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The Hindu Temple v2.c11.s8: Āmalaka

The Hindu Temple v2.c11.s8

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Āmalaka

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The Āmalaka is the crown of a Nāgara temple. Above the truncated body of its Śikhara it clasps the shaft (veṇu; Pl. I)¹⁶¹ and is surmounted by the finial (stūpikā) with the vase (kalaśa) as its most conspicuous part. The Āmalaka has a cogged rim. Its solid shape is that of a ring stone; it may be compared to an indented wheel, the spokes being shown as ribs of its ring shape (Pl. I). The Āmalaka is not only the crown of the main Śikhara (mūla-śikhara, mūla-mañjarī) of the temple, but also of every Mañjarī or Śṛṅga that leans against, or is arrayed on, its body (Pls. I, II, IV, XLIII, XLV and XLVII). Its shape furthermore is the basis of the finial above the superstructure of the Maṇḍapa (Pl. I); it may moreover, be doubly present (Pls. III, IV) having its larger and main shape surmounted by yet another smaller shape.¹⁶² Where, as in Orissa, etc. the Latā type of the Śikhara is dominant each of its Bhūmis itself terminates in an Āmalaka; carved in the corners it is assimilated in its shape to the square section of the Śikhara and forms an Āmalaka quoin.¹⁶³ There is no Āmalaka on the superstructure of a South Indian Drāviḍa temple. Its position, function and meaning are transferred there to the cupola of the High Temple, the Vimāna or Harmya.¹⁶⁴

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¹⁶¹ The earliest yet known crowning Āmalaka of a structural temple has been unearthed in fragments at Nāgarī, Chitor, Rajputana. Mem., ASI, No. 4, p. 126. It belongs to the fifth century A.D. Cf. Cunningham, ASR. IX. p. 43, describing small shrines complete with Śikhara and Āmalaka, at Tigowa, C.P.

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¹⁶² They are called Āmalasara and Āmalasarī respectively (J. Burgess—H. Cousens, ‘Architectural Antiquities of Northern Gujerat’, op. cit. p. 27). They may be seen on temples of Central India, the United Provinces, the Central Provinces; for example on the Mahādev Temple at Nohta, where an Āmalasara of enormous diameter is topped by a smaller Āmalasarī; ASIAR, 1912-13, Pt. I. pl. Va, and in Gujarat, etc. Cf. also, ASIAR, 1927-28, Pl. LIIA, a Triśūla supported by three Āmalakas (stūpa II, Nāgārjunakoṇḍa).

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¹⁶³ The blocking courses formed by the Āmalaka quoins (of the koṇa-pāga, karṇa) have the shape of a ribbed square cushion (Pl. I, XXI; Osian, Rajputana) or of a rectangular clasp (Orissa). Cf. ‘Viṣṇudharmottara’, III. ch. LXXXVI. 7-8.

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¹⁶⁴ This has also been recognised by K. R. Pisharoti, in an article on ‘Āmalaka’, ‘The Calcutta Oriental Journal’, Vol. I. p. 191; note 19.

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The Nāgara temple is the most widely represented shape of the Hindu temple, in time and place. The Āmalaka is the crown above the Śikhara; it is at the same time a ring around the emerged part of the internal and invisible pillar of the temple, a capital of the ‘Veṇu’ of which the truncated body of the Śikhara is a sheath (veṇu-kośa).¹⁶⁵ It is the highest part of the Śikhara; separated from its truncated body, it is the base on which rises the finial. Its function and meaning are two-fold; it is the crown of the superstructure, the sheath, and a cogged ring around the internal pillar of the temple. As crown it is the loadstone which locks together the pile of the Śikhara; as ringstone or capital it rises above it and is the final clasp of the neck of the pillar itself invisible and having for its sheath the truncated body of the Śikhara.¹⁶⁶

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¹⁶⁵ In the South Indian temples, it has been shown, the walls of the High Temple form the emerging part of the central pillar which is also called ‘grīvā’, the neck.

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¹⁶⁶ This part is also played by the pyramidal Bhūmis of the South Indian superstructure.

