ towards one high and central shape, the vase above the Āmalaka, the sacred vessel (kumbha) which is part of the finial and is placed "at the end of Prakṛti" ('Agnipurāṇa', CI. 13), beyond the forms of the manifested world, in the deathless (amṛta) region.

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³ In South Indian temples the relatively flat offsets of the perpendicular walls are crowned each by a miniature chapel (kūṭa, koṣṭha, pañjara, etc.).

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⁴ The realm of images, excepting Drāviḍa temples, 'begins' on the superstructure from the Śukanāsā downwards; only on a higher level, above the Vedikā of the Śikhara, images once more face the eight directions.

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In belts around the body of the temple, and in vertical sequences where one image is superimposed on the other, the figures are part of the space-body of which the outside of the monument, the Prāsāda, consists. They do not form groups except such as are unavoidable by their juxtaposition on symmetrical and repeated offsets and recesses. They do not enter into any 'composition' which would extend further than the single buttress or beyond the console on which the image is placed (Pls. III, XLIV, LXXI). If more than one figure are part of the image they are carved in front of a single surface, they are collateral, auxiliary to its meaning and complete its form. This is how the single images whether they consist of one, or of several figures in front of the single facets, or in their niches, have their own wholeness as works of art (Pls. III, VI, XV, XXX, LXXI). Over and above such perfection as these images or groups may have compositionally a further power is vested in them. They are not 'pillar figures' as those of the doorways of Gothic cathedrals; they do not function architecturally; the stress of weight and support is unknown to their constitution. No aspiration moreover draws them upward, for each has its place and this it occupies with effortless grace and exuberance of modelled form. The final sculptural integument of the temple is dynamically one with the monumental progression of its mass. From it the figures step forth with a driving power not altogether their own. While they are images they are at the same time the ultimate conclusion of that part of the wall to which they give its highest accent. Where however they turn towards the wall they illustrate their oneness with its intrinsic movement on which they lean as their support (Pls. XIX, XX).

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It is thus from the centre that the dynamic movement of the mass of the temple proceeds in the main and intermediate directions showing forth as sculptured form in its ultimate levels of progression. Its multiple embodiments, the images, are bound together in the regularity of their horizontal sequence. It is reinforced, and assigned its own extensiveness in space, by the fillets and mouldings with their substantial projections and the deep bands of shadow which accompany them, above and below the rows of images. In addition, these horizontal ties are crossed over or making way for the dark shadows or the strong light, held according to season and hour, within the vertical chases and the salient and re-entering angles of the Prāsāda.

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A deeply enmeshed net of light and darkness provides the frames to the buttresses with their rows of sculptures. In this reduction to a context of light and darkness the innumerable and changing gradations of the shadows cast by and playing over the carvings receive monumental firmness (Pl. III). The indefinitely flexed and modulated bodies of the images, their rounded volumes, appear levelled to a considerable extent by the strong light; thus they do not dissolve the compact monument into almost innumerable carvings but keep its surfaces enlivened by rhythmical accents of line and shade, even in the strongest glare which would render a plain surface dead with too much light. Having come forth—ontologically from the centre of the dark sanctuary, the images in the light of the day are an exposition of its meaning, beneficent to eye and mind alike.

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The dynamic expansiveness of the mass of the Prāsāda has its correspondence in the plan of the building in the shape of a cross with recessed angles or having an outline which results from a rotation of the square. The static perfection of the small square of the dark Garbhagṛha with its plain walls is translated into the body of the temple, the ‘body of God’, a likeness of the manifested universe and its primordial substance, Prakṛti. It has its effect by giving the fullest exposition of its meaning and forms to the devotee in the rite of circumambulation in which he himself becomes the outermost perimeter and limit of the monument in the centre.

