The world is filled with a variety of religions, the people who practice these faiths usually designate a specific place where they can go and worship known as sacred places. Every dominant religion in the world has a holy place where they highly regard the sites to be very critical to their faith. Sacred places are however not limited to religion only; they can also be places where people visit to gain spiritual growth and commune with the universe such as the Amazon jungle, the mountains of Peru and the stone circles of England. In this paper, we analyze the kandriya Mahadeva temple in India.
Kandariya Mahadeva Temple
The meaning of the kandariya Mahadeva temple when translated into English means the great God of the cave; it is one of the most ornate and largest Hindu temple that was built during the medieval period. The temple is the tallest and largest among the khajuro group of temples, it is also the most beautiful with embellishments of sculptures and ornate carvings. The main spire of the temple shikhara is 31 meters in height depicting mount Kailash. The temple was built as a dedication Lord Shiva and a place where people could go and worship.
The temple is located in Madhya Pradesh Chhaptapur district in central India. it is located there since Khajuro was the capital of the Chandera dynasty and most temples which were built at khajuro from 950 to 1050 CE were constructed by the dynasty. The temple was constructed by Raja Dhandadeva who was a Chandela ruler (Hardy, 2016).
Architecture
The temple was built in an area occupying 6500 square feet rising 117 feet above ground level. The temple is built along a raised platform facing the east direction and is built off a platform that is raised referred to as the Adhishsthana and which can be reached by the use of vertical steps. Inside the temple, there is a series of interconnected chambers in an organized fashion. At the entrance, there is a rectangular hall referred to as the Ardhamandapa leading to mandap a central pillared hall. From mandap what follows next is a sanctuary that is darkened referred to as garbhagrha, with the main spire and tower located above it. Inside the sanctuary, there is a devotional marble depicting the image of Shiva. The building is covered with decorative artistic designs with the architecture showcasing Hindu iconographic patterns.
Harmony with Nature
Kahandriya Mahadeva is oriented to the east direction aligned with the cardinal directions. The temple is built in such a manner due to the religious significance and the deity’s connection which point in the sky. The sun was considered while the sacred place was being built since it is the brightest object in the sky rising from the east direction. The entrance of the temple is required to face the rising sun which brings positive significance to the people (Parashar, 2014). The interior and the exterior of the temple walls, the ceiling, and the pillars depict the four essential pursuits of life which are Kama moksha artha and Dharma.
Symbolism
The temple has been decorated with a significant amount of stone sculptures which depict everyday life matters, animals, and humans. The exterior structure of the temple is based on the main tower which is the highest point symbolizing mount Kalish that is believed to be Lord Shiva’s home on the Himalayan Mountain. The temple is also founded on a massive plinth with the temple structure above the plinth planned dexterously detailed pleasingly. The superstructure is built in the shape and form of a mountain which symbolizes Mount Meru which is considered a source of energy for the creation of the world. The outside surfaces of the temple contain arrays of the most extensive relief sculptures in the world which is filled with a lot of symbolism. Erotic figures which are consistent with the tantric belief of physical coupling which is a primal life energy have been associated into the building since they have their associations with joy and fertility.
Sacred Objects
The mandaps inside the temple are made up of small chambers which are dedicated to Shiva, there is also another chamber where Parvati Shiva’s wife is defied. The temple also has a central sanctum where the phallic emblem of Shiva, the Shiva is defied. Inside the temple’s interior halls and the exterior faces, there are carved structures of god and goddess’s apsaras and musicians. The exterior structure of the temple is covered with sculptures which are found in three vertical layers. There are erotic sculptures which are fitted around the niches, and sculptures of saptamatrikas, and god’s Vira Bhadra and Ganesh.
Use of the Sacred Place
The temple was built as a sacred place where worship of the various Hindu gods would be carried out. Kandariya Mahadeva also had some social functions which included being the center of critical economic, social, intellectual and artistic services. The temple served as a center where ancient manuscripts were used routinely for purposes of learning and where the ancient texts were copied again after they had worn out. The temple is currently used as a tourist attraction site where people pay a specific fee to be able to enter and view the temple. In 1986, the temple was inscribed under the UNESCO list of world heritage sites under the third criterion and also under the fourth criterion for the chandelas culture.
Chartres Cathedral France Comparison
The Chartres cathedral is a gothic catholic cathedral that is located in France south-west of Paris. Both the kandariya Mahadeva temple and the cathedral were built during the medieval period. The Chartres cathedral was built between 1194 and 1220, the temple, on the other hand, was built during the reign of vidyadhara between 1025 and1050. The sacred places are therefore ancient with the temple being much older. Both the temple and the cathedral are constructed in an artistic way which made them to be considered under the UNESCO world list of heritage sites (Seguí, 2016); this makes them critical tourist sites which attract large amounts of tourists all over the world. The two however differ in their architecture, the cathedral is well known for its use of stained glass on its windows. The stained glass windows were artistically designed to inspire the illiterate masses that were found during the medieval time. The temple does not use stained glass windows in its architecture. The Chartres cathedral was built as a remnant of the church known as the Romanesque which had been destroyed by fire. The church has also been destroyed during the French revolution war. The temple, however, was not built as a remnant of anything.
References
Hardy, A. (2016). Hindu Temples and the Emanating Cosmos. Religion and the Arts 20, no. 1-2, 112-134.
Parashar, R. a. (2014). Fractals, architecture and sustainability. Recent Research in Science and Technology 6, no. 1 .
Seguí, J. M. (2016). CORRELATION BETWEEN CHARTRES CATHEDRAL AND THE CATASTERISM OF ANCIENT VIRGIN GODDESSES. European Journal of Science and Theology 12, no. 6, 55-72.
