The ancient and medieval architecture of India: a study of Indo-Aryan civilisation

CHAPTER VIII

VISHNU

AND SIVA SHRINES—

THE

ALLEGORY OF

THE DAWN^

MAIDEN—

THE BRAHMA

SHRINE—

ORIENTATION OF INDIAN

TEMPLES

It has been made

evident in the

lastchapter

thatinancient

Indian monasteries

thegroups ofcells

inhabited bythemonks

werealwaysvery

smalland ofno

structural importance. All

thearchitectural

interest of the

monasterywas centredon the

shrineor shrines

aroundwhichthe

monasticcellsweregrouped,

andon the

Sangha halls, or the

pillared pavilions,which be-

longed totheformer. We haveseenwhatthesacred

symbol,

the

chaitya,orsttlpa,veneratedbyboththe Jainsanddisciples

ofthe

Buddha,was like. It is necessarynow todescribein

greaterdetailtheshrineofVishnu, theancientsymbol ofthe

holy Mount Meru,which wasalso adoptedbyBuddhistsand

Jains,

just as many pagan symbols were adopted by early

Christianswithadifferentconnotation.

Whatever century historians may assume to be the be-

ginning

oftheperiodwhenthefollowers

oforthodoxHinduism

who

took either Vishnu

or Siva

as

theirpatron deity{Ishta-

dSva)

began tobe sufficientlynumerous

and powerful inthe

Stateto

takepoliticaland social

precedenceoverothersects,it

is

certainthatthephilosophicaland

dogmaticdifferencestypical

ofVaishnavism andSaivism notonly

belongedto Buddhism,

but prevailed in the earlier schools

of Indo-Aryan

thought.

They were probably very much the

same as those

which in

Greekphilosophydistinguishedthe

Epicureansfromthe

Stoics.

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