The structure of Indian temples, the outward form of images, and indeed the very character of Indian art are largely determined by the religion and unique worldview of India, which pen-etrated the other provinces of culture and welded them into a homogeneous whole. Moreover, the art that emerged is highly symbolic. The much-developed ritual-religious symbolism presupposes the existence of a spiritual reality that may make its presence and influence felt in the material world and can also be approached through its representative symbols.
The production of objects of sym-bolic value is therefore more than a technique. The artisan can begin work only after entering into a state of supra-normal consciousness and must model a cult image after the ideal prototype.
After undergoing a process of spiritual
Hinduism | 111 rite is a reenactment of a variant of the myth of Purusha, an immortal primeval being who obstructed both worlds until he was subdued by the gods; the parts of his body became the spirits of the site.
Lingam and Yoni
One of the most common objects of worship, whether in temples or in the household cult, is the lingam. Often much stylized and representing the cos-mic pillar, it emanates its all-producing energy to the four quarters of the uni-verse. As the symbol of male creative energy it is frequently combined with its female counterpart (yoni), the latter forming the base from which the lingam rises. Although the lingam originally may have had no relation to Shiva, it has from ancient times been regarded as symbolizing Shiva’s creative energy and is widely worshipped as his funda-mental form.
Visual Theology in Icons
The beauty of cult objects is believed to contribute to their power as sacred instruments, and their ornamentation is held to facilitate the process of invit-ing the divine power into them. Statues of gods are not intended to imitate ideal human forms but to express the super-natural. A divine figure is a “likeness”
(pratima), a temporary benevolent or terrifying expression of some aspect of a god’s nature. Iconographic handbooks A mandala, delineating a consecrated
place and protecting it against disinte-grating forces represented in demoniac cycles, is the geometric projection of the universe, spatially and temporally reduced to its essential plan. It represents in a schematic form the whole drama of disintegration and reintegration, and the adept can use it to identify with the forces governing these. As in temple ritual, a vase is employed to receive the divine power so that it can be projected into the drawing and then into the person of the adept. Thus, the mandala becomes a support for meditation, an instrument to provoke visions of the unseen.
A good example of a mandala is the shrichakra, the “Wheel of Shri” (i.e., of God’s shakti), which is composed of four isosceles triangles with the apices upward, symbolizing Shiva, and five isos-celes triangles with the apices downward, symbolizing Shakti. The nine triangles are of various sizes and intersect with one another. In the middle is the power point (bindu), visualizing the highest, the invisible, elusive centre from which the entire figure and the cosmos expand. The triangles are enclosed by two rows of (8 and 16) petals, representing the lotus of creation and reproductive vital force. The broken lines of the outer frame denote the figure to be a sanctuary with four openings to the regions of the universe.
A “spiritual” foundation is provided by a yantra, called the mandala of the Purusha (spirit) of the site, that is also drawn on the site on which a temple is built. This
“fear-not” gesture ( abhaya-mudra ), bestows protection. Every iconographic detail has its own symbolic value, help-ing devotees to direct their energy to a deeper understanding of the various aspects of the divine and to proceed from external to internal worship. For many Indians, a consecrated image is a container of concentrated divine energy, and Hindu theists maintain that it is an instrument for ennobling the worshiper who realizes God’s presence in it.
The Arts
Like literature and the performing arts, the visual arts contributed to the per-petuation of myths. Images sustain the presence of the god: when Devi is shown seated on her lion, advancing against the buff alo demon, she represents the affi rmative forces of the universe and the triumph of divine power over wickedness.
Male and female fi gures in uninterrupted embrace, as in Shaiva iconography, signify the union of opposites and the eternal process of generation.
Religious Principles in Sculpture and Painting
In Hindu sculpture the tendency is toward hieratic poses of a god in a partic-ular conventional stance ( murti ; image), which, once fi xed, perpetuates itself.
An icon is a frozen incident of a myth.
For example, one murti of Shiva is the
“destruction of the elephant,” in which Vishnu on the serpent Shesha, Badami,
India. Frederick M. Asher
attach great importance to the ideology behind images and reveal, for example, that Vishnu’s eight arms stand for the four cardinal and intermediate points of the compass and that his four faces, illus-trating the concept of God’s fourfoldness, typify his strength, knowledge, lordship, and potency. The emblems express the qualities of their bearers—e.g., a deadly weapon symbolizes destructive force, many-headedness omniscience. Much use is made of gestures ( mudra s); for example, the raised right hand, in the
Hinduism | 113
Agni with characteristic symbol of the ram, wood carving; in the Guimet Museum, Paris. Giraudon/Art Resource, New York
Shiva appears dancing before and below a bloody elephant skin that he holds up before the image of his horrifi ed con-sort; the stance is the summary of his triumph over the elephant demon. A god may also appear in a characteristic pose while holding in his multitudinous hands his various emblems, on each of which hangs a story. Lovers sculpted on tem-ples are auspicious symbols on a par with foliage, water jars, and other representa-tives of fertility. Carvings, such as those that appear on temple chariots, tend to be more narrative; even more so are the miniature paintings of the Middle Ages.
A favourite theme in the latter is the myth of the cowherd god Krishna and his love of the female cowherders ( gopi s).
