THE NORTHERN STYLEREKHA TEMPLE PRASADA

THE NORTHERN STYLEREKHA TEMPLE PRASADA

In the realm of religious art, India can claim to have established a close coordination between cannons and formulations, therefore, between concepts and visual concretisations, between symbolism and aesthetics. The Brahmanical temple form is a perfect synthesis of macrocosmic divinity and the microcosmic at-man-the inherent, eternal and inextricable spark of functional continun. Howsoever we look at the temple, as a rich panorama of the entire gamut of creation, human and divine, fauna and floral or the static structural scale of the earth, firmament and the ether; as the mystique of the causational sphere of the ‘Subject’ and ‘object’; We find it a suave summation of Indian thought, philosophy and ritual aims. No wonder that the temple models grew to perfection by the early mediaeval times, consistent with the administration of the elite and the intelligentsia and were the formalised design of vocalised or even contemplated ideas. Two basically inter-related but formally dichotomised versions of temples prevailed, popularly called the ‘Northern and the ‘Southern’ temple types- the RekhaPrasada and the Vimana categories of the hieratic texts and the Agamas. Our purpose here is to show how the temple concepts and designs snow-balled from the 6th century A.D. onwards to about the 11th century A.D. when they attained their fullness of form and ancillary lay-outs.

The northern temple is a trivarga typewith three elevationally identifiable zones, respectively designated in early texts like Vishnudhar-mottara, etc., as the jagati, kati and manjari-the base, the body and the superstructure. The jagati is not merely the foundational terrace base but also the plinth proper of the temple structure, the kati, (also called bhitti or jangha is customarily divisible into two registers, the tala jangha and the upari jangha) the former coruscating with either cardinal koshthas or; niches or with an unfolding canvas of several carved images on the facets of the walls which minimally are triratha (triple faceted) or maximally navaratha. It is interesting to note that the ground spread of the temple matches the faceting of the kati and also the elaborations of the superstructure. The chaste Nagara temple of the latina type first gets formulated in the Gujarat region a part of what is to be called the MahaGurjara style not withstanding ritual layout progressing already under the basic panchayatana formula for both Saivasm and Vaishnavism and marginally for the Saura (of Surya) cults also.

The prasada gradually thus moves from its ekanda of single superstructural sikhara and often of a triratha ground plan and wall facet, to the panchanda and navanda categories wherein subsidiary miniature sikhara forms get fixed on the kamas of the bhoomis of the tower, equal to the thickness of the wall and shell section of the structure.