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The superstructure reduces the extent of the temple from the surface covered by its plan and perpendicular walls, to the point of the finial which is beyond the superstructure. This ascension is made haltingly, pausing at every Bhūmi or level (Pl. LXXI) and coming to an end of its own at the pinnacle of every Śṛṅga (Pl. IV), which is but a station on the steep upward slope and curve towards the summit. "The stations on the way to Brahman are conductors of the soul, not marks of the road nor places of enjoyment" ('Vedānta Sūtra', Comm. IV. III. 2-7). Śṛṅga clings to Śṛṅga; (Pls. IV, XLIII); and all the Uro-mañjarīs lean against and are urgent in their competition towards the top where they come closest to the root-Śikhara and the central Pillar. As much as the piers and offsets proceed from the perpendicular walls, away from the centre of the temple, so much do the Śṛṅgas and Latās compete towards—or leave off—and, reduced in number or extent, reach the inner sheath (venu kośa-antara),¹⁶⁷ the topmost course of the Vedi (skandha) and the Pillar with its Āmalaka. It is a long ascent (dūrohaṇam) made by the eye on the basis of shape and form. This ascent is an architectural analogy to the recitation of the Dūrohaṇa mantra, "By repeating the Dūrohaṇa Mantra the sacrificer ascends to heaven" ('Aitareya Brāhmaṇa', XVIII. 6. 20). The sacrificer must already when alive ascend to heaven and gain a footing in the sun which shines on high; then he descends again to the earth. Thus the sacrificer who has arrived in the celestial world takes foot solidly in this world.

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¹⁶⁷ 'Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra', LVI. 288; or Skandha-Kośāntara; 276.

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All this is performed by the repeated recitation of the Dūrohaṇa Mantra, its verses and pauses;¹⁶⁸ all this is performed too by the ever renewed effort at climbing the Śikhara with the help of its smaller replicas. By this repeated and renewed effort, the apex is reached and the mass of the structure is reduced. The many Bhūmis, Mañjarīs, Śṛṅgas and Latās fulfil their purpose in different ways on the various temples: with a seeming independence and a high flung tension (Pl. I); in a choral sameness of step, reglemented and united (Pl. XLIII), or with a rhythmical interchange of ascent and pause,—of vertical curve, and platform; together with Āmalaka—sustained by one chain of thought carried in its long course (Pls. LXXI and IV).

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¹⁶⁸ S. Lévi, 'La Doctrine du Sacrifice', pp. 88-89.

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The upward journey approaches its end the nearer it leads to the Central Pillar of the temple which emerges from the High Vedi, a straight passage in its vertical direction though not factually, right from the Garbhagṛha and its centre. Above the crown and ring of the Āmalaka there is no competition, only a meeting and concurrence from all directions in the point of the finial; it rises bud-shaped or in the likeness of a fruit (mātuluṅga) from the vessel, the Amṛta-kalaśa (amara-kāraka) which makes immortal because "Viśvakarmā made the Kalaśa from the different parts (kalā) of each of the gods" ('Mahānirvāṇa-tantra', V. 181). So the substance of the Kalaśa, which is gold, as a rule,¹⁶⁹ contains the properties of each of the gods up in the deathless (amara) region, straight above the Nidhi-Kalaśa in the foundation of the temple in which were placed the treasures (nidhi) of the earth.¹⁷⁰ The ‘treasures’ would be transmuted into Deathlessness in the High Vase in which their several colours, scents and shapes would have entered through their presiding divinities. As above the temple, so also is a vase below the temple. In the Vase (kalaśa, kumbha) of the finial (stūpikā) are collected (from the root ‘stup’ to collect) all the properties of all the objects and their potencies and merged in Amṛta, the Deathless. Into this vase, the Golden Prāsāda-puruṣa is laid.

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¹⁶⁹ The jar (Kumbha; Kalaśa) of the Stūpikā is of gold; it may be substituted by copper, silver, stone, brick or stucco (saudha); 'Mayamata', XVIII. 195.

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¹⁷⁰ The Nidhi-kalaśa need not necessarily be present in the foundation.

