[world-vedic] Indian and Incan/Mayan Sacred Structures

[Guest guest]

To read this article with all the nice graphics please visit

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/2178/

 

Master Builder Uncovers Striking similarities in Indian and Incan/Mayan

Sacred Structures

Hinduism Today - June 1995

http://www.hinduismtoday.kauai.hi.us/htoday.html

 

Ancient Architects Employed Analogous Design Doctrines and Masonry

Methods

 

"Sri V. Ganapati Sthapati," read Deva Rajan's fax to our Hawaii

editorial office from Machu Picchu high in the

rugged Andes Mountains of Peru, South America, "has just measured with

tape, compass and a lay-out story

pole, two ancient Incan structures at Machu Picchu: a temple and a

residence. He has confirmed that the

layout of these structures, locations for doors, windows, proportions

of width to length, roof styles, degree of

slopes for roofs, column sizes, wall thicknesses, etc., all conform

completely to the principles and guidelines as

prescribed in the Vastu Shastras of India. Residential layouts are

identical to those found in Mohenjodaro. The

temple layouts are identical to those that he is building today and

that can be found all over India."

 

These startling discoveries came during a March,

1995, visit of the master builder to

the ancient Incan and Mayan sites of South and

Central America. Ganapati Sthapati is

India's foremost traditional temple architect and

perhaps the first true expert in

sculpture and stone construction to personally

examine these ancient buildings. To do

so has been his dream since the 1960's.

 

Sthapati is the architect of the San Marga Iraivan

Temple [see page 28] being built at

Kauai Aadheenam, Hawaii, home of Hinduism Today. To

fulfill this life-long ambition

to visit the Mayan and Incan sites, our publisher,

Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami,

arranged for California builders and architects Deva

Rajan and Thamby Kumaran to

accompany Sthapati on a three-week trip through South

and Central America. "Like

boys on holiday," they described their exciting trek

of discovery which began 11,000

feet high in central Peru at the famed Incan site of

Machu Picchu which remained

hidden until 1911.

 

It is Sthapati's theory that Mayan, the creator of

Indian architecture, originated from

the Mayan people of Central America. In Indian history, Mayan appears

several times, most significantly as the

author of Mayamatam, "Concept of Mayan" which is a Vastu Shastra, a

text on art, architecture and town

planning. The traditional date for this work is 8,000bce. Mayan appears

in the Ramayana (2000bce) and again

in the Mahabharata (1400bce)-in the latter he designs a magnificent

palace for the Pandava brothers. Mayan is

also mentioned in Silappathikaram, an ancient Tamil scripture, and is

author of Surya Siddhanta, one of the

most ancient Hindu treatises on astronomy.

 

The fundamental principle of Mayan's architecture and town planning is

the "module." Buildings and towns are

to be laid out according to certain multiples of a standard unit. Floor

plans, door locations and sizes, wall

heights and roofs, all are determined by the modular plan. More

specifically, Mayan advocated the use of an

eight-by-eight square, for a total of 64 units, which is known as the

Vastu Purusha Mandala. The on-site

inspection by Sthapati was to determine if the Incan and Mayan

structures did follow a modular plan and

reflect the Vastu Purusha Mandala. He also intended to examine the

stone working technology-his particular

field of expertise.

 

Sthapati was born in 1927 into a family whose ancestors,

members of the aboriginal tribe of

Viswakarmas, built the great temple at Tanjore in the 10th century ce

at the request of Raja Raja Chola. He

learned the craft from his father, Sri M. Vaiydyanatha Sthapati and his

uncle, Sri M. Sellakkannu Sthapati. He

spent 27 years as head of the Government College of Architecture and

Sculpture in Mahabalipuram, Tamil

Nadu, and is responsible for India's significant resurgence in the

ancient art of stone carving. After his

retirement in 1988, he continued building temples and founded the Vastu

Vedic Research Foundation to

explore the ancient origins of the temple craftsmen. He is responsible

for the construction of dozens of temples

in India, plus others in Chicago, Washington D.C., Kentucky, Boston,

Baltimore, San Francisco, and Hawaii

in the USA as well as in the UK, Singapore, Fiji, Malaysia, Mauritius

and the Seychelles.

 

Machu Picchu

 

The moment Sthapati approached an ancient Incan residential building at

Machu Picchu on March 15th, he

pointed at the wall and said, "That is a thickness of one kishku

hasta"-33 inches, a standard measure in South

India first promulgated by Mayan. He proceeded to measure the buildings

in detail and discovered each was

indeed built on a module-based plan [see photos and drawings to right],

following the system of Mayan's

eight-by-eight squares. The module method was followed within small

fractions of an inch, according to

Thamby Kumaran, who was taking the measurements. The buildings were

oriented toward certain points of

the compass, also a principle of Mayan, rather than randomly placed.

