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Dashavatara Temple, Deogarh

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132-628: The Dashavatara Temple is an early 6th century Hindu temple located at Deogarh , Lalitpur district, Uttar Pradesh which is 125 kilometers from Jhansi, in the Betwa River valley in northern-central India . It has a simple, one cell square plan and is one of the earliest Hindu stone temples still surviving today. Built in the Gupta Period , the Dashavatara Temple at Deogarh shows the ornate Gupta style architecture . The temple at Deogarh

264-444: A Vishnu temple, Krishna temple, Rama temple, Narayana temple, Shiva temple, Lakshmi temple, Ganesha temple, Durga temple, Hanuman temple, Surya temple, etc. It is this garbha-griya which devotees seek for darsana (literally, a sight of knowledge, or vision ). Above the vastu-purusha-mandala is a superstructure with a dome called Shikhara in north India, and Vimana in south India, that stretches towards

396-422: A Hindu temple project would start with a Yajamana (patron), and include a Sthapaka (guru, spiritual guide and architect-priest), a Sthapati (architect) who would design the building, a Sutragrahin (surveyor), and many Vardhakins (workers, masons, painters, plasterers, overseers) and Taksakas (sculptors). While the temple is under construction, all those working on the temple were revered and considered sacerdotal by

528-602: A Hindu yogin, states Gopinath Rao, one who has realised the Self and the Universal Principle within himself, there is no need for any temple or divine image for worship. However, for those who have yet to reach this height of realization, various symbolic manifestations through images, murtis and icons as well as mental modes of worship are offered as one of the spiritual paths in the Hindu way of life. Some ancient Hindu scriptures like

660-494: A UNESCO World Heritage site. The Indian rock-cut architecture evolved in Maharashtran temple style in the 1st millennium CE. The temples are carved from a single piece of rock as a complete temple or carved in a cave to look like the interior of a temple. Ellora Temple is an example of the former, while The Elephanta Caves are representative of the latter style. The Elephanta Caves consist of two groups of caves—the first

792-507: A bed and meal to pilgrims. They relied on any voluntary donation the visitor may leave and to land grants from local rulers. Some temples have operated their kitchens on a daily basis to serve the visitor and the needy, while others during major community gatherings or festivals. Examples include the major kitchens run by Hindu temples in Udupi (Karnataka), Puri (Odisha) and Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh). The tradition of sharing food in smaller temple

924-483: A brief introduction to 12 types of Hindu temples. Other texts, such as Pancaratra Prasada Prasadhana compiled by Daniel Smith and Silpa Ratnakara compiled by Narmada Sankara provide a more extensive list of Hindu temple types. Ancient Sanskrit manuals for temple construction discovered in Rajasthan, in northwestern region of India, include Sutradhara Mandana's Prasadamandana (literally, manual for planning and building

1056-447: A high level of workmanship, combined with a ripeness and rich refinement in its sculptural effect as the Gupta temple at Deogarh . Cunningham had originally proposed a reconstruction of the temple with four columns on each side supporting a portico and a shikhara topped by an amalaka. However Vats and Imig have proposed that it was a panchayatana temple. Imig compared a number of temples from

1188-498: A house or a palace. A house-themed temple is a simple shelter that serves as a deity's home. The temple is a place where the devotee visits, just like he or she would visit a friend or relative. The use of moveable and immoveable images is mentioned by Pāṇini . In the Bhakti school of Hinduism, temples are venues for puja , which is a hospitality ritual, where the deity is honored, and where devotee calls upon, attends to and connects with

1320-465: A lunar system. The Buddhist calendar and the traditional lunisolar calendars of Cambodia , Laos , Myanmar , Sri Lanka and Thailand are also based on an older version of the Hindu calendar. Similarly, the ancient Jain traditions have followed the same lunisolar system as the Hindu calendar for festivals, texts and inscriptions. However, the Buddhist and Jain timekeeping systems have attempted to use

1452-446: A main temple surrounded by smaller temples and shrines, but these are still arranged by principles of symmetry, grids and mathematical precision. An important principle found in the layout of Hindu temples is mirroring and repeating fractal-like design structure, each unique yet also repeating the central common principle, one which Susan Lewandowski refers to as "an organism of repeating cells". The ancient texts on Hindu temple design,

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1584-596: A natural source of water is not present. Here too, they recommend that a pond be built preferably in front or to the left of the temple with water gardens. If water is neither present naturally nor by design, water is symbolically present at the consecration of the temple or the deity. Temples may also be built, suggests Visnudharmottara in Part III of Chapter 93, inside caves and carved stones, on hill tops affording peaceful views, on mountain slopes overlooking beautiful valleys, inside forests and hermitages, next to gardens, or at

1716-452: A number of systems of which intercalary months became most used, that is adding another month every 32.5 months on average. As their calendar keeping and astronomical observations became more sophisticated, the Hindu calendar became more sophisticated with complex rules and greater accuracy. According to Scott Montgomery, the Siddhanta tradition at the foundation of Hindu calendars predate

1848-455: A number of ways. For example, one method of classification is the dimensionality of completion: Another way of classification is by the expressive state of the image: A Hindu temple may or may not include a murti or images, but larger temples usually do. Personal Hindu temples at home or a hermitage may have a pada for yoga or meditation, but be devoid of anthropomorphic representations of god. Nature or others arts may surround him or her. To

1980-581: A rudimentary level. Later medieval era texts such as the Yavana-jataka and the Siddhanta texts are more astrology-related. Hinduism and Buddhism were the prominent religions of southeast Asia in the 1st millennium CE, prior to the Islamic conquest that started in the 14th century. The Hindus prevailed in Bali, Indonesia, and they have two types of Hindu calendar. One is a 210-day based Pawukon calendar which likely

2112-448: A sacred space. It represents the triple-knowledge (trayi- vidya ) of the Vedic vision by mapping the relationships between the cosmos ( brahmaṇḍa ) and the cell (pinda) by a unique plan based on astronomical numbers. Subhash Kak sees the temple form and its iconography to be a natural expansion of Vedic ideology related to recursion, change and equivalence. In ancient Indian texts, a temple

2244-516: A similar manner to the Christian era . There are several samvat found in historic Buddhist, Hindu and Jain texts and epigraphy, of which three are most significant: Vikrama era, Old Shaka era and Shaka era of 78 CE. The Hindu calendar divides the zodiac into twelve division called rāśi ("group"). The Sun appears to move around the Earth through different divisions/constellations in the sky throughout