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Such an understanding of monumental form by the ritual encompassing movement is a realisation as much by the eye as within one’s whole living person in motion. During this rite the bodily presence of the Bhakta expands and comprises the Prāsāda. While doing Pradakṣiṇa, the devotee is the perimeter of the temple and of its effectiveness; he comprehends its full extent. Prior to it however he had approached the sanctuary by the main entrance passing across the structural halls in front of it. During this approach (abhigamana) in the interior of the building, he was immersed in its space and exposed to the impact of the pillars and walls of the Maṇḍapa.⁵ While he traverses the Maṇḍapa he is part of the flux of the whole interior towards the Garbhagṛha, in one direction, in its central part and its parallel ‘aisles’ which is brought about by the rhythmic sequence of spaces marked by the position of the pillars and their vertical structure. Thus acted upon and prepared, the devotee at last is confronted by the entrance of the Garbhagṛha which bids him halt; its door frame, an iconostasis in relief, is raised before him and separates him from the image, in the Garbhagṛha (Pls. LII, V).

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⁵ The exterior of the Maṇḍapa is built and carved analogous to the exterior of the Prāsāda.

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In his approach he had been impressed by many impacts, himself part of the interior of the Maṇḍapa which he traversed in one direction drawn by, and leaving behind him, its pillared rhythms. Now his body is made to halt, and thus at rest, his eyes take in the presence of the image in the frame of the entrance. It is here that Indian sculpture is to be understood as relief in the widest sense.⁶

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⁶ The image in the Garbhagṛha is frequently modelled in the round in most of its parts; the back which is not meant to be seen is not worked out in detail. The image with the surrounding images of Āvaraṇa divinities is mostly carved in front of a slab; the latter is in a lower relief and is moreover frequently perforated along the contour of the main image. The form of the main image in the Garbhagṛha is an adaptation of sculpture, originally meant to be circumambulated, for the purpose of merely being looked at from the front. Excepting the image, the doorways (dvāra), and free standing gates (toraṇa), etc., Indian sculpture is meant to be seen while passing around it. Door frames and Toraṇas are forms of

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On the outside of the temple, each of the closely set images on the perpendicular wall facets, has to be dwelt upon by itself. For each is complete in its particular meaning and at its particular place. The main aspects, for example, of the God in the temple such as certain Avatārs, in a Viṣṇu temple; or the divinities most closely related to Śiva, if the temple is consecrated to him; or the images of the three great gods, Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva, are placed in ‘massive doors’ in three of the cardinal points, whereas the entrance itself, generally facing East, frequently has a small image of the main divinity carved at the centre of the lintel.⁷ It abounds also in other carvings⁸ all linked up as one great composition. Over and above, it frames the main image in the Garbhagṛha.⁹

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⁷ Instead of the main image, that of Lakṣmī may occupy this place.

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⁸ Those of the River-goddesses, etc.; and of the Dvārapālas.

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⁹ This refers to a Prāsāda without Maṇḍapas. Where one or several Maṇḍapas are attached to it, the entrance into the Garbhagṛha is at the far end, inside the axial sequence of the Maṇḍapas. The outer entrance to the temple, and which belongs to a Maṇḍapa, is either similar to the main entrance or it is an open ‘arch’ way (Khajuraho).

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Facing the cardinal points are the ‘doors’ where the image of God shows forth. On the actual entrance especially, the small image on the lintel is similar in position to the image of Christ carved in the tympanum above the entrance and is akin to His words: “I am the Door”.

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Apart from the main images, in their niches, and indispensable to all temples are the images of the Aṣṭadikpālas, the Guardians of the Eight points of space, each in its correct location. The multitude of divine figures stationed between these two kinds of essential images, each on a facet and having a console of its own, are Nāgas, Śārdūlas, Apsarās, Surasundarīs, Mithunas, etc. (Pls. XLI, XL, XI, XXXIII), and certain specific images of the lesser gods.

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Each such type of the ‘surrounding divinities’ is repeated in many variations of posture and movement on the walls of the temple; like the chorus in an Indian Yātrā performance announcing the particular passage of the play not once only, but by repetition in the four directions of space. Repetition and symmetrical response are the rule in the horizontal and also in the vertical; so that the mind of the devotee becomes moved afresh by the beauties of the Divine and its graces at each angle, assured of its boons and of fearlessness.¹⁰ There is no scope for narration in the juxtaposition of these figures. Each is the form of an enduring state of being in which it is absorbed while its gestures give it an actuality by which the mind of the devotee becomes arrested and is made to dwell on the particular state thus quickened.