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The finial (stūpikā) with its point (bindu) above the Kalaśa, above the Āmalaka rises from the centre of the Central Shaft (veṇu). Its pillar shape is clasped by the ring of the Āmalaka. But it is not the only pillar so clasped. Here it is the Central Pillar of the Hindu Temple; elsewhere, the pillar in itself denotes the presence of the Buddha and is carved in relief, in Amarāvatī for example. In regular intervals, like the Bhūmis of a Śikhara, Āmalakas clasp its shape. The Āmalaka here functions as a ring. Through a number of rings passes a central pillar or shaft. This is the original function of the Āmalaka as ring-stone or naturally holed stone, Svayamatṛṇṇā, the self perforated “brick” (iṣṭakā) in the Vedic Agni. Three such self-holed stones were placed, the first on the golden man in the centre of the bottom layer, the second in the centre of the third layer and the third upon the centre of the completed fifth layer. They represent the three worlds; the holes afford to sacrificial man, himself identified with the golden Puruṣa a passage to the highest region.¹⁷¹

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¹⁷¹ The Āmalaka and more precisely, the cupola (Śikhara) of the High Temple (Vimāna) above the Bhūmis of a South Indian temple, would correspond in their topmost part to the “roof plate of the domed house” and represent an architectural equivalent of the Sundoor through which one “escapes altogether” as pointed out by Coomaraswamy, ‘Some Sources of Buddhist Iconography’, ‘B. C. Law Volume’, p. 473, note 12; and also in ‘Pāli Kaṇṇikā’, JAOS, 50; 1930; ‘Symbolism of the Dome’, op. cit., I.H.Q. 1938, and ‘Eckstein’, ‘Speculum’ 1939; also ‘The two Reliefs from Bharhut’, JISOA 1938, l.c. ‘Svayamatṛṇṇā, Janua Coeli’, ‘Zalmoxis’, 1939, could however not be consulted.

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The third naturally perforated stone is placed upon the last, the fifth layer of the Altar; the Āmalaka too, is placed above the platform of the Vedi of the Śikhara. By its position it signifies the celestial world, below which the temple has its extension in space (antarikṣa), the mid-region—between heaven and earth.

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The central pillar of the temple thus is alike to the Passage in the Fire-Altar; through it sacrificial man, the devotee, attains to the Highest Point where he is altogether liberated from the conditions of space and time. This straight, short way however is only for those who ascend from the Centre, from within the darkness in the mountain to the light above. Figuratively, the Pillar strikes the ground in the centre of the Garbhagṛha, a shaft of light. Nothing retards their ascension, it is instantaneous. The pilgrims from afar, however require the conductors on the way upwards. They are stationed on the outward shape of the temple, in its architecture. The temple as a monument thus serves a similar purpose as the icon (mūrti). The highest kind of devotion need not dwell on either and ascends straight from the Centre within the cavity, within the heart, to the Highest Point.¹⁷²

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¹⁷² The complete and unconditioned liberation (mukti) is distinguished from temporary and conditional states known as: 'sālokya, sārūpya, sāmīpya' and 'sāyujya'. The last is a becoming one with God; the first, a dwelling in the same world with God; it is attained by image worship.

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The central pillar 'pillars apart' heaven and earth (AV. X. 8. 2). It is a pillar of light, extending downwards from the sun in the zenith and rests on the earth ('Aitareya Brāhmaṇa', V. 28. 1). Its sheath (veṇu-kośa), the superstructure of the temple, shines with innumerable Gavākṣas (ray-wheels) in all the directions, a light-house on which 'revolves' the Āmalaka with its cogged rim. Its indentations sum up the buttresses and projecting angles of the total building; together with it they seem to revolve around its vertical axis, which divides while it unites, heaven and earth (cf. RV. X. 89. 4).

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The Āmalaka effects and symbolizes the passage to heaven; it is the architectural symbol of the celestial world; viewed as sculpture, it is a three dimensional shape of the filaments of the lotus or of a halo with its rays.¹⁷³ The disc of the sun looks like the pericarp of the sky-lotus of which the petals are the directions of the compass and the filaments the solar rays.¹⁷⁴ The rays of the sun, in another inscription¹⁷⁵ are seen as "the round wooden rings of the sacrificial posts (yūpa)".

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¹⁷³ Cf. the Śakti-cakra like the rays of the sun "on the white lotus of eight petals" ('Kālottara Āgama', quoted in 'Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati', Pt. III. ch. V. 11 f.).

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¹⁷⁴ 'Ep. Ind.' XVIII. p. 49f; Cola Inscription, Cape Comorin, 'Travancore Archaeol. Series', III. p. 85 f.

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¹⁷⁵ Rewa inscription of Malayasiṃha; Memoir, ASI. No. 23; R. D. Banerji, 'The Haihayas of Tripuri and their Monuments', p. 135.

