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Michael W. Meister
To cite this article: Michael W. Meister (1985) Measurement and Proportion in Hindu Temple
Architecture, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 10:3, 248-258, DOI: 10.1179/isr.1985.10.3.248
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Measurement and Proportion in Hindu
Temple Architecture
PROFESSOR MICHAEL W. MEISTER
Departments of the History of Art and South Asia Regional Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
Proportion and measure interacted in the evolution and construction of the Hindu temple from the 5th through the
15th century AD, but, throughout this history, proportion dominated as the tool to give the monument both validity
and form. This review analyzes the ritual force of proportion and its function in the planning of temples by architects.
The diagrams that accompany the article are the result of field research and the analysis of built structures.
In ancient late Vedic India, ritual centered on an altar This 'altar' of early ritual marks both the inner
for sacrifice; built of brick, its primary shape was sanctum and the upper limit of later Hindu temples,
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square, taking the shape of the created universe in created to give shelter for images that make divinity
early Indian cosmogony.! This act of 'creation' was manifest in a new way for worship. On some 'early
the archetype for the architect's role as builder. Texts Nagara temples, such as the Visva-Brahma at Alam-
of the 4th and 3rd centuries Be - among the earliest pur of the late 7th century AD, such a square altar
written texts surviving from India - record the physically appears as the uttaravedf or 'upper altar'
geometry used to construct these altars. One of these at the top of the curvilinear tower of the temple.3
texts explains that 'all the surface of the earth is vedi
[altar]. ... Still, selecting a particular part of it and
measuring it they should perform the [sacrifice]
Ritual Diagram
there.,2 Ritual dimensions for the Vedic altar were well docu-
mented by the time temples began to take on a distinc-
tive architectural definition in the 5th to 7th centuries
AD. An early 6th-century text, the Brhat Smilhitii of
So. .Bhu. Mi. 1Ji{i AJlli
ViZTt.!l(l,
Sal a
'.fa_ Brh.at
248 INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE REVIEWS, VOL. 10, NO.3, 1985 © J W Arrowsmith Ltd, 1985
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• II o
,
Varahamihira, records in a chapter on domestic and tifies the temple and also guards it. The problem for
city architecture that structures were normally to be the architectural historian has been to find whether
built in relation to a grid of 9 x 9 = 81 squares (Figure practical means existed by which the dimensions of
1); the same text specifies in a separate chapter that the altar could be applied to an increasingly complex
a grid of 8 x 8 = 64 squares should be used for building architectural tradition.8 Stella Kramrisch, whose
temples (Figure 2).4 The peripheral squares of these volumes on The Hindu Temple in 1946 helped restore
diagrams house guardian deities (padadevatas); the a ritual dimension to Western understanding of
central squares mark the most sacred space (the place Hindu architecture, wrote that the ritual diagram (the
for brahman).5 The Brhat Sari/hita specifies that the vastupuru~amal:l{Jala) 'is the metaphysical plan of the
thickness of the walls of a temple should be half the temple' but that 'this does not imply an identity of
width of the sanctum but gives few other clues to the the actual plan of the temple with the mal)-
proportional systems appropriate to the newly <,lala.... When the great temples were built ... the
developing temple architecture.6 Later texts give grids drawing of the vastupuru~amal)<,lala had become an
of 8 x 8, 9 x 9, and lOx 10; others give a wide variety architectural rite.'9
of grids, declaring, in one instance, that 'each is fit My work in the field has shown that this grid,
for all.'? however, continued to provide a practical tool for the
The ritual grid of the Vedic altar provides a con- architect, flexible in its application over a number of
tinuity of significance for the Hindu temple; it sanc- centuries 10; by preserving the ritual grid, the architect
PROFESSOR MICHAEL W. MEISTER is professor of Indian art in the History of Art and South
Asia Regional Studies Departments at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and pre-
viously taught at the University of Texas, Austin. He received his PhD from Harvard University,
Cambridge, Mass., in 1974. He was born in Florida, USA, in 1942, and is Editor of the American
Institute of Indian Studies' Encyclopcsdia of Indian Temple Architecture. His first visit to India
was on a Fulbright Fellowship in 1964-66 and he was a Senior Fulbright Fellow in 1976-77. He
was convenor for the 'Discourses on Siva' Symposium held in conjunction with the recent
Manifestations of Siva exhibition in America.
Address: G-29 Meyerson Hall CJ, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
I I
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D
48 an.