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¹⁰ The mudrās ‘varada’ and ‘abhaya’, convey the two latter meanings and are the indispensable gestures of a divine image.

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structural architecture and provide the ground for the display of reliefs. Their arrangement is closely allied to paintings such as are made even to-day on scrolls (paṭ, in Bengal; to be seen in vertical succession) : these would have their carved correspondence on the jambs ;-- scrolls to be rolled and unrolled horizontally which were known to ancient India (‘Mudrā-rākṣasa’, I; ‘Harṣacarita’, V; cf. Kramrisch, ‘Viṣṇudharmottara’, Pt. III. 2nd ed. p. 7; introduction) seem to have been the prototypes of the carvings of the yoke-shaped beams, ending as these do (Sāñcī, Stūpas I; III) with a carved spiral on either side suggestive of all the painted matter ‘rolled up’ and of which only the central part is exposed on the beam.

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In the images occupying the reveals or recesses on either side of an offset, as for example on most of the Khajuraho temples (Pls. XX, XIII), the relation is given form of the volume of the figure to its axis on the one hand and to the space which the image is made to fill on the other. But even though the image may not be so favourably placed as to display the complete possibilities of its plastic volume in space and yet being part of the dynamic mass of the temple, such figures as are carved with their backs to the wall, in front view, appear to have arrived on their consoles driven thither by the impact of the buttress behind them (Pl. XLIV). There, even though the image stands straight or is seated (Pl. VI) in rigid symmetry, its volume is yet disposed in dynamic balance around it; the chest of the standing figures curving forward, has its counter weight in the roundness of the hips so that these figures with their backs to the wall, seen as modelled volumes, seem to swing to and fro from their feet upwards in ever varying curves as if rebounding from renewed contacts with the wall and its compacted energy.

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The figures seem to resile charged with energy from the surface which they touch,—and not only from that of the wall of the temple but from any surface, be it one of their own body, leg against leg as they cross over, or as the hip is touched by an arm, the back by a scarf, the arm is clasped by a bangle, the bosom by a garland of jewels. Tactile subtleties contribute their share to the effect of these sculptures. In ancient India the sense of touch was given a training and purpose of the highest order.

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‘Nyāsa’ (placing, marking, assignment) is the ritual touching of various parts of the body commencing with the place of the heart and ending with the hands (aṅga-nyāsa). While a mantra, a sacred, rhythmic formula is recited it is thought of as being located in the heart, head, in the crown-lock, “three eyes”, chest and in the hand.

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While the Mūlamantra, the ‘root-mantra’, the rhythmic formula of the main divinity, is recited the devotee passes both his hands three or seven times over the whole body from the feet to the head and from the head to the feet (vyāpaka-nyāsa). The whole body and its parts, the hand and the fingers, from the thumb to each of the fingers (kara-nyāsa) and also each of their phalanges are touched and quickened thereby as living seats of God. Various parts of the body are thus assigned to different divinities.¹¹

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¹¹ ‘Agnipurāṇa’, XXV.

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His body is made conscious to the devotee in his daily rites as the seat and place of God. This consciousness he wins by the rite of touching it at sensitive and vital parts.

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Nyāsa however is not only performed to the living body of man, but also to that of the image of stone or wood, etc. (‘Mahānirvāṇatantra’ XIII. 289-91). As the body of the devotee so also is the body of the image touched in six places (ṣaḍaṅga nyāsa). The constituent elements of the world and its principles are assigned to it from the feet to the place of the heart, etc. By thus touching it ritally, it is felt alive with the breath of the cosmos.¹²

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¹² ‘Mahānirvāṇatantra’, XIII. 293-297; the 8 groups of the letters of the alphabet are thus assigned; subsequently the constituent principles of the universe are assigned, beginning with Pṛthivī Tattva, the principle ‘Earth’, to the feet, etc.