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The naturally perforated or ring-stone¹⁷⁶ is the prototype also of the many carved stone discs which have been found in various sites.¹⁷⁷ They have a large, round hole in the centre, as a rule; a ring-stone however having no hole has been found in Mathurā. Its solid centre is filled with the carving of a lotus-Āmalaka shape.¹⁷⁸

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¹⁷⁶ Is a symbol of re-generation. Those who pass through it are, as it were, born again. Crooke, op. cit. p. 322. Cf. the Muktidvāra in Satrunjaya, etc. The ring stones having "undulating surfaces" (Marshall, 'Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus Civilisation', pp. 61-62, Pl. XIV. 6) may, more closely even than the others, be connected with the corrugated shape of the Āmalaka. Maurice, 'Indian Antiquities', 1793, also tells of the belief in a new birth of the soul by passing through holed stones. Self-bored stones are used as 'lucky stones'.

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¹⁷⁷ Taxila (three from the Bhir Mound, one from Hathial); others have been found in Sankisa, Kosam (near Allahabad), Rajghat (Benares), Patna, etc.

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¹⁷⁸ ASIAR, 1930-34, Pl. CXXX. 1. On its outer rim is carved the figure of an animal with the body of a lion, the wings of a bird and the head of man. Havell, 'Handbook of Indian Art', pp. 8, 57, 112 and also in his 'Ideals of Indian Art' p. 171, connected the Āmalaka with the Lotus, if differently from the present context.

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The Āmalaka ring-stone on the shaft of the Pillar of the Śikhara symbolises the celestial region where the rays of the sun spread like the filaments of the lotus of the zenith ('Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad', VI. 3. 6). This region is above the body of the temple, above the truncated superstructure, around the Central Pillar; there the Central Pillar gives up its shaft and emerges from the Āmalaka as it were in its inmost core only, as finial (stūpikā).¹⁷⁹ Inasmuch as the Āmalaka has retained its meaning as ring-stone it is a symbol of passage, of exit from this world and entry into heaven. In its appearance however on the monument it is the crown of the temple. In it are gathered the slopes of the Śikhara; their multifarious profiles are commuted into the unity of its solid and comprehensive shape.

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¹⁷⁹ The Āmalaka has been shown to have an equivalent in the flat stones which are used to cover the opening of the top of the ‘spire of Toda-huts’ “where certain relics are intended to be hidden from the public gaze”, Simpson, ‘Origin and Mutation in Indian and Eastern Architecture’, published in ‘Transactions of the Royal Society of British Architects’, 1891, p. 253. In Barhut relief representations (R. Chanda, ‘Beginning of the Śikhara of the Nāgara Temple’, ‘Rūpam’, 1924, Figs. 1-3) a ring shape from which emerges the finial “shuts up the hole at the top of the dome”. Such shapes have played a part similar to that of the Āmalaka; there however the ‘ring-shape’ etc., rests on the dome, etc. itself and is not separated from it by a central shaft, as it is on the temple; such a separation would be meaningless in case of a structure; the super-structure of a temple however is a monument, it functions symbolically and not structurally. The vision of the celestial region and of the Cosmic Pillar became symbolic form by the transposition and transformation of structural shapes. To the same extent are the body and limbs of the images reminiscent of the shape of men although they are unlike it.

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In South Indian temples where the shape of the Āmalaka is unknown, the cupola of the High Temple (vimāna ; harmya) takes its place.¹⁸⁰ In this connection, the High ‘little temple’ (harmikā; hammikā or ‘little palace’) on top of the Buddhist Stūpa has its particular significance. In name and position this Harmya is identical to the domed High Temple on top of the Bhūmis of the South Indian Prāsāda. Its shape too, where it is shown to be a chapel with a vaulted roof¹⁸¹ is cognate with that of the South Indian High Temple and its cupola. On other stūpas however no such chapel is shown within its square railing and surmounted by successive tiers of slabs, increasing in area. Instead, the square railing has the shape of a closed casket with a railing pattern for its sides; on which rest the tiers of slabs, successively increasing in area.¹⁸²

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¹⁸⁰ The term Mūrdheṣṭakā (‘Mayamata’, XVIII. 117; ‘Kāśyapaśilpa’, XLII. 1-2), the head, or top ‘brick’ is the place where the finial is fixed; also the ‘pidhānaphalakā’ of a wooden structure (‘Tantra-Samuccaya’ Pt. I. ch. II. 49-50 ;) cf. Coomaraswamy, ‘Pāli Kaṇṇikā—Circular Roof Plate’; JAOS, 50, pp. 238-243. Although the Āmalaka has no place in the South Indian Vimāna as a whole, its shape, though modified, is yet recognisable as part of the capital of Pallava and Cola pillars.