2376-437: A social meaning. Some temples have served as a venue to mark festivals, to celebrate arts through dance and music, to get married or commemorate marriages, the birth of a child, other significant life events or the death of a loved one. In political and economic life, Hindu temples have served as a venue for succession within dynasties and landmarks around which economic activity thrived. Almost all Hindu temples take two forms:

2508-400: A symbolic product of knowledge and human thought, while the circle is considered earthly, human and observed in everyday life (moon, sun, horizon, water drop, rainbow). Each supports the other. The square is divided into perfect 64 (or in some cases 81) sub-squares called padas. Each pada is conceptually assigned to a symbolic element, sometimes in the form of a deity. The central square(s) of

2640-496: A temple). Manasara , a text of South Indian origin, estimated to be in circulation by the 7th century CE, is a guidebook on South Indian temple design and construction. Isanasivagurudeva paddhati is another Sanskrit text from the 9th century describing the art of temple building in India in south and central India. In north India, Brihat-samhita by Varāhamihira is the widely cited ancient Sanskrit manual from 6th century describing

2772-416: Is a yantra , a design laying out a Hindu temple in a symmetrical, self-repeating structure derived from central beliefs, myths, cardinality and mathematical principles. The four cardinal directions help create the axis of a Hindu temple, around which is formed a perfect square in the space available. The circle of the mandala circumscribes the square. The square is considered divine for its perfection and as

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2904-554: Is a large group of five Hindu caves and the second is a smaller group of two Buddhist caves. The Hindu caves contain rock-cut stone sculptures, representing the Shaiva Hindu sect, dedicated to the god Shiva. A typical, ancient Hindu temple has a profusion of arts—from paintings to sculpture, from symbolic icons to engravings, from thoughtful layout of space to fusion of mathematical principles with Hindu sense of time and cardinality. Ancient Sanskrit texts classify murtis and images in

3036-457: Is a place of pilgrimage, known in India as a Tirtha . It is a sacred site whose ambience and design attempts to symbolically condense the ideal tenets of the Hindu way of life. In a Hindu temple, all the cosmic components that produce and maintain life are there, from fire to water, from depictions of the natural world to gods, from genders that are feminine or masculine to those that are everlasting and universal. Susan Lewandowski states that

3168-580: Is a pre-Hindu system, and another is similar to lunisolar calendar system found in South India and it is called the Balinese saka calendar which uses Hindu methodology. The names of month and festivals of Balinese Hindus, for the most part, are different, though the significance and legends have some overlap. The Hindu calendar is based on a geocentric model of the Solar System . A large part of this calendar

3300-778: Is a spiritual destination for many Hindus, as well as landmarks around which ancient arts, community celebrations and the economy have flourished. Hindu temple architecture are presented in many styles, are situated in diverse locations, deploy different construction methods, are adapted to different deities and regional beliefs, and share certain core ideas, symbolism and themes. They are found in South Asia, particularly India and Nepal , Bangladesh , Pakistan , Sri Lanka , in Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia , Vietnam , Malaysia , and Indonesia , and countries such as Canada , Fiji , France , Guyana , Kenya , Mauritius ,

3432-652: Is also found in the Hebrew calendar , the Chinese calendar , and the Babylonian calendar , but different from the Gregorian calendar. Unlike the Gregorian calendar which adds additional days to the month to adjust for the mismatch between twelve lunar cycles (354 lunar days) and approximately 365 solar days, the Hindu calendar maintains the integrity of the lunar month, but inserts an extra full month, once every 32–33 months, to ensure that

3564-405: Is dedicated to Vishnu , but includes in it small footprint images of various deities such as Shiva , Parvati , Kartikeya , Brahma , Indra , the river goddesses Ganga and Yamuna , as well as a panel showing the five Pandavas of the Hindu epic Mahabharata . The temple was built out of stone and masonry brick. Legends associated with Vishnu are sculpted in the interior and exterior walls of

3696-590: Is defined based on the movement of the Sun and the Moon around the Earth (saura māna and cāndra māna respectively). Furthermore, it includes synodic , sidereal , and tropical elements. Many variants of the Hindu calendar have been created by including and excluding these elements (solar, lunar, lunisolar etc.) and are in use in different parts of India. Samvat refers to era of the several Hindu calendar systems in Nepal and India , in

3828-499: Is everywhere in a Hindu temple. Life principles such as the pursuit of joy, connection and emotional pleasure (kama) are fused into mystical, erotic and architectural forms in Hindu temples. These motifs and principles of human life are part of the sacred texts of the Hindus, such as its Upanishads; the temples express these same principles in a different form, through art and spaces. For example, Brihadaranyaka Upanisad (4.3.21) recites: In

3960-432: Is grand. In Hindu tradition, this is discarded in favor of an open and diffusive architecture, where the secular world was not separated from the sacred, but transitioned and flowed into the sacred. The Hindu temple has structural walls, which were patterned usually within the 64-grid, or other geometric layouts. Yet the layout was open on all sides, except for the core space with a single opening for darsana. The temple space

4092-413: Is in abhaya mudra while the left front is on his thigh. Below him, to his right, is a female figure presumably Lakshmi but her iconic details are missing. To the right, he is flanked by standing Narasimha (the man-lion avatar of Vishnu) in namaste posture, while on left is a dwarf who has been interpreted as Vamana (the dwarf avatar), or more often Gana as he lacks the iconic details of Vamana. On

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4224-405: Is laid out in a series of courts ( mandapas ). The outermost regions may incorporate the negative and suffering side of life with the symbolism of evil, asuras and rakshashas ; but in small temples this layer is dispensed with. When present, this outer region diffuse into the next inner layer that bridges as human space, followed by another inner Devika padas space and symbolic arts incorporating

4356-555: Is located in Lalitpur , while the closest major airport with daily services is Khajuraho ( IATA : HJR) and Bhopal (IATA: DBH). The site is on the western edge of the Lalitpur range, with rocky Betwa river rapids about 500 metres (1,600 ft) away, amidst a forest. The British India era archaeologist Alexander Cunningham visited this site in 1875 and called the general location as "singularly picturesque". The fort has several Jain temples, and

4488-547: Is now housed at the National Museum in New Delhi . The panels show the culture and dress of ancient India. The jewelry and clothing including dhoti , sari , kurta , lahanga , blouse, pleated skirt, dopatta ( uttariya ), langoti , neck wear and others. The Hindu treatise Vishnudharmottara Purana describes several temples including a "Sarvatobhadra temple", which has been compared by archaeologists and Indologists with