Figure 7. Osian, Rajasthan, western India. Harihara Temple no. 1, ca. AD 750. View from west. This
temple has four subsidiary shrines on the corners of a raised platform. These make manife$t the
goddess (SW); SOrya, the sun god (SE); Vi\'iQu (NE); and Gaf)esa (NW). The central divinity was
probably a cosmic form of Vi\'if)u.
Diagram of Construction
Temples of the early 7th-century AD surveyed in
eastern India, near the beginning of the stone-temple
tradition, are square (Figure 3), with a sanctum allow-
ing entry from one direction, but projecting 'entries'
Figure 9. Diagram showing the transformation on the three other cardinal walls in the form of niches
of square-based groundplans in north India from with images related to the central divinity. Measured
the 7th to the 10th century AD: upper left, Mahua, at the level where wall-moldings meet the foundation
Siva Temple no. 2, ca. AD 650-675; upper right, - a level where lines can sometimes be seen scratched
Bhavanipur, Nakti-mata Temple, ca. AD 875;
lower half, Kiradu, Rajasthan, Vi~QuTemple, ca. in the stone - the thickness of walls is half the width
late 10th century AD (left, showing the wall with of the sanctum, thus conforming to the Brhat Sam-
its ornamental niches). hitii's grid of 8 x 8 squares (Figure 2).
• •
nificant portions of an interior altar that is beginning
to make divinity manifest in the form of images
(Figure 6).
In the first example illustrated here (Figure 4), the
degree to which the planes of each wall project from
M the square is measured by a half and by a full square
of the grid. This does not reflect a rule; in other
temples, this projection may be a quarter and a half
Figure 11. Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh. of a grid-measure (Figure 5). Since this degree of
Visvanatha Temple, dated AD 1002. Groundplan
projection varies from temple to temple, it would
of sanctum with proportioning grid. The grid is
placed at the base of the wall-moldings, above
seem a measure pragmatically determined rather than
a molded plinth, and within an enclosed ambula- one of ritual significance. In like fashion, the walls
tory passage. enclosing the actual entry to the sanctum - while
Figure 12. Khajuraho, Madhaya Pradesh. Visvanatha Temple, dated AD 1002. View from the south.
The temple stands on a large platform which originally had subsidiary shrines on the four corners.
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Figure 14. Osilifi, Rajasthan. Harihara Temple
no. 1, ca. AD 750. Partial ground plan showing
separate grids for the central and subsidiary
shrines. The central shrine uses the karl)a vyasa
i f-- - system shown in Figure 4; the subsidiary shrines
!
I "'" ~
• use bhadra measure as shown in Figure 10.
Figure 17. Indor, Madhya Pradesh. Gargaj Figure 19. Kharod, eastern Madhya Pradesh.
Mahadeva temple, ca. AD 750. Groundplan SabarTTemple, 7th century AD. Groundplan with
showing grid of 10x 10 squares (upper right) constructing grid. Corners of the turned square
that relates the sanctum to the outer walls and used to locate intermediate parts of the temple's
(left) the turned squares that determine the wall have been determined by extending the
geometry of the outer walls. 8 x8 grid by two squares on either side.
tioning grid. A small number of rectangular struc- both walls use subordinate facets measuring each
tures, for example, demonstrate that architects first one-third of a square in order to produce dimensions
expanded the dimensions of the sanctum to create a that preserve simple proportions. A second rec-
rectangle and then adjusted parts of the outer walls tangular temple, from about a hundred and fifty years
by use of third measures of the grid to provide propor-
tionality.ls The Tell-ka-maI).<;lir in the Gwalior fort,
for example, expands its sanctum from 4 x 4 to 4 x 6
squares (Figure 15); central and flanking offsets on
both long and short walls continue to measure the
width and breadth of the inner sanctum. Offsets on
Figure 21. Udayapur, Madhya Pradesh. Udayesvara Mahadeva Temple, inscribed AD 1081. Groundplan
showing both proportioning grid and constructing geometry. The grid relates the walls of the temple
to the sanctum; the geometry that locates turned squares can also be applied at the base of the
molded socle.
later, that essentially melds the plans of two square, Geometry and Design
offset temples, also expands its sanctum to a ratio of
2: 3 and uses thirds of squares to mediate proportions The grid - and proportions derived from it - could
on the short and long sides (Figure 16). be manipulated by an architect in making a design.
