CERTIFICATE It is hereby declared that this work has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other University or Institution. L. Peter Kollar. / **/ ' (* KEN5INGTDN £ V °o V * Li 8RARV SUMMARY This is a study of symbolism in traditional Hindu architecture. It is based upon the Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, The Great Temple at Madura, South India, visited by the author in i960. The formal arrangement of this temple is the pivot around -which the examination of the principles of architectural symbolism revolves. The general principles as well as the particular symbolic expressions are elucidated by constant reference to the sacred texts of the Hindu tradition. The key to all this is the Hindu doctrine itself, but no attempt could be made to expose its integrality on these pages. However, the introduction and the footnotes contain sufficient references and brief explanations to enable one to follow the theme without undue difficulty even if the subject were unfamiliar. The study develops the meaning of the architectural layout by approaching the temple from the outside and gradually progressing towards its core. During this passage the nature of symbolism is discovered in successively higher degrees until it becomes clear that the temple - in its detail as well as in its entirety - is a meta­ physical symbol and its construction a metaphysical rite. It expresses by means of silent architectural forms the selfsame doctrine which is recorded verbally in the sacred texts. SYMBOLISM IN HINDU ARCHITECTURE as revealed in the SHRI IvUNAKSHI SUNDARESWAR A study for the degree of Master of Architecture L« Peter Kollar A.A.S.T.C., A.R.A.I.A, Sydney, 1962 ii CONTENTS List of Plates ... .. •. •. .. iii Introduction .. •. .. .. •. v Symbolism in Hindu Architecture as revealed in the Shri Minakshi Sundareswar 1 Part I .. 2 Part II «. 36 Part III .. 69 Part IV .. 95 Glossary and index of Sanscrit names and terms .. 128 Sources and Bibliography •• •• ,. .. 139 LIST OF PLATES Ganesha - Slone sculpture in the Thousand Pillar Mandapam, Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura. Reproduced from? Luis Frederic, Indian Temples and Sculpture, Thames & Hudson, London, 1959* South Gopuram, Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura, Photograph Ly the author. Elevation of the Gopuram and the Makara-Torana-Kirttimukha motif Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura. Drawings Ly the author. Sculptured details cf the Gopuram, Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura. Reproduced froms Odette Monod-Bruhl, Indian Temples, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, London, 1952. The upper storeys of the South Gopuram, Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura. Reproduced froms E, A. Nowrath, Indien und Chinas Meisterwerke der Baukunst und Plastik, Wien, 1938, Kirttimukha on the top of the South Gopuram, Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura. Photograph Ly the author (enlargement from Fig.2), Ground plan of the Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura, Reproduced froms Benjamin Rowland, The Architecture and Art of Indian Buddhist, Hindu, Jain. Penguin Books, London, 1953. Saraswati - Stone sculpture in the Thousand.Pillar Mandapam, Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura. Reproduced froms Luis Frederic, Indian Temples and Sculpture, Thames & Hudson, London, 1959* Kambattadi Mandapam with the sacrificial post in front of the Vimana of Lord Sundareswar, Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura, Reproduced froms Luis Frederic, Indian Temples and Sculpture, Thames & Hudson, London, 1959* Nandi in front of the Vimana of Lord Sundareswar, Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura, Photograph Ly the author. iv Fig.11. Nateshwar, The Dancing Shiva, Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura, Reproduced from? E. A. Nowrath, Indien und ihinas Meisterwerke der Baukunst und Plastik, Wien, 1938. 12, Yali, from the row of pillars in front of the Vimana of Shri Minakshi, Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura. Photograph by the author, 13, South Indian Pillar with lotus "bud capital at the Tank of the Golden Lilies, Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura, Photograph by the author. 14* The Tank of the Golden Lilies - the Tiruvachi Gopuram in the background, Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura, Photograph by the author. 15* Colonnade around the Tank of the Golden Lilies, Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura. Reproduced from? Odette Monod-Bruhl, Indian Temples, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, London, 1952, 16, a) Bird's eye view of the temple at Tiruvannamalai, South India. b) The Tiruvachi and the East Gopuram from the Tank of the Golden Lilies, Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura. Reproduced froms Benjamin Rowland, The Architecture and Art of India; Buddhist, Hindu, Jain. Penguin Books, London, 1953. 