Description of Temples (Prāsāda-lakṣaṇa)

Varāhamihira treats temples (prāsāda) in their own chapter, apart from the house-building of chapter 53, because a temple is a body for a deity rather than a dwelling for a person. He says so almost defensively at the start — the opening verse on water and gardens "appears to have been introduced to silence critics who might call in question the author's wisdom in separating this chapter from the one on House-Building" (BS 56, p581). [modern: Bhat 1981] The chapter is short: nineteen ślokas of poetry and rule, then a closing verse in the Vasantatilakā metre. As in the neighbouring chapters, the verses are [classical], Bhaṭṭotpala's quotations and glosses are [traditional], and M. R. Bhat's bracketed notes are [modern: Bhat 1981]. No ground-plans are printed in this chapter — see the note at the end on the missing diagrams.

Build where the gods like to dwell — water and gardens

One should build a temple to enhance one's fame and religious merit, but only after first securing an abundant supply of water through tanks and lakes and laying out fine gardens (BS 56.1, p581). The reason is given as a chain of merit: one who wishes to win the heavenly worlds that are secured by performing sacrifices and by sinking wells and the like should build a temple, whereby one attains the fruits of both at once (BS 56.2, p581).

The next four verses are a poetic meditation — Bhat compares the imagery to Kālidāsa and Vālmīki — on the kinds of place the gods favour (BS 56.3–6, p582–583):

• Deities reside with pleasure in places that abound in water and gardens, whether these are natural or man-made. Bhat glosses this with the old image of the sages' āśramas and gurukulas set in sylvan grandeur on the banks of great rivers, where "the turbulent mind and senses can be subdued without much difficulty" (BS 56.3, p582). [modern: Bhat 1981]
• The gods dwell near lakes whose waters are shaded by a parasol of lotus, whose clear water holds avenues of white lotuses tossed by the shoulders of swans, that resound with the cries of swans, flamingoes, curlews and ruddy geese, and on whose banks aquatic animals rest in the shade of Nicula (Hijjal) trees (BS 56.4, p582).
• They dwell where rivers are figured as charming women — large girdles of curlews, the sweet voice of the royal swans, silken garments of the water, knots of cloth made of tiny fishes, floral ear-ornaments in the form of trees blooming on the banks, round buttocks of confluences, lofty bosoms of sand-dunes, and merry laughter in the form of white swans (BS 56.5, p582–583).
• And they rejoice always in the vicinity of forests, rivers, mountains and waterfalls, as well as in towns abounding in pleasure-gardens (BS 56.6, p583).

Bhaṭṭotpala notes a textual variant in the river-simile (BS 56.5) and judges his own reading inferior because it produces a repetition; Bhat sides with the commentator that the doubled word should be taken in the second sense, "knot of the lady's cloth," to remove the apparent repetition (p583). [traditional]

The site: graded soils, divided into 64 squares

The earths recommended for building houses for the four classes (varṇa) are likewise recommended to people of those classes for building temples — the soil-classification of chapter 53 (see BS 53.96–97) carries over wholesale. Bhat reads in this that each community or class had its own temple (BS 56.7, p583). [modern: Bhat 1981]

The temple site should always be divided into 64 squares (the maṇḍala of sixty-four, not the eighty-one-square plan used for the largest houses), and its central or main gate is auspicious only if it is set in one of the four cardinal directions (BS 56.8, p583). For the sub-division of the site Varāhamihira refers the reader back to the city-and-village plan of chapter 53 (BS 53.65) and to "diagram 2" — the 64-cell plan of the architecture chapter, not a new figure printed here.

The proportions of a temple

With the site fixed, the author gives the general rule of proportion, scaling every member from the temple's width (BS 56.9–13, p584):

• Height = twice the width.
• The foundation/plinth above the ground — the flight of steps (kaṭi, "hip") on which the edifice stands — = one third of that height.
• The sanctum sanctorum (the inner shrine, garbhagṛha) = half the width of the temple. All round it there should be walls.
• The door = one quarter of the sanctum's width, and twice as high as it is wide.
• The side-frame (jamb) of the door = one quarter of the door's height in breadth; the threshold and the upper block (lintel) are the same. The thickness of the frames = one quarter of their breadth.
• A door made of three, five, seven or nine frames (śākhās) is highly commended — an odd number of nested frames. Bhaṭṭotpala explains that the door's total width is simply made up of as many frames as are needed to reach it (BS 56.13, p585). [traditional]
• In the lower part of the door, up to one quarter of the door-post's height, two images of door-keepers (dvārapālas — like Nandin and Daṇḍa) are installed; the remaining (upper three-quarters) is ornamented with carvings of auspicious birds (swans and ruddy geese), Bilva trees, svastika figures, pitchers, couples, foliage, creepers, and Śiva's Hosts (gaṇas).
• The idol together with its pedestal should be as high as the door, less one eighth; of that combined height, the idol is two parts and the pedestal one part (idol : pedestal = 2 : 1).