4620-410: Is set with a basement porch. The temple provides steps in the center of all sides of the platform to let the pilgrim enter the temple from all four directions. The temple faces west, with slight deviation to the south that enables the setting sun's rays to fall on the main idol in the temple. The plinth is square with a 55.5 feet (16.9 m) side, about 9 feet (2.7 m) above the bottom step (called

4752-417: Is the name of six methods or alternate viewpoints of understanding truth. These are Nyaya, Vaisesika, Sankhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and Vedanta —which flowered into individual schools of Hinduism, each of which is considered a valid, alternate path to understanding truth and achieving self-realization in the Hindu way of life. From names to forms, from images to stories carved into the walls of a temple, symbolism

4884-415: Is typically called prasada . Hindu temples are found in diverse locations each incorporating different methods of construction and styles: In arid western parts of India, such as Rajasthan and Gujarat, Hindu communities built large walk-in wells that served as the only source of water in dry months but also served as social meeting places and carried religious significance. These monuments went down into

5016-523: The Chaturvyuha concept and the Pancaratra doctrine, centering on the depictions of the four main emanations of Vishnu : Vāsudeva , Samkarshana , Pradyumna and Aniruddha . Sculpted panels are seen on the terraced basement, with carved figurines of river goddesses Ganga and Yamuna flanking the doorway to the sanctum sanctorum, standing respectively on their vahanas: crocodile and tortoise. The panels of

5148-567: The Chinese language in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, and the Rigvedic passages on astronomy are found in the works of Zhu Jiangyan and Zhi Qian . According to Subhash Kak , the beginning of the Hindu calendar was much earlier. He cites Greek historians describing Maurya kings referring to a calendar which originated in 6676 BCE known as Saptarsi calendar. The Vikrami calendar is named after king Vikramaditya and starts in 57 BCE. Hindu scholars kept precise time by observing and calculating

5280-588: The National Museum in Delhi . These show, for example, the narratives from the Krishna legend. On the platform is a nine squares layout. The surviving Vishnu temple is in the middle square. The sanctum is a square with 18.5 feet (5.6 m) side. Its doorway is intricately carved with reliefs. The images on the top of the lintel of the sanctum and walls show Vishnu and Lakshmi , flanked by Shiva , Parvati , Indra , Kartikeya , Ganesha , Brahma and others. The outer wall of

5412-589: The Netherlands , South Africa , Suriname , Tanzania , Trinidad and Tobago , Uganda , the United Kingdom , the United States , Australia , New Zealand , and other countries with a significant Hindu population. The current state and outer appearance of Hindu temples reflect arts, materials and designs as they evolved over two millennia; they also reflect the effect of conflicts between Hinduism and Islam since

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5544-552: The Telika Mandir in Gwalior , built in the 8th century CE, is not a square but a rectangle in 2:3 proportion. Further, the temple explores a number of structures and shrines in 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 2:5, 3:5 and 4:5 ratios. These ratios are exact, suggesting that the architect intended to use these harmonic ratios, and the rectangle pattern was not a mistake, nor an arbitrary approximation. Other examples of non-square harmonic ratios are found at

5676-523: The Vāstu-puruṣa-mandala and Vastu Śāstras , do not limit themselves to the design of a Hindu temple. They describe the temple as a holistic part of its community, and lay out various principles and a diversity of alternate designs for home, village and city layout along with the temple, gardens, water bodies and nature. A predominant number of Hindu temples exhibit the perfect-square grid principle. However, there are some exceptions. For example,

5808-419: The garbha-griya (literally, "womb house")—a small, perfect square, windowless, enclosed space without ornamentation that represents universal essence. In or near this space is typically a cult image—which, though many Indians may refer to casually as an idol, is more formally known as a murti, or the main worshippable deity, who varies with each temple. Often this murti gives the temple a local name, such as

5940-464: The samvat dates included within the inscriptions meant that the various inscriptions ranged from 808 CE to 1164 CE, none before the 8th-century or after the 13th-century. Cunningham reported about the colossal statues of Tirthankaras in the Jain temples site and then added an extensive report on the solitary Hindu Deogarh temple which he called the "Gupta Temple". At the very end of his report, he remarked that

6072-504: The 10th-century attached medical care along with their religious and educational roles. This is evidenced by various inscriptions found in Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and elsewhere. An inscription dated to about 930 CE states the provision of a physician to two matha to care for the sick and destitute. Another inscription dated to 1069 at a Vishnu temple in Tamil Nadu describes a hospital attached to

6204-574: The 12th century. The Swaminarayanan Akshardham in Robbinsville, New Jersey , between the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas, was inaugurated in 2014 as one of the world's largest Hindu temples. A Hindu temple reflects a synthesis of arts, the ideals of dharma , beliefs, values and the way of life cherished under Hinduism. It is a link between man, deities, and the Universal Puruṣa in

6336-511: The 4th century CE suggest the existence of schools around Hindu temples, called Ghatikas or Mathas , where the Vedas were studied. In south India, 9th century Vedic schools attached to Hindu temples were called Calai or Salai , and these provided free boarding and lodging to students and scholars. The temples linked to Bhakti movement in the early 2nd millennium, were dominated by non-Brahmins. These assumed many educational functions, including

6468-517: The 5th-century. According to George Michell, an art historian and a professor specializing in Hindu Architecture, it is unclear when exactly the Dashavatara temple was built but its style suggests the sixth century. Michael Meister, another art historian and professor of Indian temple architecture, dates the temple to between 500 and 525 CE. The Dashavatara temple has a high plinth ( jagati ) and

6600-569: The 64- or 81-grid is dedicated to Brahman (not to be confused with brahmin, the scholarly and priestly class in India), and are called Brahma padas . The 49-grid design is called Sthandila and is of great importance in creative expressions of Hindu temples in South India, particularly in Prakaras . The symmetric Vastu-purusa-mandala grids are sometimes combined to form a temple superstructure with two or more attached squares. The temples face sunrise, and

6732-408: The 6th century CE. Vastu-Sastra manuals included chapters on home construction, town planning, and how efficient villages, towns and kingdoms integrated temples, water bodies and gardens within them to achieve harmony with nature. While it is unclear, states Barnett, as to whether these temple and town planning texts were theoretical studies and if or when they were properly implemented in practice,

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6864-881: The Betwa River valley at the border of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. It is an ancient Hindu temple below the Deogarh hill, towards the river, about 500 metres (1,600 ft) from a group of three dozen Jain temples with dharmashala built a few centuries later, and the Deogarh Karnali fort built in early 13th-century. The Dashavatara temple is about 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Lalitpur town in Uttar Pradesh, 220 kilometres (140 mi) west of Khajuraho , 250 kilometres (160 mi) south of Gwalior , 230 kilometres (140 mi) northeast of Bhopal , and about 400 kilometres (250 mi) southwest of Kanpur . The nearest railway station

