Pranam
Temples designs
What makes the ancient Indian architectural tradition unique is the number
of texts that have survived to this day. No other culture in the world has
such an abundance of ancient literature that includes prescriptions and
directions for architecture. In these texts, cities are generally organized
so temples and palaces become the central point of the grid-like city plan,
thus emphasizing the importance of these two types of structures and the
power they stand for, the priestly and the royal, as well as their
connection. With regard to temple construction, ancient Indian texts,
written in Sanskrit, can be divided into two groups: those that focus on
technical details of the construction, referred to as śilpa śāstras; and
those whose primary concerns are the rituals used to sanctify, purify and
take possession of the land for the temple, as well as for inviting the
appropriate deity.
The second group of texts is, to a large extent, more sectarian than the
śilpa śāstras, and falls into categories of texts related to the various
religious movements. Texts are thus subdivided into three categories (which
at times overlap or are hard to differentiate): saṃhitā (generally
Vaiṣṇava), tantra (generally Śākta) and āgama (generally Śaiva). The
Hayaśīrṣa Pañcarātra, the focus of this study, is a saṃhitā, clearly
located within the Vaiṣṇava tantric tradition. The Hindu temple is, right
from the stage of planning, a center of rituals. Selection and preparation
of the temple-ground is the first step in the process. Only much later is
the installed image regularly worshiped.
As construction goes on, various ceremonies need to be performed. As
the temple is finished, auspicious parts or parts that need particular
protection, such as the doors, are consecrated separately. Then the whole
temple is consecrated. Consecrating the main image and inviting the deity
to take possession of the image is the next central and very important
ritual at the end of temple construction . 1.2 Temple Hinduism Mārkaṇḍeya
said: In Kṛta-yuga the temple was not made on this earth, O king, people
could see the gods before their eyes. 1 In Tretā and Dvāpara yugas, though
the people saw gods before their very eyes, they made images -Pratimās and
worshipped them according to the ceremony. 2 In Tretā-yuga the images of
gods were installed in houses. Then in Dvāpara the sages made images in the
forests. 3 O king, the siddhas always worshipped them. The sages were happy
to install images (in the temple). 4 In this Kali-yuga all people do this
activity of installing images. In Kṛta-yuga, jñāna (knowledge was) supreme
and in Tretā Tapaḥ - penance was supreme. 5 In Dvāpara similarly the same
(Tapaḥ) should be known as supreme, but in Kali-yuga the cities are full of
temples. 6 (Viṣṇudharmottara Purāṇa adhyāya 3.93.1-6 ) *The
Viṣṇudharmottara Purāṇa* passage quoted above, like many other Hindu texts,
gives us a traditional explanation of why temples are needed and an
explanation for why the need had not existed prior to this.
The Viṣṇudharmottara Purāṇa tells us that in earlier epochs (Sanskrit
yugas ) people did not need temples because access to god was easier, but
in this degraded time of the kali yuga temples are needed to provide a
space for contact between man and god. Verse two (quoted above) states
“people saw god before their very eyes” in the tretā and dvāpara yugas .
Now in kali, the most degraded of ages, we need images, according to the
Viṣṇudharmottara Purāṇa. This, we can assume, is because we are not able to
see the gods before us otherwise, a notion commonly expressed in Purāṇic
literature. This traditional reckoning does not correlate to a western
timeline, however. Historically, since around the third century, temples
have been a part of what we today call Hinduism. Temples became a common
feature of everyday Hindu life by the 7 - 8 th centuries (or earlier in
some places). The heyday of temple construction culminated during the
11-12th century when, to cite one notable example, many of the famous
temples of Khajuraho were built . Of course temples continued to be
constructed and are still constructed today. The ultimate goal within what
we today call Hinduism is mokṣa, liberation, from samsara, rebirth. Most
people do not spend their lives contemplating reality as a means for
liberation, though some ascetics do, instead one of the ways open to
ordinary people is bhakti, devotion. Though bhakti developed and still
lives on outside temples, the temple cult has become an important locus of
devotion within Hinduism. The temple is, in fact, the most characteristic
material expression of Hinduism. While the temples and shrines of Hindu
Asia are numerous, of many different shapes and sizes, and with many
purposes, albeit primarily and profoundly religious in nature, they have
successfully served other social, economic, and political ends as well.