The grid used to construct the early altar thus I have tested this by looking at some of the few
provided both a rationale and proportions to guide temples that are not purely quadrilateral. In one case,
the development of temple architecture; it ritually I have analyzed an octagonal temple built early in
sanctified the temple and guarded it. At the same the 7th century (early in the evolution of temple
time, it gave the architect a tool flexible enough to architecture); in another, a temple with a twelve-
allow enormous variation over time. Within its girding sided plan dating from the middle of the 8th century
proportions, the architect could manipulate his struc- (Figure 17) .16 In both instances, geometry rather
ture with considerable freedom. He remained bound than measure has been used to locate the outer
to its use because of its utility - at levels of ritual and walls; yet in both, the grid continues to be used
secrecy, but also of flexibility and order in the process to relate the inner space of the temple to its outer
of creating a design. dimensions.
to the inner sanctum using the grid, but the extension of the outer socle by means of a series
dimensions of the sanctum are related to those at the of circumscribed circles and squares.
base of the ornamented plinth, where the temple
actually had first to be constructed, using a geometry
begin to see that myth and science are not always
of circles and squares circumscribed around the sanc-
disconnected: belief - as in the practice and study of
tum (Figure 22). While the sanctum walls thus remain
geometry in ancient India - can provide incentive for
protected by the proportions of the sacred grid, the
developing science, and technology - as in the use
plinth is here related to the sanctum by the flexible,
of measure and proportion by India's master archi-
yet controlled geometry of the engineer.
tects - can serve myth.
If I stop to think about the relevance of this study to All drawings and photographs are by the author. This article is
based on a paper presented at the annual meeting of the College
the history of science, or to interdisciplinary science Art Association of North America in Toronto, Canada, in February
studies, I would have to say that through it we may 1984.
LITERATURE CITED
1. C. P. S. Menon, Early Astronomy and Cosmology, George 10. Michael W. Meister, Ma(l<;lalaand practice in Nagara archi-
Allen & Unwin, London (1932). tecture in North India. Journal of the American Oriental
R. N. Apte, Some points connected with the geometry of Society 99.2, 204-219 (1979).
the Vedic Altar. Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Michael W. Meister, MU(l<;lesvarT:Ambiguity and certainty
Institute 7, 1-16 (1926). in the analysis of a temple plan, in Kaladarsana: American
2. Apie, p. 14, citing the Apastamba SrautasOtra. Studies in the Art of India, Joanna G. Williams (Ed.), pp.
3. Michael W. Meister, A note on the superstructure 71-90, American Institute of Indian Studies, New Delhi
of the Marhia Temple. Artibus Asiae 36, 81-88 (1974), (1981).
fig. 4. Michael W. Meister, Analysis of temple plans: Indor. Artibus
Michael W. Meister, Construction and conception: Ma(l- Asiae 43, 392-320 (1982).
<;lapikashrines of Central India. East and West, new series Michael W. Meister, Geometry and measure in Indian temple
26,409-418 (1976). plans: Rectangulartemples. Artibus Asiae 44, 266-296 (1983).
M. A. Dhaky, The 'Akasalinga' finial. Artibus Asiae 36, 307- Michael W. Meister, The Udayesvara Temple plan, in SrTnid-
315 (1974). hi/:1: Shri K R. Srinivasan Festschrift, pp. 85-93, New Era
4. Varahamihira, Brhat Sarilhita, trans. by H. Kern, Journal of Publications, Madras (1983).
the Royal Asiatic Society, new series 4-7, (1869-1874), chs. 11. Built on a straight manasutra. Cardinal points are marked
53 and 56. by false doors or niches; in some temples these begin to
5. Called the 'Brahmastana', this central space is sometimes project from the straight face of the temple, probably in
identified by modern astrologers as inhabited by Brahma, imitation of north Indian norms. See Encyclopaedia of Indian
the third deity of the Hindu triad. The name, however, goes Temple Architecture, vol. 1, pt. 1, South India, Lower
back to an earlier concept of' brahman' as a nonpersonified Dravi<;ladesa, edited by Michael W. Meister, Oxford Uni-
'supreme reality'. versity Press, New Delhi (1983).
6. 56,10-14. 12. My analysis depends on a measured plan kindly shared with
7. Kamikagama 17·107. me by the French Institute of Indology, Pondicherry.
8. Andreas Volwahsen, Living Architecture: Indian, Grosset 13. Alice Boner, Extracts from the Silpasari(lT, in Studies in
and Dunlap, New York (1969). Indian Temple Architecture, Pramod Chandra (Ed.), pp.
9. SteliaKramrisch, The Hindu Temple, two vols., University of 57-79, American Institute of Indian Studies, New Delhi
Calcutta, Calcutta (1946), pp. 37 note, 58, 228. (1975).
Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh. Kandariya Mahadeva Temple, elevation. (After B. L. Dhama, A Guide to
Khajuraho, pl. IV)