The Mobile Temples

KS RAM





In Vedic times there were no temples as we know them today . Temples were constructed when kingdoms began to flourish. Anand Coomaraswamy observes that the rise of the temple represents the softening of the practice of yagya or sacrifice into puja.The temple -the practice of `fixing' God in a permanent building -was never entirely endorsed by thinkers. Questions have been raised in this regard down the years. Basavanna, the 11th century Kannada poet who began the Veerasaiva movement, wrote an interesting poem on this subject: ``The rich shall make temples for Siva, What shall I, a poor man, do? My legs are pillars, the body the shrine, the head a cupola of gold. Listen, O kudala-sangama-deva things standing shall fall, but the moving ever shall stay .'' AK Ramanujan observed that Hindu temples are modelled after the human body: Temples have padas or legs; hasta or side walls; shikhara or head; and garbha griha or wombhouse. The `fixed' temple is in opposition to the `mobile' body; the transient building contrasts with the abiding Self; and, most importantly , the making of a temple is opposed to the being of a temple. A constructed temple is only a symbol of the original, the body . Is it wise then to chase the symbol, when you have the original? Is it wise then to make something, if you can be it?