The Sequence of Space in a Temple Architecture
The Sequence of Space in a Temple Architecture
A comparison of this with temple architecture also reveals the same transitions, that of from a very materialistic setting to exploring the divinity within self.
Most of the temples have a Bazaar or a market place outside it which is the highest symbol of the material world and human involvement in social aspect.
This is followed by the gopuram, or the temple gate, which is huge and physically and symbolically cuts off the secular and sacred. The scale of this gateway is in a way makes an attempt to tell that how the realm of regular ends and that of divine starts.
This is followed by the temple court which houses the tanks for the ablution and bathing. This is the first step towards telling the body and preparing it for the encounter with divine. The bathing is not just a physical cleansing: it also psychologically demarcates the state of regular and that of being divine.
The main temple starts with the mukhamandapa, and is generally based n a high plinth by the virtue of its level difference demarcates the court and the actual temple. There is also a conspicuous presence of a tortoise at the entrance of most of the temples. Most of us don’t know the significance of the same. It besides being an interesting form and image holds a profound meaning. The symbolic gesture of keeping a tortoise at the entrance, very humbly tells the devotee that the realm of divine is about to arrive, and hence the way a tortoise take all its limb inside its shell, the devotee should bring in all its wavering lines of thought, which are at present entangled in the web of the worldly happenings back to himself and in the bargain focus on the divine. A symbolic gesture if read in its true spirit holds such a profound meaning, otherwise it just a tortoise, a may be beautifully carved, but meaningless in the absence of its symbolic content.
This is followed by the mahamandapa, or the great hall, in which the rituals are performed. This hall is also an important space in which all the senses are consciously invoked to have a feeling of spirituality. For instance the profound carvings with various mythical images tell the visual sense about the arrival of the divine, similarly the smell of the incense tells the sense of smell, the second of the conchres, and bells tells the audio sense, the tirtha and the prasada tell the sense of the taste, and barc feet touching the cool stone (especially after the hot and dry outside of the Indian climate) tells the sense of touch. Hence this is the chamber where all the sense are put in the mould very of the Vedas which state ‘that thou art’ intentionally.
This is followed y the antarala, which literally means a gap or space, this is a gap between the devotee and the chamber f divine, and is represents the state of dusk or the dawn where it is neither day nor night. This is the space, which divides the still regular with the Chamber of the divine. Finally is the garbhagriha which is a very modest and plain chamber as compared to the exuberance of the earlier mandapa. Here the intention is that all the senses should focus upon the statue of the divine and there should be nothing else to distract attention. This statue is also seen in a light of a burning lamp, and since the chamber is almost dark, the attempt to see the statue clearly forces the perceiver to focus upon the statues and hence concentrate upon it. This is where the man and the divine meet. But there is still the notion of duality. In which the god is the form of a statue and the perceiver is outsider able to perceive the divine as a separate entity. This duality is removed in the Pradikshnia path.
Pradakshina path is the space circumambulating the main chamber where the devotee is supposed to circumambulate around the god and the same time contemplate the god within, thus removing the barrier of duality and by the virtue of realizing the divine vibration within, becomes the seat of the divine itself, conforming to the mahavakyas at the end. Of the Vedas which state ‘that thought art; A PAREALLEL COMPARISON
This shows that the way The text of the Vedas don’t directly tell the ultimate truth of non dualism to the perceiver, but first start with materialistic practices of ritual and then slowly turning towards more abstract knowledge before eventually telling the essence of existence, similarly the temple architecture first slowly prepares the devotee by various means and follows a notion of transition very much in the same manner as do the texts and eventually focus upon the existence of the divine within self.