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¹⁸¹ Barua, ‘Barhut’, Pt. III. Pls. LII, LIII.

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¹⁸² For example in Ajaṇṭā, Cave IX; Karli, etc. Cf. the increase in area in the opposite direction of the Bhūmis in the super-structure of the temple.

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The self-same combination however of the closed casket whose sides consist of a square railing, surmounted by an inverted pyramid of slabs, is placed on top of the capital of pillars, either structural or carved in the rock and contemporary with the stūpas and their ‘caskets’.¹⁸³ The contents of such a casket are known for they are also taken out of the casket and carved above the pillar capitals. In one instance¹⁸⁴ an Āmalaka is carved above the railing of the ‘casket’. In this way it is made visible. Generally however the Āmalaka is shown within the casket whose sides are opened up for this purpose; only their posts are left at the four corners.¹⁸⁵ On some of these pillars, the Āmalaka in its receptacle is placed above the lotus (Bedsa, Karli) or pot (Ambivale, Nasik) shaped capital. The lotus as well as the pot are inverted, they are seen from above downwards, their petals and contents are showered from a celestial world to the earth below. Correspondingly, in a wooden temple it is the rule according to the ‘Tantrasamuccaya’ I. II. 48, to measure the rafters of the Śikhara from its top downwards; it is understood spreading from above to the walls of the temple below. In this inverse measuring the Highest Point of the temple is taken as its ‘origin’ and starting point, which it is ontologically; the temple as symbol of manifestation begins from the Bindu, the point between the unmanifest and the manifest. This point is situated above the Āmalaka.

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¹⁸³ At Bedsa, P. Brown, op. cit.; See also note 191.

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¹⁸⁴ On a structural pillar at Besnagar, see P. Brown, op. cit. Pl. IX, Fig. 4.

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¹⁸⁵ In Bedsa, Karli, Nasik, etc. The thin corner posts are replaced by the figures of Gaṇas who act as Karyatids; their bodies are placed slantingly like brackets; the straight corner posts disappear. This change can be seen on the capitals of pillars of one and the same cave, the Vihāra 3, in Nasik. The same type of Āmalaka with the figures of Gaṇas, etc. as ‘struts’ i.e., ‘corners’ of the casket occurs in Ajaṇṭā, Caves I and II, whereas in cave XXVI, Yakṣiṇīs with their trees act as struts.

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Indian pillars of later ages, from the Gupta period onward, retain the Āmalaka without or within its casket as constituent part of their capitals. These have many variations and elaborations but, as a rule consist of the capital proper, called Bharaṇa, ‘bearing’ (S.S. LVII. 69; LXIII. 56)—on many types of pillars it has the shape of an Āmalaka (Pl. LXXVI)—and a kind of bracket capital, called Śīrṣa or head. The intervening part, if present, is called Hīragrahaṇa.¹⁸⁶ Below the Bharaṇa a ‘collerino’ may be present, called Vīrakaṇṭha.¹⁸⁷ Vīra denotes the sacrificial fire and Vīrakaṇṭha is the space of an inch from the edge of the hole in which the sacrificial fire is deposited. This connotation has its origin in the same

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¹⁸⁶ South Indian texts know the capital as Bodhikā or Poṭikā (‘Kāśyapaśilpa’, IX. 1 f). The wrongly called ‘cushion’ capital of the pillars in the caves of Bādāmī (6th century), the Dhumar Leṇa in Ellora and the Śiva temple in Elephanta (7th century) consists of an Āmalaka without any ‘casket’. More than one Āmalaka forms the capital of the Iron pillar in Delhi (415 A.D.). Cf. the proportion of the Amalasāraka of the pillar, ‘Viṣṇudharmottara’, II. Ch. XXIX.

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¹⁸⁷ S. S., LXIII.

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Cf. the corresponding representation of a ‘surrounding railing’ carved below the tree which is meant to be shown surrounded by it; Barhut, op. cit. in the scene of the Jetavana Jātaka (Pl. XLV).

