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Temple
What is Temple?
Category : Temple
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 The temple is the focus for all aspects of daily life in the Hindu community - religious, cultural, educational and social.  

Hindus believe their lives are merely stages in the progression to ultimate enlightenment. The temple is a place where they can get closer to God and where divine knowledge can be discovered. All aspects of the focus of Hindu temple on the goal of enlightenment and liberation - the principles of design and construction, the forms of its architecture and decoration, and ritual worked. And all these are determined by shastras call of the ancient texts compiled by the priests, the Brahmins. The vastushastras were idealized theoretical descriptions of the architectural traditions and conventions to be followed.
 
The temple is designed to dissolve the boundaries between man and the divine. Not just his home, the temple is God. God and therefore by implication the whole universe is identified with the temple and web design today. The floor plan is perhaps the best example.
 
The vastushastras describe it as a symbolic representation in miniature of the cosmos. It is based on a strict grid arranged in squares and equilateral triangles that are imbued with deep religious significance. Indian architect-priest was the absolute square and mystical. The grid, usually 64 or 81 squares, is in fact a mandala, a model of the cosmos, with each square belonging to a deity. The position of the square is in accordance with the importance given to each of the deities, the square in the center representating the deity of the temple, the outer squares cover the gods of the bottom row.
 

 

The construction of the temple of the temple is in the exact three-dimensional model presented by the mandala. The relationship between the underlying symbolic order and appearance of the temple can now be better understood when viewed from above it was of course impossible for people to completely recently.
 
Another important aspect of designing the floor plan is that it wanted to conduct the temporal world to the eternal. The principal shrine should face the rising sun and so should have its entrance on the east. The movement toward the sanctuary, along the axis east - west and a series of increasingly sacred spaces is of great importance and is reflected in architecture. A typical Hindu temple consists of the following main elements - an entrance, often with a porch, one or more attached or separate mandapas or hallways, inside the sacred place called garbagriha literally womb chamber, and the tower built directly garbagriha above.
 
 

 Besides the ground floor level there are other important aspects of the temple attaching it to the phenomenal world - your site in relation to shade and pour water, their vertical elevation on the mountains, and the most sacred part, the garbagriha, about caves.

 
When God can be malevolent and benevolent is important that the temple site is the one that is sure to please. The Puranas state that `gods always play where groves are near rivers, mountains and springs. Sacred Sites in India therefore usually have to do with pouring water, often thought to shade and lakes of India is sacred and they have healing and purifying powers. It is thought that rivers like the Ganges have fallen from the sky, perhaps the Milky Way, and take holy water is necessary in the temple tank.
 
Gods were always drawn to mountains and they have great mountains to the symbolism and the appearance of the temple. There was a towering drive to create towers that look like mountains. Mount Kailasa in the Himalayas is the abode of Shiva and blue Kailasa temple at Ellora us the architectural interpretation of this mountain. Symbolism reinforce these temples were originally painted white to make them look even more the snow covered mountains.
 
In India always think of caves as places of great sanctity. Most of the earliest surviving Buddhist, Jain and Hindu shrines are rock-cut caves. In Hindu temples after the garbagriha is designed to resemble a cave. It is small and dark surfaces of the walls are unadorned and massive. This is a place that encourages meditation is possible only in solitude. The approach to the sacred place is a movement of open space encased a small space, from light to darkness, a profusion of visual form and decoration to the visual simplicity of the cave. In this sanctuary is implicit vertical movement, the peak of the mountain directly above the symbolic image of God. This upward movement is the idea of ??united wo clarification is identified with the supreme end of the temple - the amalaka or sikara.
 
The oldest stone temples were the result of royal patronage. Although they were built to benefit the entire community, they were also an expression of loyalty and peity the rule. It was thought that building a temple pattern always have peace, wealth, grains and children. This could also ensure fame and even immortality. At times the temples were built to celebrate important events. In the early eleventh century, for example, King Rajendra Chola built a temple to Shiva in Gangaikondacholapuram celebrate his victory in the north.
 
The murtis (the paintings of deities in a temple) provide access to the divine. Interestingly, this was not the sculptor or the painter who was honored for this work when he would be in the West, but the donor. In fact, almost all Indian art is anonymous.
 
The temples were maintained by donations from real employers and individuals. They got the money, gold, silver, livestock and grant income from the land even entire villages. Such gifts provide religious merit (punya) that increase the possibility of ultimate liberation to the donor.
 
Some temples became very wealthy often invested in land and rented to tenants with incomes provided. The important temples hired priests, garland makers, suppliers of ghee, milk, oil, rice, fruit, sandal paste and incense. A detailed account made famous in 1011 for people supported by the temple in Tanjore Rajarajaeswara singers put on a list, dancing teachers, singers, drummers, conch blowers, accounting, umbrella holders, lamp-lighters, pour water sprinklers in the , potters, carpenters, astrologers, tailors and gem staplers. There were 600 people in total. In exchange for their work in the temple, gave them the land they cultivated and could live. Providing livelihoods for such large numbers of people, not surprisingly the temple could exert great influence on the life of the community.
 
To this day Hindus donate huge amounts to temples. One of the wealthiest is a temple of Venkateswara at Tirumala.