Many Meanings of the Hindu Temple Part 1

The Hindu temple like all other Hindu objects is symbolic, symbolizing the most refined knowledge that the ancient saints of India had codified. In this article, some symbolical aspects of the Hindu temple are discussed.

Temple as a Sacred Mountain

The Hindu temple is built and perceived in the image of Mount Meru, the sacred mountain. Mount Meru represents ultimate knowledge and climbing it symbolizes attaining self-realization.

The Hindu temple is conceived as Mount Meru because, above all, it is a spiritual institution. The Vimana or Shikhara of the temple is constructed to resemble a mountain. It is imagined as the sacred mountain because it facilitates the spiritual journey of man, from being an individual to realizing his oneness with the Supreme Consciousness. The Hindu temple is an agent in this spiritual journey.

European architecture is radically different from the Hindu temple in this aspect and the form of the Church is a testimony to this. The façade is built high and mighty to impress the visitor, however the sanctum is not built in this image and its superstructure is actually quite simple. [1] In the Hindu temple, on the other hand, as the onlooker’s eye is guided from the base of the vimana towards its highest reaches, he does not just realize the loftiness of the architecture, but also comprehends the analogy of the sacred mountain, the mountain which he has to climb in order to attain self-realization, the ultimate goal of all knowledge in Hindu culture and Hindu darshan.

It is due to its essentially spiritual character that the Hindu architecture talks in the idiom of ‘aedicule’. In the context of the Hindu temple, the term aedicule refers to the miniature shrine or a mini replica of the entire temple, temple shikhara or vimana, which is to be found most prominently on its shikhara and outer walls of the garbha-griha. It is found in all three major varieties of Nagara, Vesara and Dravida and is so profusely used in some architectural styles such as that of the Kalyani Chalukyas and Hoysalas of Karnataka that Gerard Foekema calls the very style as ‘architecture decorated by architecture’.

The aedicule is so universally present that it overwhelms the visitor, forcing him to constantly keep shifting his attention from one miniature shrine to another, making it hard for him to distinguish where one aedicule ends and another begins. It is this feature which led James Fergusson to observe that “everywhere…in India, architectural decoration is made up of small models of large buildings.” [2]

Adam Hardy who considers the idiom of aedicule as the fundamental concept behind Indian architectural thinking, says:

“…it was some time after my first trip to India that it gradually became clear to me that aedicules are not just ornaments, but the basic units from which most Indian temple architecture is composed. A temple design is conceived as containing numerous smaller temples or shrines, arranged hierarchically at various scales, embedded within the whole or within one another. Once this simple concept is understood, other things fall into place.” [3]

The Hindu philosophy imagines macrocosm in microcosm (Yatha pinde, tatha brahmande;) and this thinking is reflected in all art-forms in India. It is also the basic idea behind the idiom of the aedicule. The entire temple is reflected in its parts. Sometimes the aedicules are themselves made up of smaller aedicules and this series continues up to the point where architecture allows it to. It conveys the idea of an endlessly regressing series of aedicules, something like the fractal geometry.

As the temple is a representation of the universe, hence the entire universe is reflected again and again in the smallest parts of the temple. The idiom of aedicule is most prominently used in the shikhara of the temple. In some styles, like the Shekhari mode of the Nagara style, the shikhara is made of its smaller versions, called urushringas (half shikharas). These urushringas crowd together and rise to meet at the top beneath the amalaka.

Coming back to the temple as a sacred mountain, this imagery is replicated in its horizontal profile too.

As the Hindu temple evolved, it started developing many constituent parts, other than the garbha-griha. Just before the garbha-griha is the antarala, where the priests officiate and mediate between the god and the devotee. After it, comes mandapam, where the devotees gather and have darshan of the deity. Over centuries, the mandapam proliferated from one to many: mahamandapam, mandapam, ardh mandapam and mukh mandapam.

Each one of these components of the Hindu temple has a vimana counterpart, which can be seen from the outside and which also functions as their roof. These vimanas or roofs of these constituent parts of temple ascend in an increasing order from mukh mandapam, to mandapam, to mahamandapam, and then finally to garbha-griha. The antarala has a shukanasika as its roof or the outer component and it is built as a nose protruding out from the shikhara or vimana of the garbha-griha and is generally higher than the roof of the mahamandapam.

