The soul of Auroville

At the very centre of one finds the “soul of the city”,

the , situated in a large open area called the
“Peace”, from where the township radiates outwards.

The soul of Auroville

The literally means “Temple of the Mother”. The mandir is there for “those who want to learn to concentrate..” No fixed
meditations, none of that at all, but they should just stay there in silence and concentrate. A place to find one’s consciousness
 The can be viewed as a large golden sphere which seems to be emerging from the earth symbolizing the birth of new
consciousness. Since the past 45 years, ’ slow and steady progress towards completion has been followed by many.

Client
Architect

Roger Anger- Why do we build MatriMandir?

For the great majority of Indians, there is no need for an

explanation; it is for the Westerners and the Americans of
whom one in a million is able to feel that it’s necessary.

Roger Anger- Will the force more especially be concentrated

in Matrimandir?

The new force works everywhere, especially in this room. There

is a density capable of performing miracles, but few are able
to feel it, to perceive it.
Sri Aurobindo and I have concentrated this force on the
whole town, it is palpable, perceptible as a very concrete
perfume that penetrates, but one must be able to feel it to
receive it.
For people to believe miracles, they need material proof
without which they deny. So build Matrimandir, put in place
my symbol and Sri Aurobindo’s, and suspend the ball.
Mirra Alfassa (The Mother)
Roger Anger (Principal Architect) (1878 - 1973)
(1923 - 2008)
 Client
Architect Project Head

Roger Anger (Principal Architect)

(1923 - 2008)

Structure Design Consultant:- Dr. T. K. Santhanam

(Young engineer from the Structural Engineering Research Centre
(S.E.R.C), Chennai)
Total Area:- 9 Hectares (90,000 sqm)
Cost of Dome:- Rs. 10 million. (in 1971) (1 USD = 9.7 Rs.) Mirra Alfassa (The Mother)
Roger Anger (Principal Architect) Start Date :- 21st February 1971 (1878 - 1973)
(1923 - 2008) Period of Construction:- 37 Years
Construction Phases:- 05

West
Concept
Brahman Primeval Egg
The Architect gave the shape of a flattened
sphere (Horizontal dia- 36m; Height- 29m) to this
‘egg’ of creation by rotating an oval, a
‘Shalagrama’, an ancient Tantric symbol
symbolizing ‘the unity of creation’. This is indeed
a fitting symbol for the ‘soul’ of a city
dedicated to realizing “an actual human
unity”.
North
East
Vertical Section
Below the Matrimandir, the architect initially
wanted to build a lotus pond, But when he
realized that lotuses will not bloom in the shade,
instead of plants, he used 216 petal-shaped
South marble slabs to create a pond over which there is
a crystal globe which will receive the beam of
sunlight which transits Matrimandir from top to
bottom, as if to ‘illumine the depths’.

The Crystal Globe
The crystal for the Matrimandir arrived
in Auroville on 26-4-91. The 70 cm
diameter ‘crystal’ globe, the only one
of its kind, is the biggest optically
perfect glass globe ever made in the
world.
Mother said that four of Sri
Aurobindo’s symbols – standing
upright and joined together at the
corners – should carry the crystal
globe in Matrimandir. During the time
that the symbols were being
manufactured (between 1992 and
1993) the crystal was placed on top
of a prototype of the four Sri
Aurobindo symbols. In 1993 the
prototype was replaced with the
finished symbols
The Gold Discs
Disc frame: - Stainless steel tubes
Disc material: - stainless steel sheet
Gold leaf: - 28 gm of gold per 1000
leaves
Leaf size: - 85 x 85 mm
Total number of discs: - 1415
Small convex discs: - 954
Large concave discs: - 461
Average diam. (large discs): - 2.3
meter
Average diam. (small discs): - 1.5
meter
The Heliostat and lens
The heliostat is controlled by a
computer program, which moves
a mirror across the sun's path every
day. This mirror projects sunlight
into a lens, that projects the single
sun ray down on the crystal. To
make sure that the ray strikes the
crystal exactly in the centre, a
photo sensor is installed in the path
of the ray itself and relays the data
on the ray's position to the
computer, which in turn will adjust
the ray to the correct position if
necessary.
The Columns
The columns arrived at Matrimandir in the
beginning of January 1990.They were 24-
inch diameter, galvanised, seamless steel
pipes, 8.65 mtr long,
weighing 830 kg each.
The painting job appeared straightforward
and the first two were done completely in a
couple of months. A dedicated team
started putting in extra time, a few infra-red
lights appeared to help the drying, and
then even an electric polishing machine
arrived to speed up the work. There are an
average of 15 coats of paint on each
column with finer and finer sanding
between coats after which the final
polishing was done.
Matrimandir Present

North Entrance to the Matrimandir

Prime minister visits 2018

 Construction Phases

Inner Chambers with

steel columns and the crystal globe
Concave and
convex disks
Ramps

Pillars