The Hindu Temple v2.c11.s2.28

v2.c11.s2.28

The door however in its original function and open, is at the same time the place of the threshold and entry or initiation. The iconography of the River-goddesses is effective in this function where the door is a structural equivalent of a Tīrtha. The one or the other aspect prevails in the carvings of the entrance. Where its initiatory function predominates, the goddess Lakṣmī, bathed by elephants, is carved as the central image of the lintel and not the special divinity to whom the temple is consecrated. Lakṣmī is Vāruṇī, the energy and wealth of the Waters. Varuṇa, their Lord, the Asura (RV. VIII. 42. 1), rules over the gods, encloses them,⁴⁶ he is unseen and deathless (RV. I. 164. 38; X. 85. 17-18). It is to this greater and deathless form of the Supreme Principle that the door leads as the place of ‘initiation’.⁴⁷