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⁵⁸ The names Hīragrahaṇa, also Hīra or Hīraka occur (S. S. LIV. 24, LVII. 253 ; 497) ; in Gujarat, Hīragrhas are the corbels intended to hold the lower tenons of bracket figures (Burgess-Cousens, op. cit. p. 24). Hīragrahaṇa, ‘containing or enclosing the diamond’, may originally have referred to the corbels (such as in Bedsa, Karli, Nasik, etc.) forming an inverted pyramid of slabs above the Āmalaka in the casket, while Hīraka may denote the Āmalaka, the stone whose meaning is as precious as a diamond.

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⁵⁷ “Vīragaṇḍa’, an instance of popular etymology. South Indian Vāstuśāstras use a somewhat different terminology for the parts of the pillar. The word Vīrakaṇṭha however is retained (and translated by P. K. Acharya as “warrior’s neck”) in ‘Mānasāra’ XV; the name of the capital, Bodhikā (Poṭikā), derived from ‘awakening’ and ‘enlightenment’, refers to the liberation which is attained by passing across the Āmalaka as ring-stone and Mukti-dvāra.

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place where, on the Uttara Vedi, the last Svayamātṛṇṇā had come to lie. Both the terms belong to ‘surrounding shapes’, of the immanent Breath (ātman) in the Altar, or of the sacrificial Fire.

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As many as are the uses of the Āmalaka, the cogged ring-stone¹⁸⁸—and especially of the highest of these Svayamātṛṇṇās, denoting the celestial world—so manifold also are the meanings of its name. Etymologically it is derived from the root ‘mal’, “to hold” or “to gather”; this meaning describes it in its function as a ring. Its name moreover is differently written and frequently begins with a short ‘a’; Amala means without impurity, stainless; thus the name Amala-śilā ‘pure stone’ was given to it, especially by the Buddhists.¹⁸⁹ Another of its names of this kind is Amala-sāra, Pure Essence.¹⁹⁰ Both these names are descriptive of the High Region, the celestial world; of which the Āmalaka—as ring-stone and Mukti-dvāra, door of liberation—is the symbol denoting entry and final integration.

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¹⁸⁸ As end of the cross-bar on the throne of Buddhist divinities, ASIAR, 1928-29, Pl. LVII. Or, similar to its use on the pillar, on the Āyakakhambas of a Stūpa (Gumadidurru, ASIAR, 1925-26, Pl. XXXVb); and in symbol-ornaments stuck into the coiffure of Terracotta figurines, on plaques (‘Annual Bibliography of Indian Archaeology’ XII. Pl. V.) Not only in the capital, but also as part of the base of a pillar comparable to the lowest Svayamātṛṇṇā is the Āmalaka shown in relief representations from Nāgārjunakoṇḍa (ASIAR, 1927-28, Pl. LI.).

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¹⁸⁹ Beal, Buddhist Records II. pp. 136-7. Foucher, ‘L’ Art Gréco-Bouddhique’, op. cit., I. p. 96. note.

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¹⁹⁰ ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtrādhara’, LVI. 49; 154, etc., Āmalasāraka. Āmalasāraka however would be synonymous with Āmalaka.

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When however, as generally in Vāstu-śāstra, Āmalaka begins with a long ‘a’ it is the name of the fruit of the Emblic Myrobalan, whose shape it remotely recalls. Closer, however, than this resemblance is its affinity with the circle of lotus filaments which are likened to rays.

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The Āmalaka moreover in early Vāstuśāstra is also called ‘Aṇḍa’, the ‘egg’ (see Part VII, p. 273). The interchange of these two images has its background in the ‘Chāndogya Upaniṣad’, III. 19.1: “The sun is Brahman. Such is the teaching; and its exposition is this: In the beginning, this was indeed non-existent; it became existent; it came into being; it became an egg; it lay for the period of one year; it broke open; then came the two halves of the egg shell, one silver, one gold” and Śaṅkarācārya’s commentary: “What is emphasized is not the negation of existence (but the absence of differentiation of Name and Form). As a matter of fact, the term ‘sat’, ‘Existent’, is found to be used in the sense of ‘differentiated name and form’ and this differentiation of name and form of the universe is mostly dependent upon the sun”. The Brahmāṇḍa the ‘world egg’ is the true ‘Dhātu-garbha’ and is enshrined as such in the Harmikā or casket above the Stūpa.¹⁹¹