6996-583: The Betwa is overlooked on either bank by rocky cliffs once sacred to Hindu shrines, whose ruins display the utmost profusion of the art of sculpture, but which now hardly overtop the surrounding trees. One temple of great magnificence , with a broad paved causeway leading from the foot of the hill on which it stands, along the face of the rocks, is of great archaeological interest, some of the sculptures being well preserved. – Charles Strahan (emphasis according to Cunningham's publication) In 1899, P.C. Mukerji surveyed

7128-561: The Buddha and the Mahavira's lifetimes as their reference points. The Hindu calendar is also important to the practice of Hindu astrology and zodiac system. It is also employed for observing the auspicious days of deities and occasions of fasting, such as Ekadashi . Time keeping [The current year] minus one, multiplied by twelve, multiplied by two, added to the elapsed [half months of current year], increased by two for every sixty [in

7260-598: The Christian era, once had 18 texts of which only 5 have survived into the modern era. These texts provide specific information and formulae on motions of Sun, Moon and planets, to predict their future relative positions, equinoxes, rise and set, with corrections for prograde, retrograde motions, as well as parallax. These ancient scholars attempted to calculate their time to the accuracy of a truti (29.63 microseconds). In their pursuit of accurate tracking of relative movements of celestial bodies for their calendar, they had computed

7392-590: The Dashavatara Temple (Vishnu temple) or the Gupta Mandir of Deogarh. According to Lubotsky, a comparative study suggests that the ideal temple design and iconography described in the treatise as "Sarvatobhadra temple" was the same as the Vishnu temple of Deogarh. This conclusion was based on plan, size, iconography and several other norms described for building the Sarvatobhadra style Hindu temples. Based on this comparison,

7524-558: The Dashavatara temple is solitary Hindu monument midway between the fort and the Deogarh village. Deogarh is an ancient site. Numerous inscriptions in different languages and scripts have been found here, as have a series of Hindu, Jain and Buddhist monuments. These suggest that it was once a significant human settlement, likely a location on an imperial trade route that brought people from different linguistic backgrounds to it. According to Madho Vats, Deogarh nestled within picturesque hills in north, west and south along with its abundant waters

7656-459: The Dashavatara temple of Deogarh. According to Vats, the evidence suggests that a large number of reliefs that existed in late 19th century went missing in the first few decades of the 20th century. Much of the Dashavatara temple, along with Jain temples nearby, are in ruins and shows signs of damage. Archaeologists have inferred that it is the earliest known Panchayatana temple in North India. It

7788-523: The Gajendramoksha side represents his role as the destroyer ( Samkarsana ). The Dashavatara temple had numerous plinth panels of about 2.5 feet by 2 feet each, with friezes related to secular life and themes of Hinduism. Some of these reliefs were found during excavations at the site, some recovered nearby and identified by their location, the material of construction and the style. Many are lost. The recovered reliefs are now housed in major museums. Some of

7920-680: The Jabaladarshana Upanishad appear to endorse this idea Samvat Traditional The Hindu calendar , also called Panchanga ( Sanskrit : पञ्चाङ्ग ), is one of various lunisolar calendars that are traditionally used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia , with further regional variations for social and Hindu religious purposes. They adopt a similar underlying concept for timekeeping based on sidereal year for solar cycle and adjustment of lunar cycles in every three years, but differ in their relative emphasis to moon cycle or

8052-606: The Malayalam calendar broadly retains the phonetic Sanskrit names, the Bengali and Tamil calendars repurpose the Sanskrit lunar month names (Chaitra, Vaishaka etc.) as follows: The solar months ( rāśi ) along with their equivalent names in the Bangali, Malayalam and Tamil calendar are given below: or ଭାଦ୍ର (Bhādra) (Tai) or ଫଗୁଣ (Phaguṇa) (Māsi) The solar months ( rāśi ) along with

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8184-502: The Mukerji's report, excavations in the Deogarh region in early 20th-century such as those by Daya Ram Sahni yielded evidence of more Hindu shrines as well inscriptions, Jain temples and Buddhist monuments. These include the Naharghati inscriptions, a monastic cave and the inscribed relief of Saptamatrikas (seven mothers, Shaktism ). In 1918, Sahini also found panels from the temple buried near

8316-612: The Naresar temple site of Madhya Pradesh and at the Nakti-Mata temple near Jaipur , Rajasthan. Michael Meister suggests that these exceptions mean that the ancient Sanskrit manuals for temple building were guidelines, and Hinduism permitted its artisans flexibility in expression and aesthetic independence. A Hindu temple is a symbolic reconstruction of the universe and the universal principles that enable everything in it to function. The temples reflect Hindu philosophy and its diverse views on

8448-403: The Sarvatobhadra design cannot be fully established by existing evidence. However, the supporting features of copings and amalakas (a bulbous stone finial ) have been found in the ruins, which supports the theory that more shikaras existed on eight mandapas, as part of the temple. Four stairways outside the platform provide access to the temple. However, as per excavation details, combined with

8580-608: The Sun towards north for 6 months, and south for 6 months. Time keeping was important to Vedic rituals, and Jyotisha was the Vedic era field of tracking and predicting the movements of astronomical bodies in order to keep time, in order to fix the day and time of these rituals. This study is one of the six ancient Vedangas , or ancillary science connected with the Vedas – the scriptures of Vedic Sanatan Sanskriti. Yukio Ohashi states that this Vedanga field developed from actual astronomical studies in ancient Vedic Period. The texts of Vedic Jyotisha sciences were translated into

8712-479: The age of 25. Apart from specialist technical competence, the manuals suggest that best Silpins for building a Hindu temple are those who know the essence of Vedas and Agamas, consider themselves as students, keep well verse with principles of traditional sciences and mathematics, painting and geography. Further they are kind, free from jealousy, righteous, have their sense under control, of happy disposition, and ardent in everything they do. According to Silparatna,

8844-409: The ancient Sanskrit texts of India (for example, the Vedas and Upanishads ), while their structural rules are described in various ancient Sanskrit treatises on architecture ( Bṛhat Saṃhitā , Vāstu Śāstras ). The layout, the motifs, the plan and the building process recite ancient rituals, geometric symbolisms, and reflect beliefs and values innate within various schools of Hinduism. A Hindu temple

