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How Is A Grid Implemented in A South Indian Temple Town

The document discusses town planning in ancient South India based on texts called Vastu Shastras. It focuses on the planning of South Indian temple towns. [1] South Indian temple towns were often centered around important Hindu temples and constructed according to a cosmological grid layout described in the Vastu Shastras. [2] The grid took the form of concentric rings radiating out from the central temple, divided by walls and gates. [3] This layout symbolized hierarchical social order and asserted the importance of the divine temple, while also facilitating the circumambulation worship practiced in South Indian Hinduism.

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Virajitha Chimalapati
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441 views

How Is A Grid Implemented in A South Indian Temple Town

The document discusses town planning in ancient South India based on texts called Vastu Shastras. It focuses on the planning of South Indian temple towns. [1] South Indian temple towns were often centered around important Hindu temples and constructed according to a cosmological grid layout described in the Vastu Shastras. [2] The grid took the form of concentric rings radiating out from the central temple, divided by walls and gates. [3] This layout symbolized hierarchical social order and asserted the importance of the divine temple, while also facilitating the circumambulation worship practiced in South Indian Hinduism.

Uploaded by

Virajitha Chimalapati
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Grid in the South Indian temple town Saurabh 1101

Ancient Town planning in India- Canonical texts and the Vastu Shastras

Towns in ancient India were planned according to ancient canons


of town planning known as Vastu shastras. These were oral
traditions, part of the Vedas that were orally transmitted for
centuries before being eventually written around the fourth
century.
The Vastu Shastra was the text that laid down the rules of
building and space making. It is important to note that, although
all the texts originated from the Vedas of the Hindu religion, there
was still scope for a wide variety of interpretation and significant
difference especially in North and South Indian interpretation.
The first step in translating ideology and cosmological order into reality of a city, town or
temple is the formation of a representative diagram or mandala.
The mandala is a two dimensional diagram that forms the basis of the city’s plan organization.
The vastu shastra gives the vastu purusha mandala that suggests 32 configurations in all.

The South Indian Temple Town

After the 7th century AD, the materials used for temple
construction changed from brick, timber and other such
materials to stone. This made temples last longer and led to
the creation of several temple-centered settlements.
These temple towns were often instituted by ruling dynasties
as dynastic shrines. The basic form of the temple town is a the
shrine in the centre and concentric rectangular rings around it,
like fortification walls, that can be accessed through gates
known as gopurams.
The main centres of spiritualty in south India were Srirangam,
Chidambaram, Madurai, Kanchipuram, Thiruchinapalli, Tanjore etc.

The South Indian temple town as an interpretation of the cosmological


GRID diagram.
For the holy city, the ideal diagram is
a series of concentric circles
increasing in sanctity as one nears
the centre. As a square grid, a 9 x 9
square grid, wherein all 32 main
gods of the Hindu pantheon fit in the
peripheral squares was most
preferred. In most cases of temple
towns,
The centre or the temple
settlement coincides with the
naval of the Vastu Purusha.
But since the grid of the south Indian
temple town is different from that of
a north Indian town, it can be
understood as a variant of this grid
to suit the needs of the context and
can be thus thought to have been
implemented. The grid is basically
transformed into a set of rings thus implementing its purposes.
Temple as an overlap of cosmological and hierarchical grid solving a three-fold
purpose:

The plan of Srirangam The plan of Srirangam as a GRID

a. Grid as a tool of social stratification:


The grid can be understood as a tool for the show of power by the ruling dynasties.
This is done by placing the ruler and nobility closest to the holy sanctuary and placing
those diminishing in caste status farthest from the centre. Also, notions of pure/
impure and polluted/ unpolluted were implemented by placing communities on body
parts of the Vastu Purusha associated with such qualities etc.

b. Grid as a tool to assert the Importance of the divine:


The concentric rings overlaid on the grid make one feels the force of the divine as
one has to travel through several gates before one can actually reach the temple
proper. This series of experiences makes one feel intimidated and samaller to the
larger schema of things.

c. Grid as a manifestation of a method of worship - Parikrama.


The mode of worship in a south Indian temple is that of circumambulation or
Parikrama. The grid effectively provides for this as well.

This Cosmological grid, was sometimes not adhered to, like in the case of Madurai. This is
due to varied reasons of Topography and landscape features.

Here is shown, the plan of Madurai with the temple in the centre and the
city all around it. There is some notion of the grid but it is broken to fit
the town on the existing settlement and topography.

Thus, we can say, that the south Indian temple own is the variant of the cosmological hindu
grid.

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