As a devotee enters a Hindu temple, such as the Kandariya Mahadev temple of Khajuraho, and as he proceeds through the various parts of the temple, from mukh mandapam, to mandapam, to mahamandapam, and then finally to garbha-griha, he symbolically climbs the Mount Meru, leaving the world, its multiplicity and ignorance behind and proceeds towards the pinnacle of knowledge, that is self-realization; he proceeds to have darshan of the deity in the garbha-griha, where he realizes his oneness with the deity or the Supreme consciousness.

This symbolism of the devotee’s journey from the outer world to the inner world is heightened by the decorative sculpture or the absence of it in various parts of the temple. The outermost walls of the mandapam and the adhisthana is where the scenes from the world are described in which the devotee sees every kind of activity that takes places in this world; from war to sex.

As he proceeds inwards he witnesses scenes that are less worldly and have a sacred flavor to it; like gandharvas playing divine instruments or apsaras playing in divine gardens and minor deities in different poses; as he proceeds further inwards, he sees major attendant deities like Surya, Varuna, Agni etc. and other sages along with the different forms of the primary deity.

As he proceeds further inside, only deities like Shiva, Vishnu, Ganapati and Shakti are to be seen along with their consorts and in the garbha-griha there is no other murti, deity, or decoration, other than the principal deity. The temple thus is a representation of the entire cosmos, reflecting everything that takes place in this world.

This symbolism is replicated in the play of light and darkness in various parts of the temple. The outer walls and the adhisthana are naturally fully in the light and as the devotee proceeds inwards from the scenes of the outer world to the scenes of the inner sacred world, the light decreases and in the garbha-griha, it is almost non-existent, where the world completely disappears and there is only the Supreme Consciousness and the oneness of the devotee with his deity. Here there is no light of the world, good or bad, just the deep calm that is characteristic of Brahma (not Brahmaa of the Hindu Trimurti), the Supreme Consciousness, which is without any attributes. [4]

The Garbha-griha as the Sacred Womb

The Garbha-griha is the most important part of the temple. This is where the deity resides. Its importance cannot be overstressed, architecturally or spiritually. [5]

The garbha-griha is so named because it is literally the womb of the temple. It is the geometrical centre of the temple site, with its centre, the brahmasthana, occupied by the primary deity. It is called the womb, because under the deity, the ‘seed’ of the temple is inseminated in a kalasha (pitcher) and buried. It is directly above this that the image of the deity is installed.

Some shastras instruct that this pitcher is buried beneath the doorjamb of the garbha-griha. This kalasha contains the ‘seed’, the supreme potentiality, from which the whole world emerges. The kalasha contains hidden components as Rao explains:

“The kalash has an important hidden component, viz. ‘the golden person (suvarna purusha)’, who is regarded as the very soul of the temple. The belly of the kalash is made to contain a tiny cot made in silver, copper or sandal-wood, over which is laid on a soft-feather mattress the golden icon of this ‘person’, with one hand holding a lotus flower over the heart and the other carrying a triple-flag. Four little pots made in gold, silver or copper, and containing consecrated water are placed on the four sides of the cot. Near the recumbent ‘person’ is kept a golden or silver pot filled with ghee.” [6]

The symbolism of temple reflecting the entire cosmos is also contained within the kalasha. It contains all the precious elements or metals that constitute the world. In this way, it represents the cosmos in the seed form. The garbha-griha symbolizes the Supreme Consciousness, which is the origin of the universe. The ritual of putting the ‘seed’ or the kalasha under the garbha-griha is called as Garbhadhana, ‘the insemination process’:

“The seed is deposited at night in the womb of mother Earth, as Garbha, Germ of the temple, close to the door jamb of the Garbhgrha. In the vertical, in the upward direction, which is that of growth, from below, along the jamb of the door and above it, the power of germination lifts as it were the lid of the Garbhagrha, and transcends the flat ceiling of the Garbhagrha, step by step, level by level in ever diminishing tiers to the top of the superstructure; there once again it rests and is level as the Skandha (shoulder course) before it attains its crown and is surmounted by the finial.” [7]

Authored by Pankaj Saxena. Published by IndicaToday.