ILLEGAL VIEW OF ROMILA THAPER: While discussing Temple Hinduism, we
must bear in mind that building temples, or rather, sponsoring the
construction of temples, was the concern of a small elite portion of the
population. For most people the temple would not be a concern until,
perhaps, it was finished and people could go to seek God there. Romila
Thapar articulates the significance of the temple in terms of the meeting
of social classes. “The local temple was the nucleus of religious life and
there the two levels of religion, the brāhminical and the devotional, met”
. According to Thapar, in the Tamil South, bhakti represented “the lower
castes…artisans and cultivators”. The Tamil devotional cult was in part a
resistance to the Aryanization of the region. The Brāhmaṇas enjoyed royal
patronage, but the cult was widely supported by the ordinary people”.
Thapar thus accepts a Marxist principle of history writing, that class
struggle is the motive force of history. The significance of the
Brahamanized temple ritual is that the Brāhmaṇas domesticate popular
resistance (the devotional cult) by articulating it in terms of Vedic
ritual and Brāhminical ideology, an ideology that legitimated the rule of
royalty. In the North, Thapar writes, “the devotional cult represented the
more puritanical protest of the professional classes” *. Dravida vote bank
was thus got dividing the nation. *
One of the most noticeable distinguishing aspects of Temple Hinduism
is its focus primarily on Viṣṇu, Śiva and the goddess. While one may argue
that there was not, at this time, one religion called Hinduism, I use the
term Temple Hinduism to refer to a phenomenon which occurred across an
ideological spectrum corresponding to earlier stages of what we today
commonly label as Hinduism. While the religious communities of Śaiva,
Vaiṣṇava and Śākta devotees did not share a daily religious life, Temple
Hinduism is a common ideology that spans the two distinct religious
formations. Each god, Śiva, Viṣṇu, and the goddess is viewed by his
devotees as the highest deity, the overlord of cosmos. Sources depict these
gods as parameśvara (the highest god) and viśveśvara (lord of everything),
capable of manifesting themselves visibly in the world through avatāras
(incarnations), vyūhas (emanations) or mūrtis (embodiments/ images). The
god ‘crosses over’ or ‘descends’ in order to enter into direct relation
with other divinities and lesser beings such as humans95 . Typically, a
text makes it clear who it recognizes as the main god, even if it mentions
other gods as well. For example, Viṣṇu, in his incarnation as Hayaśīrṣa, or
the horse-headed avatāra, is the narrator of the Hayaśīrṣa Pañcarātra.
Throughout the text, Viṣṇu is identified as the main god even though
other gods and their iconography are described as well . In Vaiṣṇava texts,
other gods recognize the superiority of Viṣṇu. In Śaivaite texts other gods
recognize Śiva as parameśvara. Purāṇic literature such as the Viṣṇu Purāṇa,
Bhāgavata Purāṇa and Śiva Purāṇa recount the events by which lesser gods
such as Indra or Agni (important Vedic gods) realized the superiority of
Viṣṇu or Śiva. Purāṇic accounts sometimes articulate a struggle or
competition among several gods for supremacy, the outcome of the struggle
or competition will recognize the preeminence of the one to which the
Purāṇa is devoted . Subordinate deities may be assistants, devotees or
acolytes/helpers of the highest god. Occasionally they appear as aspects of
the god. In Bhagavad Gīta (ch. 11), the gods make up Viṣṇu’s body.
Relationships between the supreme godhead and humans are hierarchical in
Temple Hinduism, not reciprocal as in the Vedas. In the Vedic world-view/
ideology the gods are essentially dependent on the sacrifice and the
sacrifice keeps the world going. In Temple Hinduism texts promulgate a
bhakti attitude towards god, for example one should: recognize god’s
superiority, be devoted and attentive, and express desire to participate in
the god’s exalted domain.
The attitude of bhakti is most visibly expressed in temple Hinduism
through its temples and the rites performed in connection to these. Daily
worship, or pūjā, has been explored in” Ritual in an Oscillating Universe.
““In pūjā, a worshipper invokes or invites the deity into some material
form, most often an image or icon visually and symbolically representing
the deity and presents to him both material offerings such as food and
clothing and devoted services such as the recitation of his praises, music,
dance and songs” . During this service (upacāra), the gods Viṣṇu and Śiva
enter into various anthropomorphic and aniconic objects so that the
devotees may see them and be seen by them (darśan) and make their
offerings . In the rituals concerning temple construction, inviting and
offering pūjā to the deities of the place (vāstudevatās) play a central
role for taking possession of the temple site. In many ways the Hindu pūjā
continues the ritual concerns expressed in the Vedic yajña. Food offerings
to the gods are at the center of both the rites . Human participants must
attain a state of ritual purity as well as summon the god to be present.
