Dharmic Circuits: The Temple, The Grove And The Lake Part 1

The Wonder that is Sringeri

Shri Sringeri Sharada Peetham, located in the foothills of the Western Ghats in the Chikamagaluru district of Karnataka, seems to be straight out of a fairy tale. It is like a portal to another world; a world of flowing rivers, great temples, running deer, roaming elephants, students in white studying Vedic disciplines, teachers taking classes under the shade of a grove, right beside the sinuous watercourse.

One of the greatest seats of learning in Bharat, Dakshinamnaya Sri Sringeri Sharada Peetham, also takes care of the cultural heritage of Karnataka and other states nearby by appointing priests and caretakers, and giving them livelihood from its own coffers. It runs many schools and other institutes besides housing many children, teaching them Sanskrit and many other classical subjects. Furthermore, the Matha holds the ancient Sharada Jagadamba temple too, with the current structure dating back to 11th century.

The divine experience starts as soon as one approaches the precincts of the great Matha. From many miles around, one notices the abundance of thick forests and pristine ecosystem. As one approaches the majestic temple gopuram, one has to deposit the footwear at the counter outside the temple. Inside the temple you can only go barefoot.

Besides, the Sharada temple is a visually spectacular temple called the Vidyashankara temple, one of the first temples built by the Vijayanagar Empire in 14th century. The Matha had a great role in supporting the Vijayanagar Empire intellectually and spiritually. The fourteenth century temple has all the Vishnu avataras sculpted on the outside of the temple in huge reliefs.

Just beyond the temple, flows the river Tunga in majestic grace. Across the river is the Shri Shankaracharya Niwas. There are groves of various trees all around, including the supari (areca nut) groves. The bridge over the river Tunga is a footover bridge which is a private property of the Matha and one cannot wear footwear here as well. When it rains, the entire environs of the Matha become so ethereal that you no longer remember that you are in this world and in this century.

This continues for miles on end as the Sringeri Sharada Peetham owns vast areas of land around the temple precincts. This has prevented the ugly and unlimited encroachment of modern buildings and also the encroachment of evangelical and Islamic groups which are becoming rampant in that region.

The Sacred Trinity

The place has three integral components: a great temple, a sacred grove, and a water body, which in this case is a flowing river. This is not an exception but a norm. Since in modern times, so many temples exist without a sacred grove of trees, it might seem like an exception. A temple never existed without a sacred grove and a water body. There was always a lake, a pond, a river, a well, or an ocean beach alongside it.

The Hindu Temple never existed without a sacred grove. Just like the sacred pond, the sacred garden and the sacred inner precincts, the sacred grove was also an inseparable part of the temple complex. Sanatana Dharma does not just stop at worshiping Nature and extends its worship to divine beings on higher planes of consciousness, mirroring realities on other planes of existence, but this does not mean that it neglects Nature or goes against it.

In Prophetic Monotheistic religions, Nature was a problem to be surmounted, an enemy of man to be defeated. In Sanatana Dharma, Nature is an aspect of reality, one manifestation of the Divine. There is no conquest of Nature. Nature is appeased at best, and flows in harmony with those who walk the path of Self-Realization.

The Garbha-Griha, where the deity, the Supreme Consciousness resides is always dark, illuminated only by the light of the diyas kindled by the priest and illuminating the aspects of the deity, plunging all else in complete darkness. This is to aid the chitta to become quiet, and to witness, to have darshana of the Divine, the Supreme in unmitigated and unflinching attention. In the Garbha-Griha everything else subsides, only the Supreme Consciousness prevails and when the devotee has darshana of the deity, the two become one with the devotee witnessing his True Self in the Deity.

Outside the Garbha-Griha the world starts stirring up. It comes back to Dvaita. Thus, the Antarala is where the priest appears, officiating the Divine Transaction between the Devotee and the Deity. As we proceed outwards towards the various Mandapams, the world starts appearing in all its complexity. Hence the area surrounding the Hindu Temple always used to be a Sacred Grove, which aided the devotees in creating equilibrium while pursuing various disciplines of study.

Nature in full bloom and glory makes the journey of a devotee easier. It is only in Sanatana Dharma that we see a seamless transition between paying attention to the world and paying attention to the ultimate goal.

This ecosystem is not something which evolved later on in the Hindu tradition.  In fact it has always been at the core of the temple building tradition in Bharat. This is evident from the tribal and hilly regions of Bharatvarsha which also blend many Desiya traditions, local gods and goddesses and temple traditions with the Margiya tradition of temple building prevalent all across the country.

