Toshali Sands

Special Feature on Hindu philosophy
“Whatever is expressed in divine personae or for that matter in any and imaginable form must be regarded as but a sing, a pointer directing the intellect to what is hidden, something mightier and less transitory than anything with which the eyes or emotions can become familiar. Similarly these must be regarded as merely helpful signs, pointing at what can to be bounded or defined by name.” Henrich Zimmer.

India is a country full of temples; temple of various scales, ears, and styles are a part of the Indian ethos and life. It’s very apparent that all of us must have been to a temple some as tourists; some are research students, and many just for some peace of mind to most of us a temple means a structure, which has compilation of beautiful carvings where the diviner resides. We go there, blindly follow the rituals and come back without probably knowing the essence of those spaces. The following text argues that the temple architecture is basically a manifestation of the basics of the Hindu philosophy and these spaces have been interpreted to incorporate the essence of the age old philosophy. An Indian temple is one of the best illustrations of how a philosophy or thought could be given a spatial dimension. It is hoped that text time the reader goes to a temple he will have a very different relevance of the spaces which he would integrate with his current life and use temple architecture not just as a tourist place and that of religion but as a psychological device, which could be use to go connected with a deeper self.

To understand how the temple spaces work and interpret the Hindu philosophy, we need to know what the philosophy state. Though its impossible to bring in the whole spectrum of thought of such a great and age-old philosophy in a small article, for the benefit of readers, this part just looks at the sequential arrangement and a transition hence achieved in the thought pattern how the same transition can be experienced as one proceeds from the entrance of a temple to the garbhagriha and eventually the circumbulation path or the pradshina path.

Also Read: The Philosophy