8976-442: The architectural style and themes displayed in the Dashavatara temple suggest that the temple must have been built before 700 CE, with his guess being 600 to 700 CE. Before Cunningham's 1875 report, the temple was visited by Charles Strahan around 1871, who found it midst the jungle growth. Strahan shared his enthusiasm about the temple with Cunningham as follows: The jungle is heaviest in the immediate neighborhood of Deogarh, where

9108-617: The artworks and sculptures within them, were considered by the ancient Sanskrit texts to deploy arts whose number are unlimited, Kala (techniques) that were 64 in number, and Vidya (science) that were of 32 types. The Hindu manuals of temple construction describe the education, characteristics of good artists and architects. The general education of a Hindu Shilpin in ancient India included Lekha or Lipi (alphabet, reading and writing), Rupa (drawing and geometry), Ganana (arithmetic). These were imparted from age 5 to 12. The advanced students would continue in higher stages of Shilpa Sastra studies till

9240-602: The central space typically is surrounded by an ambulatory for the devotee to walk around and ritually circumambulate the Purusa, the universal essence. Often this space is visually decorated with carvings, paintings or images meant to inspire the devotee. In some temples, these images may be stories from Hindu Epics; in others, they may be Vedic tales about right and wrong or virtues and vice; in yet others, they may be murtis of locally worshipped deities. The pillars, walls and ceilings typically also have highly ornate carvings or images of

9372-460: The centre of the temple, typically below and sometimes above or next to the deity , is mere hollow space with no decoration, symbolically representing Purusa , the Supreme Principle, the sacred Universal, one without form, which is omnipresent, connects everything, and is the essence of everyone. A Hindu temple is meant to encourage reflection, facilitate purification of one's mind, and trigger

9504-447: The characteristics of the respective planetary motion. Other texts such as Surya Siddhanta dated to have been completed sometime between the 5th century and 10th century present their chapters on various deified planets with stories behind them. The manuscripts of these texts exist in slightly different versions. They present Surya, planet-based calculations and Surya's relative motion to Earth. These vary in their data, suggesting that

9636-570: The cosmos and on truth. Hinduism has no traditional ecclesiastical order, no centralized religious authorities, no governing body, no prophet nor any binding holy book save the Vedas; Hindus can choose to be polytheistic , pantheistic , monistic , or atheistic . Within this diffuse and open structure, spirituality in Hindu philosophy is an individual experience, and referred to as kṣaitrajña ( Sanskrit : क्षैत्रज्ञ ) ). It defines spiritual practice as one's journey towards moksha , awareness of self,

9768-523: The cycles of Surya (the Sun), Moon and the planets. These calculations about the Sun appear in various astronomical texts in Sanskrit , such as the 5th-century Aryabhatiya by Aryabhata , the 6th-century Romaka by Latadeva and Panca Siddhantika by Varahamihira, the 7th-century Khandakhadyaka by Brahmagupta and the 8th-century Sisyadhivrddida by Lalla. These texts present Surya and various planets and estimate

9900-521: The deity. In other schools of Hinduism, the person may simply perform japa , or meditation, or yoga , or introspection in his or her temple. Palace-themed temples often incorporate more elaborate and monumental architecture. The appropriate site for a temple, suggests ancient Sanskrit texts, is near water and gardens, where lotus and flowers bloom, where swans, ducks and other birds are heard, and where animals rest without fear of injury or harm. These harmonious places were recommended in these texts with

10032-447: The description provided for the Sarvatobhadra temple in the ancient treatise of Vishnudharmottara Purana. The Vishnu temple's uniqueness has been expressed succinctly by archaeologist Percy Brown , in these words: When complete, this building was unquestionably one of rare merit in the correct ordering of its parts, all alike serving the purpose of practical utility, yet imbued with supreme artistic feeling. Few monuments can show such

10164-404: The design and construction of Nagara style of Hindu temples. A Hindu temple design follows a geometrical design called vastu-purusha-mandala . The name is a composite Sanskrit word with three of the most important components of the plan. Mandala means circle, Purusha is universal essence at the core of Hindu tradition, while Vastu means the dwelling structure. The Vastu-purusha-mandala

10296-432: The discovery of higher truths, true nature of reality, and a consciousness that is liberated and content. A Hindu temple reflects these core beliefs. The central core of almost all Hindu temples is not a large communal space; the temple is designed for the individual, a couple or a family—a small, private space to allow visitors to experience darsana . Darsana is itself a symbolic word. In ancient Hindu scripts, darsana

10428-932: The donations (melvarum) they collected from devotees. According to James Heitzman, these donations came from a wide spectrum of the Indian society, ranging from kings, queens, officials in the kingdom to merchants, priests and shepherds. Temples also managed lands endowed to it by its devotees upon their death. They would provide employment to the poorest. Some temples had large treasury, with gold and silver coins, and these temples served as banks. Hindu temples over time became wealthy from grants and donations from royal patrons as well as private individuals. Major temples became employers and patrons of economic activity. They sponsored land reclamation and infrastructure improvements, states Michell, including building facilities such as water tanks, irrigation canals and new roads. A very detailed early record from 1101 lists over 600 employees (excluding

10560-714: The earth towards subterranean water, up to seven storeys, and were part of a temple complex. These vav (literally, stepwells) had intricate art reliefs on the walls, with numerous murtis and images of Hindu deities, water spirits and erotic symbolism. The step wells were named after Hindu deities; for example, Mata Bhavani's Stepwell , Ankol Mata Vav, Sikotari Vav and others. The temple ranged from being small single pada (cell) structure to large nearby complexes. These stepwells and their temple compounds have been variously dated from late 1st millennium BCE through 11th century CE. Of these, Rani ki vav , with hundreds of art reliefs including many of Vishnu deity avatars , has been declared

10692-553: The eastern states of India. Other ancient texts found expand these architectural principles, suggesting that different parts of India developed, invented and added their own interpretations. For example, in the Saurastra tradition of temple building found in western states of India, the feminine form, expressions and emotions are depicted in 32 types of Nataka-stri compared to 16 types described in Silpa Prakasa . Silpa Prakasa provides

10824-410: The embrace of the beloved, one forgets the whole world, everything both within and without; in the same way, one who embraces the Self knows neither within nor without. The architecture of Hindu temples is also symbolic. The whole structure fuses the daily life and its surroundings with the divine concepts, through a structure that is open yet raised on a terrace, transitioning from the secular towards

10956-400: The entrance for the devotee is typically this east side. The mandala pada facing sunrise is dedicated to Surya , the sun-god. The Surya pada is flanked by the padas of Satya, the deity of Truth, on one side and Indra , the king of the demigods, on other. The east and north faces of most temples feature a mix of gods and demigods; while the west and south feature demons and demigods related to