A worked example — the Meru temple

Bhat works the proportion-rules through on the largest type, Meru, to show the cubits in practice (BS 56.9–13, p584–585). [modern: Bhat 1981] (1 cubit/hasta = 24 aṅgula/digits.)

• Breadth = 32 cubits, so height = 64 cubits.
• Height of the kaṭi (plinth/steps) = 84⁄… cubits — i.e. a third of the height. (Bhat prints this figure with an OCR-blurred numerator; it should be one third of 64, ≈ 21 cubits, but the printed digits are unreadable.)
• Sanctum sanctorum = 16 cubits (half the breadth). All round it, walls three cubits thick, leaving a passage of one cubit all round for people to circumambulate.
• Door = 4 cubits broad, 8 cubits high (a quarter of the 16-cubit sanctum, twice as high as wide).
• Frame and threshold = 2 cubits broad, thickness 12 digits (half a cubit).
• Idol height = 4 cubits and 16 digits; pedestal height = 12 cubits and 8 digits — together less an eighth of the door, in the 2 : 1 ratio.

Open question: Bhat's worked numbers for the Meru door and idol (door 8 cubits high; idol 4 cubits 16 digits; pedestal 12 cubits 8 digits, p585) do not cleanly satisfy his own stated rule that idol + pedestal = door − ⅛ in a 2 : 1 ratio — the figures look garbled in the scan. Treat the rule (56.9–13) as primary and the cubit-figures as an illustrative reconstruction, not an exact key.

The twenty types of temple

Varāhamihira then names twenty types of temple, promising to explain each "in regular order" (BS 56.14, p586). The list, in his order:

(1) Meru, (2) Mandara, (3) Kailāsa, (4) Vimānacchanda, (5) Nandana, (6) Samudga, (7) Padma, (8) Garuḍa, (9) Nandivardhana, (10) Kuñjara, (11) Guharāja, (12) Vṛṣa, (13) Haṁsa, (14) Sarvatobhadraka, (15) Ghaṭa, (16) Siṁha, (17) Vṛtta, (18) Catuṣkoṇa, (19) Ṣoḍaśāśri, (20) Aṣṭāśri.

Each is then distinguished by ground-plan shape, number of storeys (bhūmikā), number of cupolas/domes, and width in cubits. Heights follow the general rule (height = twice width) where not stated; Bhat supplies the implied heights in brackets.

The towering, many-storeyed types

• (1) Meru — hexangular, twelve storeys, with internal windows of various kinds; four doors, one in each of the four directions; 32 cubits wide (height 64) (BS 56.15, p586).
• (2) Mandara — also hexangular, 30 cubits wide, ten storeys, with domes. Implied height 60 cubits (BS 56.16, p586). [modern: Bhat 1981 supplies the height]
• (3) Kailāsa — like Mandara, but with eight storeys and 28 cubits wide. Implied height 56 cubits (BS 56.16, p586). [modern: Bhat 1981 supplies the height]
• (4) Vimānacchanda — hexagonal, 21 cubits broad, with latticed windows and eight floors (BS 56.17, p587).
• (5) Nandana — like Vimānacchanda, but with six storeys and sixteen cupolas, and 32 cubits wide (BS 56.17, p587).

The small one-storeyed types

• (6) Samudga — circular in shape (Bhaṭṭotpala: shaped like a green gram / a casket), 8 cubits wide, one storey and one dome (BS 56.18, p587).
• (7) Padma — shaped like a lotus, with eight petals, 8 cubits wide, one storey and one dome (BS 56.18, p587).
• (8) Garuḍa — shaped like an eagle, with wings and tail, 24 cubits broad, seven storeys, adorned with twenty cupolas (BS 56.19, p587).
• (9) Nandivardhana ("Nandin") — like the Garuḍa but without the wings and tail, 24 cubits broad, seven storeys, twenty cupolas (BS 56.19, p587).
• (10) Kuñjara — shaped like the back of a standing elephant, 16 cubits all round from the bottom, single-storeyed, with a sloping roof bearing three upper rooms (BS 56.20, p587).
• (11) Guharāja — shaped like a cave, 16 cubits wide, single-storeyed, with the same sloping roof and three upper rooms as the Kuñjara (BS 56.20, p587). Bhaṭṭotpala notes an alternative reading of the name here (BS 56.20, p588). [traditional]
• (12) Vṛṣa ("Bull") — one storey and one dome, 12 cubits wide, circular all round (BS 56.21, p588).
• (13) Haṁsa — shaped like a swan, with beak, wings and tail, 12 cubits broad, one storey (BS 56.21, p588).
• (14) Sarvatobhadraka — the Sarvatobhadra has four doors in the four directions, many beautiful dormer/upper-room windows, and five storeys; 26 cubits broad and square in shape (BS 56.22, p588). (In Bhat's running translation this type is described after Ghaṭa, so the small one-storeyed types are interleaved with it; but in the verse enumeration of 56.14 it is type 14.)
• (15) Ghaṭa — shaped like a pot, 8 cubits broad, single-storeyed and single-domed (BS 56.21, p588).
• (16) Siṁha ("Lion") — adorned with images of lions, twelve angles (a twelve-sided plan), 8 cubits broad (BS 56.23, p588).