Several fundamental features clearly distinguish pūjā from the Vedic
form of worship. The Vedic deities are invisible, even after they have been
invoked. In pūjā the deities are invited to inhabit material objects
(animate or inanimate). In the Vedic sacrifice, the god Agni acts as a
go-between. Sacrifices are not made directly to other deities. Pūjā, on the
other hand, is performed directly for the god, both to the highest god and
to the other deities present in their own individual embodiments. The Vedic
world view assumed a sharing of cosmic powers between gods and men, where
sacrificial offerings made to the Vedic gods were considered part of a
cycle of exchange between gods and men. Through repeated food offerings men
offered a share of their crops and domestic animals, while the gods gave
rain for the crops. There was on both sides an obligation to return the
gifts. Gifts in the perspective of Temple Hinduism, on the other hand, were
far from any equal exchange. The cosmic overlord was completely independent
and only gave benefits as prasāda (grace or favor). Thus all pūjā offerings
as well as gifts made to gurus, temples, gods, etc., were not done in
expectation of any immediate return gift, but because the honoring of
superiors and altruistic giving were in themselves positive goods and
helped the worshiper toward the ultimate goal of liberation and the
penultimate goal of heaven (or some similar reward depending on tradition).
Temple Hinduism thus reflects a feudal lord-vassal character different
from Vedic religion. As temple Hinduism seeks to render relations between
humans and divinities more visible and direct, it also attempts to
institutionalize them more permanently. Vedic public sacrifices are
performed in temporary ritual settings constructed for the occasion. There
are no extant remains from Vedic sacrifices because the materials, mainly
brick and wood, were ephemeral. Public pūjā (parārthapūjā), on the other
hand, takes place in a durable structure, built to last. These structures,
or temples, are commonly made of stone, brick or sometimes wood, they are
lavishly and elegantly decorated by sculptors and painters. Such a temple
serves as an enduring home for the divine image(s) of the main god (and his
(or her) subsidiary deities) and for the god (deities) who dwells within it
(them). The Hayaśīrṣa Pañcarātra was composed in the early stages of the
Temple Hinduism period106 when relatively simple early codes for temple
construction, though still in the process of developing, were elaborated in
more complex set of regulations. These regulations are laid out in a
similar fashion in multiple texts from various places across the
subcontinent. There are differences of course, determined by the particular
religious affiliation of the texts’ authors, regarding location as well as
purpose (essentially ritual or architectural). Even so the similarities are
striking, particularly in terms of structure, stress on the rituals
concerning the vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala (with exceptions such as the Pādma
Saṃhitā) and the significance of proportion and cardinal directions.
Though there are many different vāstupuruṣamaṇḍalas used
for different purposes, the Hayaśīrṣa Pañcarātra only presents one
vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala: the māṇḍukyamaṇḍala. The focus on the māṇḍukyamaṇḍala,
with its sixty-four squares, is in keeping with the ritual character of the
text and in contrast to many other śilpa texts, such as,
{ for example Meister, Michael W. “Maṇḍala and Practice in Nāgara
Architecture in North India.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 99
(1979): 204- 19. Note that the dating of architectural and ritual texts is
far from presice. The topic is further explored in chapter 4.1 below.
Bafna, 2000. R. Champakalakshmi, The Hindu Temple, Roli Books, New Delhi,
2001:12. Meister, Michael W. “Mandala and Practice in Nāgara Architecture
in North India.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 99 (1979): 204-
19. 21 as the Mayamatam .}
The use of the *māṇḍukyamaṇḍala* only is in line with the text’s sole
interest, how to plan and build a temple. The text is clear that the
sixty-four square maṇḍala is what one should use for a temple. Other grids
have other purposes. Our text only specifies that the grid with eighty-one
squares should be used when building a house. In the 8x8 grid 44 gods are
placed. Drawing the vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala is a ritual pre-requisite for the
temple construction.
* Most Vaiṣṇava and Śaiva śilpa* texts that deal with architecture
include the vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala . Thus, the ritual and technical aspects of
temple construction are not easily distinguished. Every stage in the
building process is connected to a rite. Knowledge of the rite is
essential. Without it the temple will not be a proper dwelling for the
gods. The ritual process includes the act of giving stability to the site,
purification, leveling, and planning according to the vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala.
The connection between ritual, consecration and construction is essential
in the Hayaśīrṣa Pañcarātra. It is a question of limiting and securing
sacred space through ritual repetitions consisting of speech and action
repeated in the śilpa śāstras in relationship to the vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala.