The Khajji Nag Temple

Himachal Pradesh is one such place where the most ancient local traditions go beautifully together with Agamic injunctions in the temples that continue to be living institutions. Even in these places, the trinity of a great temple, a sacred grove and a great lake is seen in many places. All along this region, the Naga devatas are worshiped profusely. There is no important region in Himachal which does not have a Naga temple. These temples proliferate everywhere but are particularly found in thick groves and jungles.

Khajjiar in Chamba district is famous for such a Naga temple. Today tourists know it for its picturesque beauty, dense forests and paragliding and other sports. It is known as the ‘Mini Switzerland’ in the tourist annals. Most people visiting Khajjiar seldom know about its spiritual and cultural importance.

Khajjiar is one of the most ancient spiritual centers of Chamba district as well as Himachal Pradesh. At its heart is the Nag Temple of Khajjiar. This temple is built in the Himalayan pent-roof style and not just the roof, but the entire building is made of wood. Wooden beams as old as 800 years are still holding this great temple aloft. The wooden temple has a sloping pent roof covered with slates. The temple was completed in 1200 CE; however the temple site is much older than that. (Handa 58)

No place in the land of Bharatvarsha remains unconsecrated with its sacred legends. The entire hilly landscape of Himachal Pradesh is wedded with the various legends of the Mahabharata and particularly with the stories related to the Pandavas. The Pandavas are ubiquitous in Himachal Pradesh. Almost every important sacred center has at least some legend of the Pandavas associated with it.

The Khajji Nag Temple is also deeply associated with the legend of the Pandavas. It is said that the Pandavas hid here while being on Agyaatvaasa – the year when they were in hiding. In order to hide well, they became the gatekeepers of this temple and hence even today you can see the carved wooden icons of the five Pandavas at the doors and pillars of the Khajji Nag Temple.

What is most breathtaking is that the temple exists alongside a great natural spot – the Khajjiar Lake. Right in front of the temple is a great depression with a flat disc around – something rare in the mountain ranges. This lake is considered quite ancient and very sacred. The myth of the Nag temple is conjoined with the lake and the building of the temple is attributed to the discovery of the sacred lake and the residing of the Naga Devata inside the lake. All around the lake there are deodar forests on the hills with the snow-laden mountains always lurking in the background with its perpetually snow-covered peaks.

How Hindu Culture Protected Nature

Three aspects come together here: A Great Temple, a Sacred Lake and a Sacred Grove – and these three are connected with legends and great myths. It is a great way of acknowledging that the surrounding ecosystem will be protected and the natural order will be conserved. The temple houses the same deity which hides in the lake. The temple, a manmade building, a cultural artifact, is nothing but a continuation of its natural ancestor. A dharmic culture is a gatekeeper of natural order among many other things.

Hindu temples never existed without sacred groves of trees around them and never without the sacred pond. A temple could never do without a sacred pond or water body which would not only take care of the needs of the deity but also of the community living around as well. And the sacred grove would make it a perfect place for meditation and self-discovery. The act of darshana of course took place in the garbha-griha, but the surroundings were intricately aligned to the ultimate goal of darshana.

In this way, the Hindu temple as an institution protected sacred groves all across our country. In fact in many places it is now only the temples which are protecting sacred groves on their private property. As soon as their boundary ends, one can see the ecological destruction. Inside the boundaries, the ecosystem remains intact. The ecosystem of the Hindu temple is not just culturally connected with humans but also encompasses Nature within its ambit. It is both a natural and a cultural ecosystem, literally speaking.

Thousands of these sacred groves still survive, and most of them are around a Hindu temple. (Malhotra vii) The temple may be made of stones, wood or even an open air temple with just some icons placed in the open or under a tree, but all of these groves are considered to be extremely sacred and divine and are worshipped as deities or dwelling places of deities. In many places these sacred groves are simply called ‘Devavana’, or a ‘Grove of Deities’. Every village in Bharat used to have one.

These sacred groves around temples were present all over the Bharatvarsha. In Kashmir they are called dev bani, in Uttarakhand dev bhoomi or bugyal, in Bihar as sarnas, in Bengal as hari than, sabitri than etc., in Manipur as umanglai, in Mizoram as ngawpui, in Meghalaya as law lyngdoh, in Rajasthan as vani, in Madhya Pradesh as deogudi, in Chhattisgarh as matagudi, devgudi etc., in Maharashtra and Karnataka as devrayi, in Goa as devran, in Andhra and Telangana as pavitra vana, in Odisha as thakurnam or jahera, in Karnataka as devarkadu/devarkan, in Kerala as kaavu, in Tamil Nadu as kovil thoppu or kovil kaadu. (Krishna 41-50)

This is hardly an exhaustive list of the various names. The tradition is prevalent all across Bharatvarsha and almost always around the Hindu temple.

Authored by Pankaj Saxena. Published by IndicaToday.