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Such rites performed daily and regularly cannot but have a lasting effect on those who practise them and those who, moreover, make the images on which they are performed.¹³ The sense of touch becomes not only refined by practice but is a means of realisation and of knowledge. Endowed with so qualified a sense of touch, the craftsman produces the kind of sculpture which is so lavishly represented on the temples.

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¹³ Vedic rites (‘Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa’, III. 2. 1. 5-6) had preceded the performance of Nyāsa on an image (pratimā).

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The smooth limbs of the images of the gods are always 16 years old; they are resilient with the sap of life and with breath. The latter makes them not only smooth and supple but also weightless in appearance despite their ample curves (Pl. LXXII).¹⁴ They are particularly fit not only for dancing but also for flying, the many Gaṇas, Vidyādharas, etc., although they never have wings. Ends of garments flutter to enhance their movements and be a foil to their rhythms; whereas folded scarves clasp their fullness and are carved as if they were a special type of jewellery, accentuating through the contrast of their own shape and texture that of the modelled body.

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¹⁴ Adolescent appearance as well as Perfection are denoted by the number 16 (16 digits make the fullness, the totality of the moon) with reference to the images of the gods. Supple, breath-borne weightlessness belongs also to images like those of the Tīrthaṅkaras whose iconography requires a rigid appearance; even if, in addition, the quality of the sculpture is mediocre, as for example in the image on Pl. LVII.

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Garments, jewellery and coiffure of the images are a selection and enhancement of those worn in the respective country where the temple was built. The preference of the sculptor however is for the bare body and he makes sparing use only of garments; worn in the shape of a ‘dhotī’, the cloth clings to the body and is recognisable, as a rule, only by such patterns as are engraved on the modelled shapes of the limbs (Pls. XVIII, XIX, XXIII, XXXIII); and by carving the hem of the cloth, petal-like (Pl. XXX) or as if it were one more ornament of the smooth limbs (Pls. XXI, LXII). Thus all forms of apparel accentuate and accompany the smooth roundness of the figures and their movement; only the headgear and coiffure are additional volumes of sculptural consequence; the high crowns (mukuṭa) of the greater gods, add height to the image (Pls. LXVII, LXX) whereas the chignons which the lesser gods and goddesses wear at the back of their heads add their globular or horn shaped bulges as required in each particular instance, to the balance or the linear composition of the image (Pls. XIX, XV, LX). Coronets, chaplets, diadems, matted hair, etc., add to the breadth or the height as required and to the adornment of the egg or globe shape of the head (Pls. XXXIII, XXXVIII, XL). Straight or aquiline but always powerfully salient noses are thus balanced (Pls. XVII, LXI).¹⁵

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¹⁵ Most of the faces of Indian images having been damaged by the Muslim iconoclasts, the noses suffered most and only a few images carved in stone, and most of the metal images have escaped defacement.

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The single figures are always ‘in movement’ even when they appear to stand still; then even their movement is threefold. As part of the dynamic mass of the wall they share in its impact and appear driven forward; even when they are almost completely carved in the round they are steeped in the drive from the centre of the temple. It carries them, sustains them in the most exacting contortions, bears them aloft when they are represented as flying and adds power, breadth and dignity to their stance when they stand firmly planted on both feet (samapādasthānaka). This erect stance with the weight of the body evenly distributed, right and left, is classified as ‘samabhaṅga’ or the even bend. It is the first variety in the classification of stances, they are classified in the surface, as the even bend, the slight bend (abhaṅga), the triple bend (tribhaṅga) and the excessive (triple) bend (atibhaṅga).¹⁶ Even the strictly motionless stance is understood as a particular phase of movement; it balances the body, which remains in tension. This classification leaves out of account the writhing in space of the sculptured form around its axis. The third kind of movement is that of the arms and hands, their gestures. These belong throughout to the class of ‘schemata’, the gestures expressing permanent states pertaining to the nature of divinity, which assures fearlessness and grants boons. When the hands of these divinities hold or brandish a weapon this action too is a permanent quality of their nature; they cut across ignorance, slay the demon, etc., and these actions are correspondingly expressed as their epithets.¹⁷

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¹⁶ J. N. Banerjea, ‘The Development of Hindu Iconography’, p. 289, gives a good summary description of these stances.