Pāñcarātra literature discusses four steps or phases in the construction of
the temple: the prāsāda (temple), pratimā (image), pratiṣṭhā (installation)
and pūjā (institution of worship performed daily and occasionally within
the temple after its completion). The first three steps are discussed in
the Hayaśīrṣa Pañcarātra. It is hoped that this study, which discusses the
preparations for the prāsāda, will be the first of a series of studies of
this text and other Pāñcarātra texts relating to temple architecture.
“The elaboration of the Vāstumaṇḍala, the square dial of all
cyclical time, and its identification with the Vāstupuruṣa ... appear
almost completed at the age of the Bṛhat Saṃhitā” . That is to say that
the idea the vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala expresses was complete, but that later
texts, including the Hayaśīrṣa Pañcarātra, elaborate on the rites more than
the Bṛhat Saṃhitā does. This sort of statement, positing that a later
development is contained in seed-form in an earlier one may be difficult
for post-modern scholars, who tend to see tradition as the assertion of
discontinuity over continuity (to paraphrase Foucault’s statement in the
Archeology of Knowledge.”
* Virtually all Hindu temples from the fifth through the tenth
century CE were based on a square*. This plan is closely tied to the
development of Nāgara architecture in North India . It has found that in
certain regions of North India temples of the seventh and eighth century
conforms to the rules laid down in the *Bṛhat Saṃhitā*. However, in
different regions the rules have been interpreted in different ways. The
excavations show that the temple stands on a platform with four corner
shrines. If one supposes that the shrines are located at the corners of the
maṇḍala, then the central shrine would stand on the four central squares of
the maṇḍala (i.e. the Brahmasthāna), and the ambulatory would be two
squares wide. These are proportions that conform to the rules laid out in
the Bṛhat Saṃhitā, a roughly contemporary text .
* Frits Staal* is one of few to incorporate both the humanistic
and the social[1]biological aspects in his analysis. Staal has noted that
both for animals and people the construction and setting apart of space is
important. For Staal, men, just like birds (and other animals), construct
and discover centers of space. Space is an “expression of our innate
nature” . Staal’s formulation resonates with Ramanna’s. Throughout history
humans have felt a need to define these boundaries not only, or at times
not even primarily, in a physical way, but also in a ritual way. Ritually
marked spaces are used to set apart a specific locale for a particular
purpose. Space exteriorizes or gives expression to an inner landscape, as
Staal sees it. The way we use space is very much about the ideas we have
about the world. Buildings are containers for psychic beings (intellectual,
emotional, perceiving beings) the same degree as they house house bodies
and possessions. What kind of containers are we driven to construct?
The Agni Purāṇa, one of the major Purāṇas (or Mahāpurāṇas),
contains descriptions and details of various topics including, the avatāras
of Viṣṇu, in particular long summaries of the adventures of Rāma and
Kṛṇṣna. Other sections deal with ritual, sculpture, architecture,
cosmology, astrology, law, grammar, meter and medicine etc. The text
contains 383 chapters (slight variations in different editions) out of
which chapters 21- 106 deal with architecture and related topics, i.e. a
fairly substantial portion. The text was edited by Rajendralal Mitra in the
1870s (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1870-1879, 3 volumes;
Bibliotheca Indica, 65, 1-3) and again edited and published by Ānandāśrama
Press, (Poona) in 1900. An English translation was published in two volumes
by Manmatha Nath Dutt in 1903-4. (References here are to the Anandaśram
Press edition, except for references to Dutt’s translation).
The Agni Purāṇa’s chapters on śilpa śāstra are can be divided in
two sections one consisting of chapters 31-70 and the other of 71-106. The
former primarily consists of borrowed quotes or summaries of the material
found in the Hayaśīrṣa Pañcarātra. Just like the Hayaśīrṣa Pañcarātra, the
Agni Purāṇa is a ritual text, albeit a ritual text with a larger scope,
incorporating almost any kind of ritual that one could possibly want to
perform in a lifetime and all one need to know to do so, including
astrology do determine the correct time, grammar and meter for correct
recitation as well as mythological background and sculptural rules. While
the Garuḍa Purāṇa only devotes two chapters (46-47) to temple construction
these are of a similar structure to those of the other texts examined and
the first of the chapters mainly deals with the vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala.
NOTES ON TEMPLE RAISING:
He who goes to death having done the laying of the first brick obtains the
fruit of a completed sacrifice, of this there is no doubt. He who should
mentally consider “I will make a temple for the god (devāgaraṃ)” [his]
bodily sins are destroyed on that day.
How much more for one who makes a temple according to rules (vidhi).