Also the lengths of buildings were never

more than twice their width, as Mayan stipulated.

 

>From Machu Picchu the three adventurers traveled to Saqsayhuman, an

Incan site dated from 400 bce to

1400 ce. Here are the famous stone walls made of rocks weighing up to

160 tons and fitted together so

expertly that a knife blade cannot be put in any joint. "Nobody knows

how these stones were put in place,"

offered their guide when they first arrived on the site. Sthapati

politely differed, and pointed out the insets

chiseled into the base of many stones, as well as small knobs left on

their faces. "These are for the use of

levers, the exact same system we continue to use in India to move large

stones. Thirty to forty men can move

these very large rocks with this method," he explained to the guide's

astonishment.

 

He could see other details of the stone working

were identical to what is practiced

in India, such as the method of quarrying stones by

splitting off slabs [photo page

14]. So too was the jointing and fitting of stones,

the use of lime mortar, leveling

with a plumb line and triangle, and the corbeling

for the roofs. Corbeling is the

method by which stones are drawn in layer by layer

until they meet or nearly meet

to allow a roof slab to be placed on top. Sthapati

considers the similarity of this

technology to that used in India to be very

significant. The use of the horizontal lintel

and the absence of the arch are additional

noteworthy points of correspondence

between the two traditions.

 

Land of the Mayans

 

From the high Andes the threesome flew to Mexico's

Yucatan peninsula. They and

forty-five thousand other Mayan aficionados arrived

at Chichén Itzá in time for the

summer equinox on March 21st. At the moment of

sunset on the equinox, a shadow

is cast by the steps of the Pyramid of the Castle

[photo right and on page one,

where the shadow can be seen] upon the side of the staircase to the

top. The shadow creates the image of a

serpent's body which joins a stone carving of a serpent's head at the

bottom of the stair case. It is a stunning

demonstration of Mayan astronomical and architectural precision.

 

Archeologists, tourists and New Agers all gathered for the event, each

with their own agenda. Since the

publication of The Mayan Factor-A Path Beyond Technology by José

Arguëlles, the Mayans and their

advanced calendar, astronomy, philosophy and architecture have enjoyed

a wide following in the West.

Sthapati too has found much of interest in Arguëlles' book.

 

Standard academia archeologists consider the New Age interest as

bordering on superstition and refuse to

even talk to anyone partial to Mayan mysticism. A recent book, Copan

and Tikal, the Secrets of Two Cities,

by Honduran author Ricardo Agurcia Fasquelle and archaeologist Juan

Antonio Valdes of Guatemala, claim

that the Mayan pyramids were actually castles for the wealthy and that

what were once thought to be

monuments to the Gods were in fact tributes to the dynasties of various

kings. Not likely.

 

Native Mayan teachers such as Hunbatz Men,

whom Sthapati met while

in the Yucatan, are taking advantage of the

interest to spark a revival of

the original Mayan religion among the

Mayans themselves. Since their

brutal conquest and forced conversion to

Catholicism by the Spaniards in

the 16th century, Mayans have lived an

oppressed and impoverished

existence.

 

Amidst the crowds, Sthapati, Deva and

Thamby again unsheathed their

tape measures and closely examined the

Pyramid of the Castle [see

diagram right]. It too conformed to the

Vastu Vedic principles of Mayan.

The temple structure at the top was exactly 1/4th of the base. And the

stepped pyramid design derived from a

three-dimensional extension of the basic eight-by-eight grid system.

The temple room at the top was also

modular in design, with the wall thickness determining the size of

doorways, location of columns, thickness of

columns and the width and length of the structure.

 

Most interesting was the name of this structure-chilambalam, meaning a

sacred space. It is Sthapati's theory

that the Mayans worshiped the very concept of space, specifically a

space made according to the modular

system. This same idea is found in Hinduism in the sacred room in the

center of the Chidambaram Siva Temple

in South India, where space or akasha is worshiped-there is no idol.

Chidambaram, Sthapati finds suspiciously

like chilambalam, means "hall of consciousness." The concept of sacred

space is at the center of the mystical

shilpi tradition of India [see sidebar page 14].

 

The richly

decorated Mayan buildings

provided a feast for a sculptor's eye. There is a very common feature

called a "mask" by the archeologists, but

known to the Mayans as "Big Nose." A nearly identical face is a common

feature of Hindu iconography, seen,

for example, at the top of the arch placed behind a deity. "It is the

very same thing in India," chuckled Sthapati,

"we call it `Maha Nyasa'-Big Nose!" Several other details of the

sculptures were similar or identical to India,

such as the earrings, ear plugs, teeth, head dresses, even buckles

around the waist. There are bas reliefs of

priests sitting in lotus posture meditating.