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¹⁷ For example; Durgā Mahiṣāsura-mardiṇī; Durgā, the slayer of the Demon Mahiṣa; Śiva Tripurāntaka: the ender of Tripura.

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The carved figures are upheld in their being by the total monument, the walls of the temple with its progressive impact. To this movement, greater than their own and of which they are passive part, is added the movement of each figure with reference to its axis, turning and writhing around it if viewed in space, as sculpture (Pls. XIII, XIX), and bent variously towards it when viewed from the front, as image (Pls. XIX, etc., XVI, XIV). To the ‘schemata’ of the divinities of the higher hierarchies are added the movements of the lesser divinities whose ‘mudrās’ and ‘hastas’, the attitudes of their hands and arms, are ‘schemata’ and ‘phorai’ as well.¹⁸ These attitudes and gestures moreover, while they represent the particular movement assigned to them, are part of the total rhythm of the body.

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¹⁸ This distinction made by Plutarch is introduced here so as to differentiate with the help of an accepted Western terminology a kind of movement which is particular to all Indian images, though not to every Indian sculptural representation of figures. The gestures expressing movement and actions on the other hand are known under the term ‘phorai’. The hand holding a mirror, flower, or a weapon would show a movement of the class of ‘schemata’; the hand arranging the hair, holding the hem of a garment which threatens to slip down, etc. to the class of ‘phorai’ though the latter category with regard to these sculptures tends to get merged in the former.

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The gods represented by Indian sculpture belong to definite types for they body forth definite aspects of divine being; the peaceful (śānta), the terrific (ugra), etc. The iconographical physiognomy of the face is also that of the body; the body of the terrific image for example is inflated with divine fury as are the bulging eyes, etc. Typological iconography is a highly specified science;¹⁹ it comprises the wide range of emotions classified in 9 categories.²⁰ Combined and rarefied they are the substratum of the divine countenance while in its structure of ideal proportions ethnical traits are not forgotten which belong to the people in whose midst the images were made.

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¹⁹ The respective passages of the ‘Viṣṇudharmottara’ III. and the ‘Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati’, III., at a distance from each other of several centuries are some of the large body of iconographic texts carefully followed by the sculptors; they contain specially vivid descriptions of the divine moods and their counterfeits by art; cf. also the Buddhist ‘Sādhanamālā’.

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²⁰ The 'Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra', LXXXII, 2-3 speaks of 11 Rasas adding 'Preyas' and 'Pratyakṣa' (?) to the usual nine, i.e. 'śṛṅgāra' (erotic), 'hāsya' (laugh exciting), 'karuṇa' (pathetic), 'vīra' (heroic), 'raudra' (furious), 'bhayānaka' (fearful), 'bībhatsa' (loathsome), 'adbhuta' (supernatural) and 'śānta' (peaceful) ; 'Viṣṇudharmottara', III. XLIII. 1 f.

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Innumerable degrees of bliss and august serenity are expressed in the faces of most of the celestials, the gods (Pls. VII-VIII, XXXVII, XXXVIII) and glendoveers (Pls. XXIV-XXVIII), and they are set off against the relatively few types in which 'terror', gleesome 'disgust', etc., are given shape on the basis of an inflated or emaciated appearance (Pls. XXIX, LIX). Where however 'the supernatural' is the main theme and horror and dignity accompany it the face of the animal, the Lion mask, is resorted to (Pl. L).²¹ Its wide application and that of the less frequent "death-shapes" are the indispensable counterplayers to the evternally beatific youth of the other gods.

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²¹ See Ch. on the 'Kīrttimukha', the Face of Glory.

