Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c74.15

v2.c74.15

A finished image like this must be given a place—a proper place to be set in or intsalled into. This place is not the secular abode of mortals. It is the sacred Garbhagṛha of a Prāsāda or Vimāna, the Hindu Temple, where the Principal Image takes its place and the outer walls of the superstructure of the temple are adorned by the hosts of major and minor images (cf. the varied rich sculptures on the temples of Khajuraho, Bhuvanesvara, etc., etc.). Thus Pratimā, the Image and the images and the Prāsāda, the Temple and its superstructure both are intimately connected with each other. Their relationship is so intimate according to Hindu view of life that they may be likened to, as body and soul, respectively. It has, therefore, also been allotted, one separate chapter to complete a broad outline of the edifice of the science and art of icons—the Iconography.