He who has joined together eight bricks for the house of Viṣṇu, of
that one who is not able to do any more, it is said that he acquires the
fruit. Indeed, this is to be inferred from the fruit from details of
temples. And in the middle or east of the village, he should prepare the
door westwards.
Thus in all the intermediate points of the compass, [the door] should be
facing west and also in the south, north and west, [the door] should face
west.
Thus ends the twelfth paṭala in the ādikāṇḍa in the Hayaśīrṣa
Mahāpañcarātra which has twelve thousand verses verses.
Now he should divide the field, sixteen-fold, made into squares. With
the four in the middle [of that field] he should prepare [an inner sanctum]
made of iron, which is connected with those four. And he should arrange
twelve sections for the purpose of the wall.
The height of the wall should be made with one fourth of [its] length.
The wise he should design the height of the spire twice the height of two
walls. The pradakṣiṇa path should be made correctly, four times the spire
. He should make a passage having the same measurement on both sides. The
breadth on the moulding [of the base] at the top should be made equal (or
match) the superstructure . Or it could also to be made with twice [the
size of the maṇḍapa] and as conforming to beauty. 5 The breadth of the
maṇḍapa in front is to be made [in alignment with] the inner sanctum with a
pair of [parallel] strings, the length is to be made an additional [section
of] pāda[s] and it should be decorated in the middle with pillars.
Or [he should construct] a mukhamaṇḍapa having the measurement of
the inner sanctum of the temple. Then having honored the Vāstu with the
eighty-one pādas , he should commence the maṇḍapa. At the place where the
doors, opulent with parrots , are deposited, one should worship the gods,
who are located at the end of the pādas, at [that] place of the wall he
should worship the antagas And these are the common rules of the temple in
all its qualities. Thus listen [to the rules regarding] the alternative
temple [constructed] with regards to the dimensions of the image [to be
installed]. 9 An auspicious base should also be constructed according to
the scale of the image. The inner sanctum [of the temple should be made]
one hal that of the base and the walls should have the measurement of the
inner sanctum.
The Lord said – Hereafter I will explain the characteristics of
temples , in which the gods are placed. Thus, listen to me, O Pure one.
1 He should have Vāsudeva stand in the middle of the Pañcāytana . Then in
the southeast, southwest, and north and in the northeast region are to be
established Vāmana, Narasiṃha, Hayaśīrṣa, and Nṛsūkara [respectively].
2-3ab He should install [them] according to their consecration. Please hear
from me concerning the other, O Sinless one.
3cd He should situate Nārāyaṇa in the middle; he should situate Ambikā in
the southeast. He should situate Bhāskara in the southwest [and] the
lotus-born [Brahma] in the northwest.
4 He should place the liṅga or the form or Rudra in the northeast. In the
middle of the navāyatana, he should have Vāsudeva dwell.
5 Furthermore, from the east up until the west, he should situate Rāma
etc. or place Indra and the Lokāpālas in due order in the eight directions.
6 Or, by another method, the navāyatana is said to be in the [same]
formation as the pañcāyatana where the middle turrets [of the temple] are.
7 The image of the Puruṣottama having been established by the far sighted
one in the middle, and in the front turret, he should install Lakṣmī and
Vaiśravaṇa
8 The wise he should situate the Mātṛs in the southern turret, and there he
should also install, Īśāna, Skanda, Gaṇeśa.
9 He should situate the planets beginning with Sūrya in the western
turret; and in the northern turret, he should situate the ten beginning
with Matsya.
10 And Caṅḍikā is to be situated in the southeastern [turret] and he should
install Ambikā in the southwestern [turret] and Sarasvatī in the
northwestern [turret] and Padma in the the northeast region.
11 And he should place Devī in the middle as mentioned above or Vāsudeva,
or Nārāyaṇa, Śridhara, Vāmana or Mohanāśana.
12 And this is the Dvadaśāyātana; and the middle is the thirteenth. Please
listen, O best of gods, to the division of the gods in it.
13 He should fix Viśvarūpa in the middle and Keśava to the right, and then
he should situate [the gods in the turrets] following the way [it was
declared before] “In the front, etc.,” and according to rule.
14 He should cause the image to stand in the middle space and he should fix
that middle one. Because of different desires, this excavation is
remembered as common.
15 I have told you the characteristics of a temple, in brief. Thus too, I
will tell you whatever else ought to be done.
16 Thus ends the fourteenth paṭala in the ādikāṇḍa in the Hayaśīrṣa
Mahāpañcarātra which has twelve thousand verses.
( The streucture goes on). KR IRS 15522
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