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Their radiance reflects the features of the people who worship them; they are differently proportioned in North India and in the South;²² their countenance indeed varies in expression from one part of the country to the other and in each age according to the prevailing aptitude of the realisation of supreme bliss and peace. Irrespective however of these and other limiting conditions the many degrees in which beatitude shines forth from the face of the image are carried on unruffled expanses of modelling as delicate, taut and as non-human as are the shapes of flower-petals and ripe fruits. All these faces shine; they have a silent radiance of which the lips tell nothing nor do the eyes ever smile. No glance is cast, no thought communicated from between steady unwinking lids (divyadṛṣṭi)²³ where long eyes in full view sail across cheeks—though the face be shown in profile—; no sockets impede their course. High brows are raised in perennial wonderment. Strung bows, tendrils and antennae combine in their lines which are carved records of the vibrations and tensions of mind. Under their arches the eyes gaze into unknown distance without, and depth, within. They do not perceive, are not organs of sense, but a place of meeting of the outer and inner worlds. Such a place of exchange and contact however is also the whole smooth surface of the images. On it the light and air outside touches upon and is met with the inner light, pulsation and breath.

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²² According to the most ancient iconometrical injunctions ('Bṛhatsaṃhitā', LVII, 1.c.) and thus shown by images of all ages.

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²³ The above remarks on 'divyadṛṣṭi' and the way in which the eyes are shown in sculpture when giving form to divinities refer only to this special and widely represented branch of Indian art. In painting however the scope was great for showing the fleeting glances and facial expressions following all possible physiognomic reactions to psychological experiences and states. This can be seen in Ajaṇṭā, Bādāmi, Bāgh, etc. and read in the 'Viṣṇudharmottara', III. XXXVII; and in detail also in the 'Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra', LXXXII, dealing with 'Rasadṛṣṭilakṣaṇam'. In the next chapter of this compendium which deals with the "64 Hastas" the position and movement of the hands and fingers are described and related to those of the face and its parts and of the head.

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This particular quality is not confined to any type or province of Indian temple sculpture. It arises from existence itself realising itself in an enduring recognition, an ever active memory, completely made conscious to itself. The place of this realisation is the body. The different physiognomical types particular to the different parts of India, are its substratum. The schools of Indian sculpture differ as much as the human types reflected in the images of the gods. The metaphysical realisation to which the images give shape requires the figure of man as reference; on becoming an image, made by art, in stone, etc., it is transformed and transubstantiated. The frame however, of this body made by art is measured according to the perfect proportion of the body of man.²⁴

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²⁴ Cf. also the rule for the perfect proportion of the body of man, as well as of the Mahāpuruṣa (or the image of Buddha): the height from the soles of the feet up to the root of the hair on the forehead is equal to the width between the tips of the middle fingers when the arms are stretched horizontally (a fathom; Nyagrodha-parimaṇḍala).

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Navatāla or nine face lengths is the generally accepted rule concerning the height of the images of the gods.²⁵ One Tāla is subdivided into 12 aṅgulas.²⁶ Below are given, according to the ‘Śukranītisāra’ IV. 4, the proportions of images according to their relative height of the figures—up to the root of the hair on the forehead. The generally accepted proportion of nine Tālas being that of the gods, 8 Tālas would be that of the goddesses. Tālamāna, iconometry, however is not unanimous on this; according to the ‘Vaikhānāśāgama’ XXV,²⁷ Daśatāla, “10 Face lengths” images are those of Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva; their images belong to the highest of the 3 sub-varieties of Daśatāla proportion;²⁸ the Great Goddesses would conform in their proportion with the middle variety of the 10 Faces height. The respective proportion depends on the place which the god holds in the divine hierarchy; the ‘Matsyapurāṇa’ CCLIX. 1-2, moreover makes the proportion of the images correspond also to those of the types on which they are based. The image of Viṣṇu as Rāma or Varāha has 10 Face lengths, whereas it has 7 Face lengths only when it represents his Dwarf incarnation (Vāmana).

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²⁵ See also ‘Pratimāmānalakṣaṇam’ 85-86, transl. with notes by J. N. Banerjea, op. cit. p. 406.