11088-406: The explanation that such are the places where gods play, and thus the best site for Hindu temples. The gods always play where lakes are, where the sun's rays are warded off by umbrellas of lotus leaf clusters, and where clear waterpaths are made by swans whose breasts toss the white lotus hither and thither, where swans, ducks, curleys and paddy birds are heard, and animals rest nearby in

11220-553: The exposition, recitation and public discourses of Sanskrit and Vedic texts. Some temple schools offered wide range of studies, ranging from Hindu scriptures to Buddhist texts, grammar, philosophy, martial arts, music and painting. By the 8th century, Hindu temples also served as the social venue for tests, debates, team competition and Vedic recitals called Anyonyam . According to Kenneth G. Zysk—a professor specializing in Indology and ancient medicine, Hindu mathas and temples had by

11352-489: The festivals and crop-related rituals fall in the appropriate season. The Hindu calendars have been in use in the Indian subcontinent since Vedic times, and remain in use by the Hindus all over the world, particularly to set Hindu festival dates. Early Buddhist communities of India adopted the ancient Vedic calendar,later Vikrami calendar and then local Buddhist calendars . Buddhist festivals continue to be scheduled according to

11484-412: The fort precincts, which belonged to the same period, suggests the existence of porticoes even in the Vishnu temple. Further, a later date Kuriya Bira temple about 2 miles (3.2 km) to the south of the Vishnu temple, has been cited to substantiate that this temple had a mandapa around a small shikara shrine, as required in the Sarvatobhadra design. According to Lubotsky, the Deogarh temple tallied with

11616-534: The foundation and used by someone to build a wall nearby. These panels narrated scenes from the Hindu epic Ramayana . According to Bruhn, the Deogarh Naharghati inscriptions, cave and sculptures are all Hindu monuments and one of richest archaeological findings in Deogarh area, and they include Gupta era art, several early and late Nagari script inscriptions, an early Mahishasura-mardini Durga relief, Shiva lingas and various Hindu statues. In early 20th-century,

11748-424: The four just and necessary pursuits of life—kama, artha, dharma and moksa. This walk around is called pradakshina . Large temples also have pillared halls, called mandapa —one of which, on the east side, serves as the waiting room for pilgrims and devotees. The mandapa may be a separate structure in older temples, but in newer temples this space is integrated into the temple superstructure. Mega-temple sites have

11880-599: The head of a town street. Ancient builders of Hindu temples created manuals of architecture, called Vastu-Sastra (literally "science" of dwelling; vas-tu is a composite Sanskrit word; vas means "reside", tu means "you"); these contain Vastu-Vidya (literally, knowledge of dwelling) and Sastra meaning system or knowledge in Sanskrit. There exist many Vastu-Sastras on the art of building temples, such as one by Thakkura Pheru , describing where and how temples should be built. Sanskrit manuals have been found in India since

12012-456: The house of the god to whom it is dedicated. Hindu temple architecture, which makes extensive use of squares and circles, has its roots in Vedic traditions, which also influence the temples' construction and symbolism. Through astronomical numbers and particular alignments connected to the temple's location and the relationship between the deity and the worshipper, the temple's design also illustrates

12144-426: The idea of recursion and the equivalency of the macrocosm and the microcosm . A temple incorporates all elements of the Hindu cosmos—presenting the good, the evil and the human, as well as the elements of the Hindu sense of cyclic time and the essence of life—symbolically presenting dharma , artha , kama , moksha , and karma . The spiritual principles symbolically represented in Hindu temples are detailed in

12276-651: The lunar cycle. Their new year starts in spring. In regions such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the solar cycle is emphasized and this is called the Tamil calendar (though Tamil Calendar uses month names like in Hindu Calendar) and Malayalam calendar and these have origins in the second half of the 1st millennium CE. A Hindu calendar is sometimes referred to as Panchangam (पञ्चाङ्गम्), which is also known as Panjika in Eastern India. The ancient Hindu calendar conceptual design

12408-532: The manuals suggest that town planning and Hindu temples were conceived as ideals of art and integral part of Hindu social and spiritual life. The Silpa Prakasa of Odisha, authored by Ramacandra Bhattaraka Kaulacara in the 9th or 10th centuries CE, is another Sanskrit treatise on Temple Architecture. Silpa Prakasa describes the geometric principles in every aspect of the temple and symbolism such as 16 emotions of human beings carved as 16 types of female figures. These styles were perfected in Hindu temples prevalent in

12540-513: The mean diameter of the Earth, which was very close to the actual 12,742 km (7,918 mi). Hindu calendars were refined during the Gupta era astronomy by Āryabhaṭa and Varāhamihira in the 5th to 6th century. These, in turn, were based in the astronomical tradition of Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa , which in the preceding centuries had been standardised in a number of (non-extant) works known as Sūrya Siddhānta . Regional diversification took place in

12672-647: The medieval period. The astronomical foundations were further developed in the medieval period, notably by Bhāskara II (12th century). Later, the term Jyotisha evolved to include Hindu astrology . The astrological application of the Hindu calendar was a field that likely developed in the centuries after the arrival of Greek astrology with Alexander the Great , because their zodiac signs are nearly identical. The ancient Hindu texts on Jyotisha only discuss timekeeping, and never mention astrology or prophecy. These ancient texts predominantly cover astronomy, but at

12804-435: The missing ten avatars that Sahni knew about but no one else had seen proof of, led to a debate whether the temple should be called Dashavatara temple or something else. However, the excavations and subsequent study of reliefs from the Deogarh temple site by scholars such as Vats yielded the evidence of reliefs showing Krishna , Narasimha , Vamana , Buddha , Rama , and others. Thereafter the temple has generally been known as

12936-554: The moon stone) of the shrine. Each corner of the platform has an 11 feet (3.4 m) square projection with remnants of a shrine. The plinth was molded in four parallel courses, each molding about 0.95 feet (0.29 m) thick. Above the four moldings, rectangular panels separated by pilasters ran all along the plinth with friezes narrating Hindu texts such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata . Some of these friezes are now in museums such as

13068-655: The one in Mundeshvari temple in Bihar. The Deogarh temple is built on a square plan, while the Mundeshvari temple is built on an octagonal plan. The Deogarh temple sikhara was pyramidal of receding tiers ( tala ), with a straight edge. The Dashavatara Temple is closely related to the iconic architectural temple structure described in the Vishnudharmottara Purana , and can be interpreted as an architectural representation of