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¹⁹¹ In this connection it may be possible to see some light thrown also on the corbels or bracket capitals of pillars, etc. where an inverted pyramid composed of tiers (Hira-grahaṇa) rises above the Āmalaka. Their symbolism might be referable to that of the spheres above the sun, from Svarloka upwards. The successive increase in area of the single ‘slabs’ serves a purpose akin to that of a bracket capital on the pillars, whereas no such purpose is served by the same shape on top of the Stūpa. The slabs of this inverted pyramid share with the pyramid of slabs of the temple the function of a solid cover.

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Above the Āmalaka is the Stūpikā, the finial, frequently made of gold, or gilded. Its most conspicuous part is the round body of the jar, the Kalaśa. "The golden Kalaśa, a 'high seat', on the summit of the god's dwelling, looks as if it were the sun's orb that had arisen on the lordly mountain of sunrise.¹⁹² The Kalaśa is likened to the sun and the temple is "the Mountain where the Sun rests at midday.¹⁹³ Meru, the support of the Sun,¹⁹⁴ and "the one Sun that never leaves the Meru" ('Aitareya Brāhmaṇa', XIV. 6.44, Comm.)¹⁹⁵ are symbols of the ultimate state of illumination of the Sādhaka for whom the sun neither rises nor sets. "For one who thus knows the secret doctrine of Brahman, it does not set nor does it rise; for him it is day, once for all" ('Chāndogya Upaniṣad', III. 11.3).

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¹⁹² 'Ep. Ind.' XIII, pp. 46, 56; Kanarese inscr. narrating the building of the Mahādeva Temple at Ittagi, A.D. 1112. In many other inscriptions too, the golden Kalaśa is likened to the sun (Khajuraho inscr. of the year 1001-1002, ib., I. p. 144; in a 12th century inscr. from Pithapuram, ib. IV, p. 44. f. etc.). The Kalaśa is made of gold, silver or copper; I.P. IV. ch. XXXIV. 20 f. The word 'finial' in the present context is taken to denote the entire object above the Āmalaka or the cupola (śikhara) of the South Indian temple.

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¹⁹³ Deopārā inscr. of Vijayasena, 'Ep. Ind.' I. p. 314.

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¹⁹⁴ Hansot Plate, 756 A.D. (Broach); 'Ep. Ind.' XII. p. 203.

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¹⁹⁵ The sun called Digbhrāja, the illuminator of the regions.

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To the Sun these worlds are linked by means of the quarters ('Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa', VI. 7.1.17). Beheld from above, the temple spreads from its finial to the four quarters, while seen from below it is a step-way (sopāna mārga) to ultimate release (mukti).¹⁹⁶

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¹⁹⁶ Buddhist stone inscription, 8-9th century; 'Ind. Ant.', XVII. p. 308. Each Śṛṅga or miniature Śikhara has its Āmalaka in the hierarchy of celestial regions (Pls. IV. XLV) whether these shapes are distinct us as on the temples of central India, or form one sequence of architectural form as in Rajputana (Pl. LXXI), Aihole (Fig. p. 183) or in Orissa, where the Āmalaka-quoins appear as mouldings of the 'Koṇaka pāga'. In these positions they do not symbolize the sun in the 4 quarters; the corners of the temple, as a rule, are in the intermediate directions.

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The Āmalaka, below the golden orb of the Kalaśa-sun, the ring of spotless rays, is the celestial world in which dwells the sun as the pericarp which is above and in the centre of its halo of filaments and its wider sheath of petals (padma-kośa). The Āmalaka and also the dome of the Harmya represent the lowest celestial level of an extra-cosmic Empyrean.¹⁹⁷

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¹⁹⁷ See Coomaraswamy, 'The two Reliefs from Bharhut in the Freer Gallery', l.c., p. 150.

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In the Kalaśa-sun, all the gods are merged in the Deathless; the Āmalaka consequently is sacred not to one god only but to the Three great gods, Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva. This is the meaning of the Āmalaka as the fruit of the tree (the Emblic Myrobalan). Its legends are recounted in the Purāṇas.