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²⁶ Proportionate measurement expressed in aṅgulas: ‘Bṛhatsaṃhitā’, ch. LVII ; 4-5 ; 16-17 ; ‘Viṣṇudharmottara’ III. ch. XXXV ; cf. also ‘Mānasollāsa’ III. ch. I. 200-205. In usage, a Tāla—which means ‘palm’, i.e. the inner length of the hand including the fingers—is stated by the learned to be the (length of) the face; cf. ‘Mānasollāsa’ III. I. 196-7. The length is usually subdivided into 12 parts or ‘aṅgulas’. Aṅgula, as a subdivision of Tāla, bears no direct reference to a ‘finger’s width’ although it seems that originally the proportionate measurement of images had the aṅgula as its module and not the Tāla.

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²⁷ In South Indian images the length of the face is however 14 aṅgulas. The Daśatāla or 10 Tāla proportion is discussed below, in this connection.

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²⁸ Each ‘proportion’, Daśatāla, etc. is subdivided into 3 varieties, uttama, madhyama and adhama; the highest, the middle and the least. 120 aṅgulas being the mean height, 124 is the highest and 116 the least height of a Daśatāla image (‘Vaikhānāśāgama’). The ‘Bṛhatsaṃhitā’, LXVIII, dividing the types of men according to their proportions into 5 classes, each ‘nyagrodhaparimaṇḍala’, assigns a height ranging from 96-108 aṅgulas (96, 99, 102, 105, 108) to the respective types of men. These would approximate to the Aṣṭa- and Nava-tāla types. Further sub-varieties are also known in South Indian Tālamāna; latitude in following the canons is given to the image maker, and this too is classified (see J. N. Banerjea, op. cit., p. 357).

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Indian iconometry knows of 9 main varieties of proportions of the images ranging from 1 Tāla to 10 Tālas, corresponding to the following total number of aṅgulas successively : 12, 24, 48, 60, 72, 84, 96, 108 and 120. The series is built up by adding 1 Tāla or 12 aṅgulas throughout. The total height, in each of the 9 types of proportionate measurement, is distributed in 9 divisions, face, neck, etc. (see Chart), in close correspondence to the Navatāla or standard type of 108 aṅgulas. Out of the nine varieties, the 4 types from Saptatāla to Daśatāla have the widest currency.

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VERTICAL PROPORTIONS OF 4 MAIN TYPES OF INDIAN IMAGES.

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| Type of Image | 7 Tāla* | 8 Tāla | 9 Tāla | 10 Tāla |
| Face . . . . . | 12† | 12 | 12 | 13 |
| Neck . . . . . | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| Neck to the horizontal line connecting the nipples ("heart") ... ... | 9 | 10 | 12 | 13 |
| From these to the navel ("belly"; udara) | 9 | 10 | 12 | 13 |
| Navel to genitals ("lower belly"; vasti) | 9 | 10 | 12 | 13 |
| Thigh . . . . . | 18 | 21 | 24 | 26 |
| Knee . . . . . | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| Leg . . . . . | 18 | 21 | 24 | 26 |
| Foot . . . . . | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| | | | | 1 |
| Total Height ... ... ... | 84 | 96 | 108 | 120 |

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* 1 Tāla=12 aṅgulas. † The figures give the number of aṅgulas.

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The rules are : The proportions of the trunk are the same in the 4 types; the distance from the root of the neck to the genitals is divided into 3 equal parts, in each case; neck—heart, heart—navel; navel—genitals; the thigh and the leg, throughout, are each twice as long. Of equal height, in each canon, are also neck, knee and foot. The actual lengths of these change; the face however remains the same, *i.e.*, 12 aṅgulas throughout, but for the Daśatāla.

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This last and highest standard is built up on the Navatāla, the purest in proportion (1; ⅓; 1; 1; 2; ⅓; 2; ⅓), by adding one aṅgula in each section; thigh and leg being as usual twice the height of the "heart", etc. One aṅgula, moreover, is added to complete the number 120. By these artifices the highest type of proportionate measurement is constructed befitting the highest hierarchy of divine images. It approximates most closely the "sectio aurea" in the classical statuary of the West; there the navel divides the total height of the figure—and of the perfect human body in this proportion.²⁹

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²⁹ The Nava-tāla and Daśa-tāla proportions represent also two out of the three canons of classical antiquity, the 'navatāla' being that of Vitruvius. The entire height of the figure as 9 face lengths is also laid down as the norm in Byzantine painting, in the 'Painter's Book from Mount Athos'.

