The Tattvāloka Distinguished Lecture Series, ‘Onward March to Rāma Rājya’, featured the scholar and historian, Dr. Chithra Madhavan on ‘Temple as the Nerve Centre of Life and Society,’ on September 8, 2018.

Dr. Madhavan began her presentation by showing how temples were conceived as hubs of education. Describing the temple city of Kāṅcīpuraṁ, for instance, she highlighted how in the past, people from far-off places thronged to the place to pursue higher vedic education in an institution called the ghaṭikasthāna. Ghaṭikā denotes an educational institution in which the vedas and śāstras were taught along with arts and sciences.

A maṇḍapa in the famous Kailasanātha temple built by the Pallava monarch, Narasiṁhavarman II in the 8^th century, functioned as the famous Ghaṭikā in Kāṅcīpuraṁ. The members of the institution were known for their learning as well as for their integrity. They were so worthy that they were entrusted with the task of choosing the successor to the Pallava throne in times of crisis.

Inscriptions describe how the students enjoyed vast facilities including weekly oil bath and hospital facilities with attached surgeon and physician. There were libraries, aptly called Sarasvatī Bhaṇḍāraṁ. There was one such library functioning within the Śrīraṅgaṁ temple and another one within the temple at Cidambaraṁ.

Center of Performing Arts

Temples of yore laid stress on all performing arts. The Mukteśvara temple in Kāṅcīpuraṁ employed fifteen dancers, several drummers and other musicians who offered their art as an upacāra to the deity. “From this we can glean how glorious the temple would have been. Much of these upacāras have disappeared today,” said the speaker.

The grand Bṛhadīśvara temple in Thanjāvūr attracted artists and artisans from various parts of kingdom and it provided employment to 400 dancers! The sculptors, architects, musicians, dancers, drummers, conch blowers, painters, people who recited vedas and tevāram, all of them, in turn, contributed to make the temple the seat of artistic activity.

The 108 fascinating sculptures that depict Lord Siva performing the karaṇas described by Bharata in his Nāṭya Śāstra are an attraction at this temple. Dr. Madhavan could not help wondering the inspiration this culture provided to citizens of the time. “Imagine a child who lived in that time, he would just have to walk into the temple and he would see and hear all this!

“If you look at the Pallava period Naṭarāja from Kūraṁ, housed in the Madras Museum, you will at once see how the sculptor was influenced by the dancers and musicians around him and that piece of art is an inspiration to dancers to this date,” Dr. Chithra Madhavan said.

Symbolism

Sthala purāṇas of all temples narrate special trees called the sthala vṛkṣa attached to the temple. The trees have religious and cultural significance, besides medical uses. The leaves and flowers of the sthala vṛkṣa are offered to the deity. For example, the punnai tree remains the sthala vṛkṣa of the famous Kapālīśvara temple of Mylapore in Chennai and the area was in fact famous as a grove of such trees.

The temples were the sacred space that portrayed everything, from the arcane to the apparently mundane; just to remind us of the divinity of life. The multitude of sculptures and paintings and other arts transform the temple into a microcosmic universe.

In the process, the temples provided employment to huge number of people. Beginning with the task of selection of land for the temple and the quarry for the stones to be used for constructing, temples provided livelihood to sculptors, rathakāras, priests, makers of images, grass, flower-vendors, calligraphers and a host of others.

Panel Discussion

A panel discussion that followed Dr. Madhavan’s lecture highlighted a few aspects of temple worship in the modern context. Sri N. Gopalaswami, former Chief Election Commissioner and Dr. T. Satyamurthy, former Superintending Archaeologist, Archaeological Society of India, were the panel members, while Dr. Vijayalakshmy Subramaniam, a well-known classical musician moderated the discussions.

On the very concept and need for temples, Dr. Satyamurthy said that it was a misnomer that we worship idols. Our devotion is in fact directed at the image of the great energy of the universe that is invoked in the temple sculpture. “That is how our ancestors had creatively brought down the cosmic energy to the microcosmic level”, said the expert. He added that the āgamas that served as manuals for temple construction were written after long drawn experiments.

Sri Gopalaswami expressed the view that temples provide the initial stimulation for an individual to climb the spiritual ladder. As educational institutions, they help an individual to be humble and realise that he is a tiny speck in the universe. “As one ascends the ladder, fewer external stimuli are required to understand the oneness with godhead,” he said.

Both panelists stressed that it is vital that local communities play an active role in managing temples, so that the public do not become ‘separated’. To attract younger generation, we need to project temples as monuments of our rich past and as cultural wonders, which can facilitate the task of preserving these timeless assets.

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Steps for Ushering Rāma Rājya

Our nation’s real wealth is not its labour but rather its 1.25 billion shimmering lights of wisdom. It is a pity that the forces of colonialism and, subsequently, globalisation could not promote their true potential. In these times of great social and intellectual ferment, how can India regain herself?

Initiating a grand temple project, which brings together the entire community, is the way forward. History teaches us that when temples were built on a grand-scale, at the same time, education, literature, music, dance, all these took great strides. A beautiful aspect of this advancement was that it was not merely a case of the building of temples going on on the one side and culture growing on the other. It was with the Lord as the base, with the temple as the centre, that both education and culture developed.

Members of the community who respect the śāstras must come forward to perform the task of establishing these temple-universities to promote our ancient knowledge and art traditions. Needless to say, such studies must be taught in accordance with the śāstras so as to derive the true benefit from it.

Such an initiative will thoroughly unshackle citizens from all sorts of dependencies by empowering them with genuine knowledge. This would indeed translate into a perpetual Festival of India, a celebration of life and freedom. And that verily is Rāma Rājya.

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