13200-511: The outer walls of each side of the sanctum are niches. Each niche has an alto-relievo of Vaishnava mythology: According to Lubotsky, it is likely that the entrance is dedicated to the Vāsudeva aspect of Vishnu; the Anantashayana side is his role as the creator ( Aniruddha ); the sage form of Nara-Narayana side symbolizes his preservation and maintainer role in cosmic existence ( Pradyumna ); and

13332-452: The patron as well as others witnessing the construction. Further, it was a tradition that all tools and materials used in temple building and all creative work had the sanction of a sacrament. For example, if a carpenter or sculptor needed to fell a tree or cut a rock from a hill, he would propitiate the tree or rock with prayers, seeking forgiveness for cutting it from its surroundings, and explaining his intent and purpose. The axe used to cut

13464-544: The positive and joyful side of life about the good and the gods. This divine space then concentrically diffuses inwards and lifts the guest to the core of the temple, where resides the main murti , as well as the space for the Purusa, and ideas held to be most sacred principles in Hindu tradition. The symbolism in the arts and temples of Hinduism, suggests Edmund Leach, is similar to those in Christianity and other major religions of

13596-514: The priests) of the Brihadisvara Temple, Thanjavur , still one of the largest temples in Tamil Nadu . Most worked part-time and received the use of temple farmland as reward. For those thus employed by the temple, according to Michell, "some gratuitous services were usually considered obligatory, such as dragging the temple chariots on festival occasions and helping when a large building project

13728-503: The process of inner realization within the devotee. The specific process is left to the devotee's school of belief. The primary deity of different Hindu temples varies to reflect this spiritual spectrum. In Hindu tradition, there is no dividing line between the secular and the lonely sacred. In the same spirit, Hindu temples are not just sacred spaces; they are also secular spaces. Their meaning and purpose have extended beyond spiritual life to social rituals and daily life, offering thus

13860-408: The region and from other regions from similar period, and concluded that the garbhagriha (sanctum) cell was surrounded by a wall forming an ambulatory. Hindu temple Traditional A Hindu temple , also known as Mandir , Devasthanam , Pura , or Kovil , is a sacred place where Hindus worship and show their devotion to deities through worship, sacrifice, and prayers. It is considered

13992-448: The sacred, inviting the visitor inwards and upwards towards the Brahma pada, the temple's central core, a symbolic space marked by its spire ( shikhara, vimana ). The ancient temples had grand, intricately carved entrances but no doors, and they lacked a boundary wall. In most cultures, suggests Edmund Leach , a boundary and gateway separates the secular and the sacred, and this gateway door

14124-408: The same challenge of accounting for the mismatch between the nearly 354 lunar days in twelve months, versus over 365 solar days in a year. They tracked the solar year by observing the entrance and departure of Surya (sun, at sunrise and sunset) in the constellation formed by stars in the sky, which they divided into 12 intervals of 30 degrees each. Like other ancient human cultures, Hindus innovated

14256-402: The sanctum on three sides have niches with sculptures of Vishnu legends: Gajendra-moksha flying in with Garuda , Nara-Narayana seated in lalitasana position, and Anantasayi Vishnu in reclining position. On the top of the sanctum is the remnants of sikhara of the Dashavatara temple. According to Vats, this sikhara is one of the earliest extant lithic illustration in North India along with

14388-674: The shade of Nicula trees on the river banks. The gods always play where rivers have for their braclets the sound of curleys and the voice of swans for their speech, water as their garment, carps for their zone, the flowering trees on their banks as earrings, the confluence of rivers as their hips, raised sand banks as breasts and plumage of swans their mantle. The gods always play where groves are near, rivers, mountains and springs, and in towns with pleasure gardens. While major Hindu temples are recommended at sangams (confluence of rivers), river banks, lakes and seashore, Brhat Samhita and Puranas suggest temples may also be built where

14520-696: The sick and needy in the 1st millennium, but with the destruction of Buddhist centers after the 12th century, the Hindu religious institutions assumed these social responsibilities. According to George Michell, Hindu temples in South India were active charity centers and they provided free meal for wayfarers, pilgrims and devotees, as well as boarding facilities for students and hospitals for the sick. The 15th and 16th century Hindu temples at Hampi featured storage spaces (temple granary, kottara ), water tanks and kitchens. Many major pilgrimage sites have featured dharmashalas since early times. These were attached to Hindu temples, particularly in South India, providing

14652-468: The significant reliefs identified include: Another sculpture found in the Vishnu temple depicts the Krishna legend in which Devaki hands over her new born son Krishna to her husband Vasudeva . This sculpture is said to be one of the best depictions of Gupta period art, based on the sensuous and graceful modelling of the figurines, but different in that its clothes are shown draped in an exclusive fashion. It

14784-456: The site more comprehensively on the behalf of Archaeological Survey of India. He noticed the profusion of Vishnu imagery in the reliefs and accepted the local oral tradition that claimed that the ten avatars of Vishnu were carved on the temple but are now missing. In his report, he called it the Dashavatara temple and mentioned the local Sagar Marh name for the temple. In the decades following

14916-459: The sky. Sometimes, in makeshift temples, the dome may be replaced with symbolic bamboo with few leaves at the top. The vertical dimension's cupola or dome is designed as a pyramid, a cone or other mountain-like shape, once again using the principle of concentric circles and squares. Scholars suggest that this shape is inspired by the cosmic mountain of Meru or Himalayan Kailasa, the abode of the gods, according to Vedic mythology. In larger temples,

15048-408: The stone door have intricate carvings showing amorous couples in different stages of courtship and intimacy. On the facade are two males standing, one holding a flower and the other a garland as if greeting the visitor. The relief on the doorway lintel of the sanctum shows Vishnu. He is four-armed, holds his iconic conch shell in his rear left hand, the iconic chakra in his rear right, front right hand

15180-427: The structural details of the Deogarh temple have been inferred. Maps have also been drawn of the temple structure. The probable date of the temple's construction has been estimated to be between 425 and 525. The Sarvatobhadra design requires a superstructure with nine sikharas. The Dasavatara temple at Deogarh shows only one "shikara", and right squares with no remnant structure. Lubotsky acknowledges that this aspect of

15312-795: The sun cycle and the names of months and when they consider the New Year to start. Of the various regional calendars, the most studied and known Hindu calendars are the Shalivahana Shaka (Based on the King Shalivahana , also the Indian national calendar ) found in the Deccan region of Southern India and the Vikram Samvat (Bikrami) found in Nepal and the North and Central regions of India – both of which emphasize