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The Tāla system, in the Sapta and Aṣṭa-tāla types, is relevant, with regard to the total height only. Their several proportions however are not regulated by it. The Tāla or face length is not the module of these images.³⁰ Their proportions are based on number, which is correlated to the main divisions of the body. The module is the aṅgula; the measures of the single division are its multiples. At the same time,—excluding the height of the face itself—the organic proportions of the Navatāla type are adhered to (see Chart). Thus the less generally valid, the less perfect proportions are admissible for images lower down in the hierarchy of the images; they are fit for dwarf and child incarnations.

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³⁰ In South Indian (metal) images of a relatively late period and also in present practice, the total height is divided into a number of Tālas (10, 9, 8, 7 or 5) cf. ‘Some Hindu Śilpaśāstras’ by W. S. Hadaway, ‘Ostasiatische Zeitschrift’, 1914, p. 37. This agrees with the ancient Nava-tāla type.

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In the general, the Navatāla type, the main proportions are worked out on the principle of organic differentiation similar to that of Byzantine art,³¹ the only difference being that ⅓ ‘Face length’ is given in the Indian image to the knee, whereas in the Byzantine icon no height at all is provided for the knee and ⅓ ‘Face length’ is added as height of the skull. The Indian Navatāla image thus has relatively long legs and a relatively short trunk—the images of goddesses, having this proportion, especially those whose bodies sway and turn around their vertical axis in space, are seen with foreshortened trunks on pillar shaped legs. (Pls. XIII, XV).

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³¹ E. Panofsky, ‘Die Entwicklung der Proportionslehre, etc.’ (‘Monatshefte für Kunstwissenschaft’, 1921-22, pp. 188-219). The height of the body being 9 facial lengths, that of the trunk is 3, thighs 2 and legs 2; ⅓ is the height of skull, foot and throat.

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Height, not included in the canon, is added above the line dividing the hair from the forehead. This is considerable. Most of the crowns of the Greater Gods surpass the height of their faces, and the head together with the crown forms one sculptural unit (Pls. VI, XVII, LIV, LXII, LXX); the—invariably crowned—images of the gods thus exceed the proportions of the body in its likeness to that of man.

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The Indian system of proportionate measurement of the body of the image is based on number, organically correlated to the body of man and its main divisions, a face length being the module. From this system, laid down as Navatāla, modifications ramify; while they maintain its principle as far as possible, they also have recourse to the lesser unit of measurement, the aṅgula (1 Tāla = 12 aṅgulas), according to which a more mechanical subdivision of the total height is effected.³²

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³² The more ancient treatises on Tālamāna, the ‘Bṛhatsaṃhitā’, LVII, etc. measure according to aṅgulas only.

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As far as the proportions of the images are based on number so are their isocephalous rows on the upright walls of the temple (Pl. XLIV) akin in their vertical rhythms to those of the groups of mouldings coherent in their proportions and forming a broad band on the socle (adhiṣṭhāna) of the temple; on its walls,

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In these types of proportionate measure of the image, ancient Vedic numbers survive. The length known as a ‘puruṣa’ or a ‘vyāma’, a man’s length or a fathom, was the unit of measuring the Fire-altar. This length is variously given as 120, 96 and also 84 aṅgulas (cf. Part II, note 12).

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similar though narrower belts of architectural profiles alternate with the belts of images; though the limbs of the latter are more richly interlaced their proportions in the vertical are as pure and also allow for modifications as those of the many variations of the zones of architectural mouldings. Thus the images do not only come forward from the walls, but are part of them also in their proportions. They occupy each its proper position according to the Vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala.³³

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³³ See pp. 53, 97, and the identification of the Pratihāras, the ‘gate-keepers’ of the gods, with the Planets and the Wardens of the eight directions (‘Viṣṇudharmottara’, III, Ch. LXXXVII, 36-37).

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