Religious Organization of Sacred Architecture
Temples must be erected on sites that are shubha —i.e., suitable, beautiful, aus-picious, and near water—because it is thought that the gods will not come to other places. However, temples are not necessarily designed to be congenial to their surroundings, because a manifesta-tion of the sacred is an irrupmanifesta-tion, a break in phenomenal continuity. Temples are understood to be visible representa-tions of a cosmic pillar, and their sites are said to be navels of the world and are believed to ensure communication with the gods. Their outward appearance must raise the expectation of meeting with God. Their erection is a reconstruction
Hinduism | 115 the Shilpa-shastras (craft textbooks), and every aspect of the design was believed to off er the symbolic representation of some feature of the cosmos. The idea of microcosmic symbolism is strong in Hinduism and comes from Vedic times;
the Brahmanas are replete with similar cosmic interpretations of the many fea-tures of the sacrifi ce. The Vedic idea of the correspondence ( bandhu ) between microcosm and macrocosm was applied to the medieval temple, which was laid out geometrically to mirror the structure of the universe, with its four geometric quarters and a celestial roof. The temple also represents the mountain at the navel of the world and often somewhat resem-bles a mountain. On the periphery were carved the most worldly and diverse images, including battles, hunts, circuses, animals, birds, and gods.
The erotic scenes carved at Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh and Konarak in Orissa express a general exuberance that may be an off ering of thanksgiving to the gods who created all. However, that same swarming luxuriance of life may also refl ect the concern that one must set aside worldly temptations before enter-ing the sacred space of the temple, for the carvings decorate only the outside of the temple; at the centre, the sanctum sancto-rum, there is little if any ornamentation, except for a stark symbol of the god or and reintegration of Purusha-Prajapati,
enabling him to continue his creative activity, and the fi nished monuments are symbols of the universe that is the unfolded One. The owner of the temple (i.e., the individual or community that paid for its construction)—also called the sacrifi cer—participates in the pro-cess of reintegration and experiences his spiritual rebirth in the small cella, aptly called the “womb room” ( garbhagriha ), by meditating on the God’s presence, symbolized or actualized in his conse-crated image. The cella is in the centre of the temple above the navel—i.e., the foundation stone—and it may contain a jar fi lled with the creative power ( shakti ) that is identifi ed with the goddess Earth (who bears and protects the monument), three lotus fl owers, and three tortoises (of stone, silver, and gold) that represent earth, atmosphere, and heaven. The tor-toise is a manifestation of Vishnu bearing the cosmic pillar; the lotus is the symbol of the expansion of generative possibili-ties. The vertical axis or tube, coinciding with the cosmic pillar, connects all parts of the building and is continued in the fi nial on the top; it corresponds to the mystical vertical vein in the body of the worshiper through which his soul rises to unite itself with the Highest.
The designing of Hindu temples, like that of religious images, was codifi ed in
Detail of a wall of the Lakshmana temple at Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, India, c. 941.
P. Chandra
five activities: he unfolds the universe out of the drum held in one of his right hands;
he preserves it by uplifting his other right hand in abhaya-mudra; he reab-sorbs it with his upper left hand, which bears a tongue of flame; his transcenden-tal essence is hidden behind the garb of apparitions, and grace is bestowed and release made visible by the foot that is held aloft and to which the hands are made to point; and the other foot, planted on the ground, gives an abode to the tired souls struggling in samsara.
Another dance pose adopted by Shiva is the doomsday tandava, executed in his destructive Bhairava manifestation, usu-ally with 10 arms and accompanied by Devi and demons. The related myth is that Shiva conquered a mighty elephant demon whom he forced to dance until he fell dead; then, wrapped in the blood-drip-ping skin of his victim, the god executed a horrendous dance of victory.
There are halls for sacred dances annexed to some temples because of this association with the divine. The rhyth-mic movement has a compelling force, generating and concentrating power or releasing superfluous energy. It induces the experience of the divine and trans-forms the dancer into whatever he or she impersonates. Thus, many tribal dances consist of symbolic enactments of events (harvest, battles) in the hope that they will be accomplished successfully. Musicians and dancers accompany processions to expel the demons of cholera or cattle plague. Even today, religious themes and goddess. Thus, these carvings
simultane-ously express a celebration of samsara and a movement toward moksha.
Theatre and Dance
Theatrical performances are events that can be used to secure blessings and happiness; the element of recreation is indissolubly blended with edification and spiritual elevation. The structure and character of classical Indian drama reveal its origin and function: it developed from a magico-religious ceremony, which sur-vives as a ritual introduction, and begins and closes with benedictions. Drama is produced for festive occasions with a view to spiritual and religious success (siddhi), which must also be prompted by appropriate behaviour from the spectators; there must be a happy end-ing; the themes are borrowed from epic and legendary history; the development and unraveling of the plot are retarded;
and the envy of malign influences is averted by the almost obligatory buf-foon (vidusaka, “the spoiler”). There are also, in addition to films, which often use the same religious and mythic themes, yatras, a combination of stage play and various festivities that have contributed much to the spread of the Puranic view of life.
Dancing is not only an aesthetic pursuit but also a divine service. The dance executed by Shiva as king of danc-ers (Nataraja), the visible symbol of the rhythm of the universe, represents God’s
Hinduism | 117 population), with large concentrations in many areas of the country, includ-ing Jammu and Kashmir, western Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Kerala, and many cities. India’s Muslim population is greater than that found in any country of the Middle East and is only exceeded by that of Indonesia and, slightly, by that of Pakistan or Bangladesh.