Colourful Indians

Building A Temple Customaries

 

Choosing A Site Location

In order to build a temple, the Hindu believed that the site of the temple should be chosen based on something called Tirtha and Kshetra. Tirtha is the name of a place of pilgrimage on the bank of a ricer, seashore or a lake. The word tirthaliterally means "a ford, a shallow part of a body of water that may be easily crossed", has come to connote places of pilgrimage associated with sacred water. Kshetra on the other hand is considered to be a sacred ground, a field of active power. A place where the final release can be obtained. Based on the Mahabharata, the number of these sacred sites Tirtha and Kshetra is large and it speaks of hundreds of places.

The gods are placed not only on Tirthas, but also on hilll-tops and mountain slopes, in forests, groves and gardens, in villages, towns and cities and othe lovely places. Ritually, the site of a temple is a Tirtha wherever it is located. The pressence of water is essential but if it is neither available by nature or artificial means then it should be represented symbolically within the temple.

 

Temple Building Principles

Wherever a Hindu temple stands, and to whatever size, it is built in principle opn the same plan, the Vastu Purusha Mandala. Vastu purusha mandala is the metaphysical diagrammatic design of cosmos that regulates the temple plan. It is drawn on the ground prior to the building of the temple. On the basis of this structure and prescribed directions construction is recommended and all the physical features are decided in terms of ventilation, doors, windows, location etc. The Vastu mandala shows how to locate different features into the place of presiding God to get maximum benefits in terms of good health, wealth, peace, progress and prosperity. In principle, the plan is always square and is divided into compartments. The form of the temple, all that it is and signifies stands upon the diagram of the Vastu pasha mandala.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Purification of Land

Man here is the patron on whose behalf te temple is built by the architect who is guided by the priest in the principles of his work. The priest has the guidance while the architect, who builds the temple works in conformity with the knowledge of the priest. The temple must be build in accordance to definite rules and that it must be firm. The fitness of the soil is tested and a pit is dug and the earth that has been taken out is put back again. Water is put into the pit overnight and the quality of the soil is judged according to the amount of water found there in the morning.

When the suitable land is acquired and the ground is ploughed, seeds are sown and the quality of soil is tested according to the germination on the third, fifth, seventh or ninth nights and etc. The purification of the soil is complete when the land has been ploughed repeatedly. At the beginning of the various phases in construction of the temple, the “rite of seeds and their germintation” is most important. It precedes the building of the temple.

 

The spirits that have previously occupied the site has been asked to leave. Tributes would be scattered to them at night and again when they depart before day break. When the ground is tilled, the past ceases to count. The sowing of the grain is the final offering to the memory of the spirits who have left the place and gone somewhere in peace. It is also at the same time the first offering in the newly acquired land, so that the temple, the substance of God and his manifestation, might exist.