A Sacred Palm in Goa
Temple Architecture in South India, has been an excellent conclusion to my readings by helping me understand at the deepest level why temples are designed and built. While it is obvious that temples are built to express Divine Principles and house the rituals that support an understanding of them, I myself did not understand those principles and therefore could not understand the temples in their entirety.
The article first identified the elements of the temple: (1) Madpam or hall, (2) Balpitha or offering platform with the presiding deities vehicle, (3) Garbhagraha or main sanctum, (4) Praka or wall surrounding the courtyard, and (5) Goparum or large stepped tower structure over the entry. The main sanctum, where the deity is housed, is considered to be the womb or embryo. It is a small dark space with only a single door for access and light. There is no decoration and a single flame lights the deity. Only a mast and the offering platform with the deity’s vehicle interrupt the axis from the main sanctum through to the outside world. I observed this first hand in the Shiva temple where His bull (vehicle) was the only interruption.
After defining the parts of the temple, the author identifies the journey that a devotee traditionally takes when visiting a deity. The journey is thought to be one from the chaos of the outside to the order of inside. First the devotee takes a ritual bath in the temple tank. This is a symbol of the sacred Ganges river and the act not only represents a physical cleansing, but also an inner cleansing as well. After, you would enter the temple through the first gate and travel in a clockwise direction to the next gate. Once inline with the sanctum, you would walk across the mandapam, or hall, to the entrance of the garbhagraha, or main sanctum. Only the priest is allowed beyond this point (although I have read elsewhere that Brahmans are also allowed within the main sanctum). The devotee stands in the doorway and the priest makes offerings on his behalf while chanting sacred versus or mantras and waving camphor lights in front of the deity to give a glimpse at the immense detail of the deities carvings. The priest will step over the threshold and give pooja water, flowers and perhaps fruit. Then he applies the sacred ash, a symbol of the renunciation of one’s old self, to the forehead. The devotee will then leave the sanctum to complete the clockwise rotation around the outside of the temple before leaving.
The author makes the point that in modern temples there is usually a Devi shrine, or female shrine. But it earlier times these shrines did not exist because the main deity was though to be both male and female. This is shown in the Shiva lingam where the main shaft, the lingam represents the male aspect and rises out of a circular base, the yoni, representing the female. This was also shown in the Shiva temple I visited where the Shiva stone sat within the lingam.
There are also principles of Hindu teaching and ritual that are often found represented in temples. Four columns represent the four Vedas and eight columns represent the eight principals of Upanishads. There are five steps in the act of creation and the understanding of how the universe came to be is at the base of all temple design. When the basic unit from which the world is made, the Moolam, burst forth to create, it propelled itself around its own axis in a clockwise spinning direction. The spin is tremendously powerful and causes the Moolam to explode into countless replicas of itself. Hence we see countless replicas of columns and facades and the traditional path through the temple is in a clockwise fashion.
The word for architect in Kannada, is “vastu shastra.” Shastra means science and vastu is the luminous material from which the basic unit for the universe, or Moolam, is made. It is a religious science, where the architect designs with every material sacred in origin. What a refreshing viewpoint for our profession.
Source:
Croker, Alan. “Temple Architecture in South India.” Fabrications. 1993. 108-23. Print.