Temples of the Place of the Womb
This land is teeming with temples-both miniature and monumental, stark and ornate, stretching from beyond the borders of what is today known as India, from as far west as Harappa to as far east as Bansneria, from Pandrethan in Kashmir to the temple of Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu. The house of the Hindu god is the form of Indian architecture most written about but the one that, paradoxically, has defied complete definition.
Variously called vimana (well proportioned), Prasada (seat of the Lord), devalaya (house of God), devagram (the village of God), and sthana or sthanam (the holy place), a Hinud temple is usually all of these things. It is a celebration of rites and traditions; a highly evolved art form; a panorama of myths and legends for the entertainment and enlightenment of the devotee; a revord of contemporary life and values; a depiction of natural powers (such as the planets and stars, the changing of seasons, and symbolic animal spirits); a tool to uplift the worshipper’s soul; a symbolic presentation of the aspects of good and evil, birth and death, worldly and divine, mortal and immortal; a social and cultural centre; and a spectacular display of political and economic power, both in town and country.
The temple was the economic core around which towns evolved. Its construction and maintenance provided people with jobs and allied professions while its gods blessed and guarded them. They. In turn honoured their images with the appropriate veneration, care, and service. The importance of the sacred role of temples in uniting people with god made these institutions powerful and rich, enabling them to play a large role in the other functions of the village or town, whether judicial, moral or educational.
Temples had a philanthropic role to play as well. People were sometimes fed there free of cost, pilgrims were sheltered in their dharmshala-s (accommodations specially built within temple complexes for visiting pilgrims), and they often had schools attached to them. Beggars till today continue to eke out a living from alms in temple yards. Though the tradition of education at a holy shrine hardly exists now, it is prevalent in Indian Islam where the monsque has, attached to it, a madarsa (primary school) for young children. At its most fundamental, a temple was the embodiment of peace and purity, a sanctuary from the world of chasos outside, where god met man and where man could escape from the confusion of his earthly world and return to the safety and sanctity of the womb.
Variously called vimana (well proportioned), Prasada (seat of the Lord), devalaya (house of God), devagram (the village of God), and sthana or sthanam (the holy place), a Hinud temple is usually all of these things. It is a celebration of rites and traditions; a highly evolved art form; a panorama of myths and legends for the entertainment and enlightenment of the devotee; a revord of contemporary life and values; a depiction of natural powers (such as the planets and stars, the changing of seasons, and symbolic animal spirits); a tool to uplift the worshipper’s soul; a symbolic presentation of the aspects of good and evil, birth and death, worldly and divine, mortal and immortal; a social and cultural centre; and a spectacular display of political and economic power, both in town and country.
The temple was the economic core around which towns evolved. Its construction and maintenance provided people with jobs and allied professions while its gods blessed and guarded them. They. In turn honoured their images with the appropriate veneration, care, and service. The importance of the sacred role of temples in uniting people with god made these institutions powerful and rich, enabling them to play a large role in the other functions of the village or town, whether judicial, moral or educational.
Temples had a philanthropic role to play as well. People were sometimes fed there free of cost, pilgrims were sheltered in their dharmshala-s (accommodations specially built within temple complexes for visiting pilgrims), and they often had schools attached to them. Beggars till today continue to eke out a living from alms in temple yards. Though the tradition of education at a holy shrine hardly exists now, it is prevalent in Indian Islam where the monsque has, attached to it, a madarsa (primary school) for young children. At its most fundamental, a temple was the embodiment of peace and purity, a sanctuary from the world of chasos outside, where god met man and where man could escape from the confusion of his earthly world and return to the safety and sanctity of the womb.
