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Indian Temples and Ancient Technology

Architecture of a temple
Source:Wikipedia

The main form of Hindu architecture has many styles, but the basic nature of the Hindu mandir or temple remains the same, with the essential feature of an inner sanctum, the garbha griha or womb-chamber, where the primary Murti or image of a deity is housed in a simple bare cell. This chamber most often has an open area designed for clockwise movement for rituals and prayers. The garbhagriha is crowned on the outside by a tower-like shikhara, also known as the vimana in the south. A circumambulatory passage for parikrama, a mandapa congregation hall, and sometimes an antarala antechamber and porch between garbhagriha and mandapa are included in the shrine building. 

Pancha Bhootas
Source:Isha Sadguru.org

Hindu temples architecture reflects a synthesis of arts, dharmic ideals, beliefs, values, and the Hindu way of life. Tirtha (pilgrimage) takes place at the temple. A Hindu temple contains all of the cosmic elements that create and celebrate life in the Hindu pantheon, from fire to water, images of nature to deities, the feminine to the masculine, kama to artha, the fleeting sounds and incense smells to Purusha—the eternal nothingness yet universality. 

Man and the Divine

The form and meanings of architectural elements in a Hindu temple are intended to function as a link between man and the divine, assisting his progress to spiritual knowledge and truth, and his liberation, which is referred to as moksha.

Ellora Cave-29
Source:Wikimedia

Shilpa Shastras and Vastu Sastras describe the architectural principles of Hindu temples in India. The Hindu culture has encouraged aesthetic independence in its temple builders, and its architects have sometimes exercised considerable flexibility in creative expression by adopting other perfect geometries and mathematical principles in Mandir construction to express the Hindu way of life.


MindfulnessGuruji Monday, August 9, 2021