15444-417: The sun], is the quantity of half-months ( syzygies ). — Rigveda Jyotisha-vedanga 4 Translator: Kim Plofker The Vedic culture developed a sophisticated time keeping methodology and calendars for Vedic rituals, and timekeeping as well as the nature of solar and Moon movements are mentioned in Vedic texts. For example, Kaushitaki Brahmana chapter 19.3 mentions the shift in the relative location of

15576-499: The temple is preserved in a good enough condition to be a key temple in the Hindu temple architecture scholarship, particularly the roots of the North Indian style of temple design. The Dashavatara temple is locally known as Sagar marh , which literally means "the temple on the tank", a name it gets from the square water pool cut into the rock in front. The temple site is in Deogarh, also spelled Devgarh (Sanskrit: "fort of gods"), in

15708-559: The temple, listing the nurses, physicians, medicines and beds for patients. Similarly, a stone inscription in Andhra Pradesh dated to about 1262 mentions the provision of a prasutishala (maternity house), vaidya (physician), an arogyashala (health house) and a viprasattra (hospice, kitchen) with the religious center where people from all social backgrounds could be fed and cared for. According to Zysk, both Buddhist monasteries and Hindu religious centers provided facilities to care for

15840-492: The temple. Also carved are secular scenes and amorous couples in various stages of courtship and intimacy. According to Alexander Lubotsky, this temple was built according to the third khanda of the Hindu text Vishnudharmottara Purana , which describes the design and architecture of the Sarvatobhadra -style temple, thus providing a floruit for the text and likely temple tradition that existed in ancient India. Though ruined,

15972-464: The text were open and revised over their lives. For example, the 1st millennium CE Hindu scholars calculated the sidereal length of a year as follows, from their astronomical studies, with slightly different results: The Hindu texts used the lunar cycle for setting months and days, but the solar cycle to set the complete year. This system is similar to the Jewish and Babylonian ancient calendars, creating

16104-763: The texts were copied when they wore out. In South India, temples and associated mathas served custodial functions, and a large number of manuscripts on Hindu philosophy , poetry, grammar and other subjects were written, multiplied and preserved inside the temples. Archaeological and epigraphical evidence indicates existence of libraries called Sarasvati-bhandara , dated possibly to early 12th-century and employing librarians, attached to Hindu temples. Palm-leaf manuscripts called lontar in dedicated stone libraries have been discovered by archaeologists at Hindu temples in Bali Indonesia and in 10th century Cambodian temples such as Angkor Wat and Banteay Srei . Inscriptions from

16236-594: The tree would be anointed with butter to minimize the hurt to the tree. Even in modern times, in some parts of India such as Odisha , Visvakarma Puja is a ritual festival every year where the craftsmen and artists worship their arts, tools and materials. Hindu temples served as nuclei of important social, economic, artistic and intellectual functions in ancient and medieval India. Burton Stein states that South Indian temples managed regional development function, such as irrigation projects, land reclamation, post-disaster relief and recovery. These activities were paid for by

16368-449: The two small shrines with the central shrine seen now, the layout of the temple has been interpreted to represent a typical Panchayatana style of the temples of North India. The total height of the shrine based on isometric projections is about 45 feet (14 m). Provision of porches has not been corroborated but some analogous comparison with the Varaha temple (boar incarnation of Vishnu) in

16500-497: The underlying principle in a Hindu temple is the belief that all things are one, that everything is connected. The pilgrim is welcomed through 64-grid or 81-grid mathematically structured spaces, a network of art, pillars with carvings and statues that display and celebrate the four important and necessary principles of human life—the pursuit of artha (prosperity, wealth), of kama (pleasure, sex), of dharma (virtues, ethical life) and of moksha (release, self-knowledge). At

16632-401: The underworld. This vastu-purusha-mandala plan and symbolism is systematically seen in ancient Hindu temples on the Indian subcontinent as well as those in southeast Asia, with regional creativity and variations. Beneath the mandala's central square(s) is the space for the all-pervasive, all-connecting Universal Spirit, the highest reality , the purusha . This space is sometimes known as

16764-455: The word "Silpin". "Silpa", explains Stella Kramrisch, is a multicolored word and incorporates art, skill, craft, ingenuity, imagination, form, expression and inventiveness of any art or craft. Similarly, "Shilpin", notes Kramrisch, is a complex Sanskrit word, describing any person who embodies art, science, culture, skill, and rhythm and employs creative principles to produce any divine form of expression. Silpins who built Hindu temples, as well as

16896-503: The world. Indian texts call the craftsmen and builders of temples "Silpin" ( Sanskrit : शिल्पिन् ), derived from "Silpa". One of the earliest mentions of the Sanskrit word "Silpa" is in Atharvaveda , from about 1000 BCE; according to scholars, the word was used to denote any work of art. Some scholars suggest that the word "Silpa" has no direct or one-word translation in English, nor does

17028-439: The year, which in reality is actually caused by the Earth revolving around the Sun. The rāśi s have 30° each and are named for constellations found in the zodiac. The time taken by the Sun to transit through a rāśi is a solar month whose name is identical to the name of the rāśi. In practice, solar months are mostly referred as rāśi (not months). The solar months are named differently in different regional calendars. While

17160-451: Was conveniently located between the major ancient economic centers such as Pataliputra (Patna), Kashi (Varanasi), Sanchi , Udayagiri , Ujjain , Bhilsa and Bagh. Cunningham in 1875, noted that the inscriptions he found in Deogarh during his tour were in Gupta script and few others he could not decipher. The ones his team was able to read were Hindu Sanskrit inscriptions that started with phrases such as " Om ! namah Shivaya ! (...)", and

17292-425: Was subsequently renamed by Cunningham as Dashavatara Mandir or Dashavatara Temple (because the temple depicts ten incarnations of Vishnu), and also as Sagar Marh (meaning: the temple by the well). The Dashavatara temple is generally dated between late 5th-century and early 6th-century, or about 500 CE. Benjamín Preciado-Solís, a professor of Indian History specializing in Hindu and Buddhist iconography, dates it to

17424-626: Was undertaken". Temples also acted as refuge during times of political unrest and danger. Historically, the Scheduled Castes or Dalits were prohibited from the entry into temples. In contemporary times, the process of building a Hindu temple by emigrants and diasporas from South Asia has also served as a process of building a community, a social venue to network, reduce prejudice and seek civil rights together. John Guy and Jorrit Britschgi state Hindu temples served as centers where ancient manuscripts were routinely used for learning and where

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