The "dark" geometrical four — circular, square, sixteen- and eight-sided

The last four are named directly for their plan-geometry and share a special feature: they are dark inside, with no external light entering (BS 56.23–25, p588–589):

• (17) Vṛtta — circular.
• (18) Catuṣkoṇa (Caturasra) — quadrangular / square.
• (19) Ṣoḍaśāśri — sixteen-angled (sixteen-sided).
• (20) Aṣṭāśri — octagonal (eight-angled).

All of these are single-storeyed except the Catuṣkoṇa (Caturasra), which has five domes (BS 56.24, p589). Bhaṭṭotpala explains how the "dark" temples are built so that no outside light enters the interior (BS 56.24, p589): [traditional]

Walls are built all round close to the temple, and the outer entrance is on the western side, while the temple's own door is on the east. The enclosing walls have openings only in their upper parts, made so that they appear to rise from the temple structure itself rather than standing apart from it. A worshipper enters by the outer western gate, walks round by the north, reaches the eastern part, and enters the shrine by the eastern door — so the temple itself has but one door (east), while the outer enclosure-gate is in the west. The interior is unlit by daylight, but the idol, being made of gems, illumines the inner sanctum by its own effulgence.

Storey height — Maya versus Viśvakarman, reconciled

The authorities differ on how tall one storey (bhūmikā) should be (BS 56.26, p589):

• According to Maya, a storey is 108 digits high.
• According to Viśvakarman, it is 3½ cubits, i.e. 84 digits.

Learned architects reconcile the two: if the height of the crown-work (the kapota-pāli, the dove-cot, cornice or cupola atop the storey) is added in, the smaller figure (84) becomes equal to the greater (108) — the two opinions measure the storey from different points, and agree once the cornice is counted (BS 56.27, p589–590). [traditional]

Closing — the authorities behind the chapter

Varāhamihira ends: "Thus have I briefly explained the characteristics of temples" (BS 56.28, in the Vasantatilakā metre, p590). He names his sources: all that sage Garga had expounded has been incorporated here, and he claims authority by following closely the voluminous texts of Manu and others — Bhat lists Vasiṣṭha, Maya and Nagnajit among them.

Bhat observes a curiosity of transmission: although Varāhamihira says he is summarizing Garga and Manu, the commentator Bhaṭṭotpala "does not quote even a single verse of Garga or Manu" — from which Bhat infers that by Utpala's time their works had passed into oblivion, so the commentary instead quotes largely from one Kāśyapa (p590). [modern: Bhat 1981]

A note on the (absent) ground-plan diagrams

Chapter 53 cross-referenced "diagrams 3, 4, 5" for the ground-plans of the circular, hexagonal, octagonal, sixteen-sided and triangular temples, and this chapter does describe exactly those shapes (Vṛtta = circular, Meru/Mandara/Vimānacchanda = hexagonal, Aṣṭāśri = octagonal, Ṣoḍaśāśri = sixteen-sided, plus the lotus, elephant-back, swan and eagle forms). However, no such ground-plan diagrams are printed within this chapter's page span (PDF 581–590). Every one of the ten pages was rasterized and viewed individually: all are solid text (Bhat's English translation, the Devanagari verses, and Bhaṭṭotpala's quotations). The only "diagram" the chapter cites is diagram 2 (BS 56.8), which is a back-reference to the 64-square site-plan of chapter 53, not a new figure. This matches the pattern already recorded for chapters 54 and 55, whose referenced charts are likewise not reproduced in the Bhat (1981) Part-1 edition.

Open question: where the ch. 53 cross-reference promises "diagram 3/4/5" for the temple ground-plans, the Bhat Part-1 scan prints none — they may appear in the plates of Part 2, or be absent from this edition entirely. Unresolved until Part 2 is checked.