17, View from the top of the South Gopuram looking east, Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura. Reproduced from? Luis Frederic, Indian Temples and Sculpture, Thames & Hudson, London, 1959* 18, Vimana of Lord Sundareswar, Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura, Drawn and compiled from photographs and texts by the author. 19, Top view of the Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura. Looking north from the top of the South Gopuram. (The Vimana of Lord Sundareswar is visible in the left centre.) Photograph by the author. The superstructure of the Vimana of Lord Sundareswar, Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura. Photograph "by the author (enlargement from Fig,19). The orientation of the Vastupurusha-Mandala on a site south of the Equator, according to the Tantrasamuccaya, Drawn “by the author. The Vastupurusha-Mandala, according to Stella Kramrisch. Reproduced froms Stella Kramrisch, The Hindu Temple, Vol.I, p.32, University of Calcutta, 194-6* Pillars from the colonnade around the Tank of the Golden Lilies Shri Minakshi Sundareswar, Madura, Photograph by the author. Top view of the dome over Lord Sundareswar's Vimana (in centre) and symbols of the cross (a, b, c, d). Drawn by the author. £ KENSINGTON m Library INTRODUCTION Hindu traditional symbolism (Pratika), whether verbal, musical, dramatic, iconographical, or - what is our main concern here - architectural, always refers to domains that are unknowable and inexpressible by sensation, emotion or reason. This is the raison d'etre of symbolism in traditional civilizations, where the main preoccupations are directed towards the under­ standing, the knowledge and the attainment of certain states which are 'super-human*1 g symbolism is used to communicate, as far as this is possible, the nature of the states in question. On the other hand, in civilizations where the tradition is no longer effective or has become largely unrecogniz­ able, symbolism is lost, or what is worse, is subverted, since the chief preoccupation of the people shifts to the stricter human, even to the simply material or 'sub-human' levels traditional symbolism hence becomes 'superfluous' since all that is 'worth' communicating can be communicated in human terms. Symbolism thus not only escapes the attention and the Cf. Coomaraswamy. A, K,s The Transformation of Nature in Art (Dover, New York, 1956), p,126s "In distinguishing thus a language of symbols from a language of signs I have in mind the distinction of symbol and sign drawn by Jung. A symbolic expression is one that is held to be the best possible formula, by which allusion may be made to a relatively unknown 'thing' which referent, however, is nevertheless recognised or postulated as 'existing'. The use of any symbol, such as the figure 'Vajra' or the word 'Brahman', implies a conviction, and generally a conventional agreement resting on authority, that the relatively unknown, or it may be unknowable, referent cannot be any more clearly represented, A sign, on the other hand, is an analogous or abbreviated expression for a definitely known things every man knows, or con be informed, by indication of on object, as to what the sign means. Thus wings are symbols when they 'mean' angelic independence of local motion, but signs, when they-designate an aviator. ii vi understanding of such, communities, hut is also gradually despised by them, leaving the door open for certain arti-traditional influences to take hold of the symbolic language and to use it in a n fo verted sense# Of the several traditions still operating in 0, more or less recogniz­ able way in the acrid tc—day the Hindu tradition has preserved its con­ tinuity for by far the longest period and is still effective in a truly remarkable manner# Duo to its unbroken tradition, to its reliable scriptures and written .records of great antiquity, and to its rich symbolism developed in all field: of art, it is an eminently suitable field of study to acquaint oneself wiih a way of communication which is no longer effective in the West.+ All that belongs to the 'super-human' order, or more precisely to the domain of metaphysio io which traditional symbolism refers,|is unconditioned by space and time.| 1. study in this field, therefore, cannot be validly undertaken from a logical or systematical, from a spatial or geographical, or even from a temporal or historical point of view, The systematic The subversion of symbols is not.to be confuse; with the inverse analogies inherent in symbolic expressions* Moreover, most symbols can be taken in a beneficient and in a maleficient sense. .dll this is perfectly legitimate as long as the beneficient aspect is not confused with the maleficient aspect or,as long as the maleficient meaning is not inter­ preted as beneficient. Precisely this is in what the subversion of symbols consists, which com even be furthered by using traditional symbols to convey quite distorted meanings they were never intended to carry* Such subversions may operate