Artist: Unknown
Title: view of Shiva shrine
Material: Granite outcroping
Site: Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu, India
Current Location:
Period/Date: Ca. 7th century, under the Pallava dynasty
Iconography/Iconology: In general the Hindu temple is concenived
of as Mount Kailash, the conceptual mountain in the center of the Hindu
Universe. Each Hindu temile is a microcosmic representataion of the universe
with the primary deity in the absolute center. In the center of the temple
is a small shrine known as the garbhagriha, literally the "womb chamber,"
conceptually understood to be in the core of Mount Kailash. In the garbhagriha
is an image or symbol of the primary deity who is the kernal or essence
of the universe from whom all manifestations emerge. It is to this deity
that a devotee offers puja, the act of ritual worship, devotion, and offering
preformed in honor of, and to please, the divinity. Thus, when a devotee
enters a temple's garbhagriha, he or she is literally walking into the core
of Mount Kailash, the center of Hindu sacred space and of the Hindu Universe.
Stylistic Comments: This shrine is not much larger than the Durga shrine,
but is markedly different in appearance. This shrine combines features of
Pallava cave architecture as well as structural buildings. The pillared
front, that leads into the interior shrine is reminiscent of Cave architecture,
while the pyramidal, tiered roof, capped by a domelike element reflects
the form of structural buildings (Huntington, AOAI, 306). The pyramidal,
tiered roof with its emphatic horizontal bands, becomes a characteristic
feature of south Indian temple architecture. The south Indian temple style
is generally known as the Dravida style of Indian architecture.
Huntington, Susan L.The Art of Ancient India, New
york, Tokyo: Weather Hill, 1985.