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The Tulasī is sacred to Viṣṇu and the Bilva is Śiva's tree. Once when all the gods and sages (ṛṣi) had assembled at the Tīrtha of Prabhāsa, Devī, Śiva's Śakti, wanted to worship Viṣṇu and Lakṣmī, who is Viṣṇu's Śakti, wanted to worship Śiva. Deeply touched, their eyes welled over with tears of joy. Where the tears fell to the ground, Āmalaka trees grew up "since they were born from tears and all the gods and sages saw Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva in the Āmalaka tree’’. (‘Bṛhaddharma Purāṇa’, XII. 1-35).

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Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva dwell in the Āmalaka tree. The ‘Skanda Purāṇa’, (‘Vaiṣṇava Khaṇḍa’, XII. 9-23) describes the Āmalaka (Āmardaki) tree. It is the first tree grown in the universe. Viṣṇu is seated at its bottom; Brahmā above and Śiva higher still. The sun is in its branches, the gods are in their ramifications and in its leaves, flowers and fruits. Thus the Āmalaka is the support of all gods.

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The Āmalaka, tree of manifested deity, redeeming, supernal tree, has contributed to the temple the image of its fruit. It is raised high on the Pillar, above the trunk of the Prāsāda. Its radiance is gathered in its ring of rays, it is given additional support by images carved below it and placed above the last Bhūmi of the superstructure. Siṃhas, the four Vimāna-pālas or Guardians of the temple,¹⁹⁸ or aspects of the divinity of the temple may, but need not, be placed in this high region.¹⁹⁹ Towards the light which spreads from the Āmalaka to all the regions, the Uromañjarīs, Śṛṅgas and Latās, every shape of the superstructure of the temple is seen to ascend: progressing in series, forming vertical bands and ridges and dark narrow paths, flung toward the summit across all strata, all Bhūmis, and linking up the piers and offsets of the walls with the superstructure (Pls. XLIII, XLV, I, IV). In one competition, from the Vedi, the ground on earth, to the High Vedi of the Śikhara proceeds the ascension of the many units of form. The images cease at the height of the Face of Glory and are shown once more, below the Āmalaka.²⁰⁰ The long ascension (dūrohaṇam) has altogether been given form. On some Śikharas, moreover (Pl. XLV), a small figure of man is placed. It is outside the body of the Prāsāda, climbing the mountain of the Śikhara towards the Āmalaka and the Flag placed in the High region. It is the figure of the warrior, the Kṣatriya, the King,²⁰¹ who gains here a footing, high on the superstructure, ascending to heaven.

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¹⁹⁸ The names of the four Vimānapālas are given as: Nyakṣa, Vivasvān, Mitra, and Kṣattā; ‘Vaikhānāsāgama’, VII, VIII, XLI: see also, Gopinatha Rao, op. cit. Vol. I, Pt. II. Appendix, p. 5. They are forms of the ‘Sun’; see Pl. LXI, Head of a Vimānapāla or Devarṣi.

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¹⁹⁹ On temples where the Latās of the Śikhara exceed in height the Mūlamañjarī especially in the Deccan, the Kīrttimukha is carved at the very end (temple of Jhodga; Amṛteśvar Temple in Ratanvalli, etc.) In Orissa, ‘Deul Caraṇīs’, a particular form of the Lioness, are carved below the Āmalaka. They are related to the Caraṇas, movers at will, floating through the air; they belong to the group of Siddhas, Brahmaṛṣis, Devarṣis, etc. (‘Harivaṃśa’, CXXVI. 2); The ‘Kāśyapaśilpa’, XXVII. 66-69, speaks of the figures of bulls in the corners of the ‘gala’ (neck) such as are to be seen on Pallava and Cola Temples (Kailāsanātha Temple, Conjeevaram, etc.) or of images of the 4 Bhūtas, named Āmoda, Pramoda, Pramukha and Durmukha. Their head-god is Yama (cf. Part III, p. 59, the Pecaka Vāstumaṇḍala).

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²⁰⁰ On South Indian temples however, the super-structure too is full of images.

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²⁰¹ The figure of the Royal Knight with the sword at the right side, is carved in the very act of ascending, under the Āmalaka (Taleśvar temple in Tilasma, Mewar, Rajputana ‘ASI. Progress Report, Western Circle’, 1905, p. 56). Today even this figure is locally known as the “royal personage who built the temple and who by means of that meritorious act ascends to heaven.”

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