 

>From Chichén Itzá, they traveled on to Uxmal where they observed the

snake and "bindu" designs on the wall

faces [picture right]. They were astounded by the thousands of pyramids

at Tikal and Uxacturn in Guatemala,

all laid out to conform to a grid pattern and oriented in

astronomically significant directions.

 

As in Mayan buildings, Indians have been using lime mortar for all of

their stone and brick buildings. This can

been seen in the monumental creations in Mahabalipuram and also in the

stone temples of Tanjor and Gangai

Konda Choleasuram in Tamil Nadu. The outer surfaces were plastered,

embellishments worked out in lime

mortar, then painted. This method was strongest among the Mayas at

Tikal and Uaxactún, where all of the

structures once had a plaster coating painted with many colors.

 

What is the Connection?

 

Sri Ganapati Sthapati postulates, after deep thought

from his journey to the land of the

Mayans and a lifetime study of South Indian architecture, that Mayan,

the divine architect of Indian tradition,

came from Central America. Ancient Tamil literature speaks of lands to

the south of India 30,000 years ago, at

the time of the first Tamil Sangam. According to scientists 160 million

years ago India did lie physically close to

Africa, South and Central America, but has since moved away as a result

of continental drift. At that date, it

would have been dinosaurs and not Mayans who wandered from the Americas

to India, but perhaps the time

frame for the continental drift is not correct. Architecture aside,

there are significant similarities between

Hinduism and the native religions of both Africa and the Americas.

 

There are other explanations. The simplest is boats. In 1970 the

Norwegian Thor Hyerdal sailed a reed boat

from Africa to the Americas in 57 days using no modern equipment. The

boat, Ra II, was built for him by the

Aymaro Indians of Lake Titicaca, Peru, neighbors of the ancient Incans.

The double-hulled catamarans of

India are also capable of long sea voyages. Historians discount contact

between ancient people, but many

cultures, such as the ancient Hawaiians, had remarkable sea-faring

skills.

 

Perhaps the coincidences of stone working

are just that, coincidence -a

favorite "explanation" of archeologists.

Stone workers will discover the

same techniques naturally, without need for

outside help, they say, and can

point to historical incidents of

simultaneous discovery. But this explanation

hardly accounts for the similarities in

motifs and modular design.

 

Another explanation is mystical-that Mayan,

who is a divine being in Indian

histories, appeared to both peoples. He

could have conveyed the

knowledge through visions and dreams.

 

Sri Ganapati Sthapati is vigorously

continuing his research and is open to

suggestions from Hinduism Today readers. Any

information you may have

on the similarities of the two cultures may

be shared with him by writing to:

 

Vastu Vedic Research Foundation, Plot A-1,

H.I.G. Colony, 1st Main

Road (New Beach Road), Thiruvalluvar Nagar,

Thiruvanmiyur, Madras

600 041, India.

 

Sidebar: The Vastu Vedic Tradition

Text: V. Ganapati Sthapati spoke eloquently during our interviews of

the deep mysticism of his tradition. Here

is an excerpt from his paper, "Synthesis of Science and Spirituality in

the Vastu Vedic Tradition of Art and

Architecture."

 

The Vastu Shilpa tradition of Indian origin has made a

scientific approach to the problems

of spirit and spiritual realization. This scientific tradition of

Va-stu perceives Shakti [energy] as all-pervasive

and as the casual substance for all the manifestations of visual and

aural phenomena in the universe. They have

named their Shakti as Paravastu in Sanskrit and the universal objects

as Vastu. The word Paravastu means the

quintessence or the ultimate substance. This phenomenon of Vastu and

Va-stu can be equated to gold turned

into gold ornaments, the shilpi acting as the agent for the

transformation. Further, this Vastu is recognized by

the Vastu tradition as one dwelling in the inner space of individual

beings as well as in the outside space, the

universal being. The science says that it is space, because of its

self-propelled vibration, that turns into

forms-the vibration force acting as the working agency. To do this is

its unquestionable nature. This agency is

designated as Absolute Time, emerging out of space. This is analogous

to the vibration of the instrument of the

vina developing into sound space. Here, sound space turns into sound

form, and this when set to rhythmic

vibration turns into musical form.

 

There is also another space responsible for the sound space. It is

called luminous space. This pervades the

entire universe (cosmos). This is the ultimate space wherein lie the

Absolute Time and Absolute Energy. This is

filled with luminous substance (Vastu) consisting of Paramanus, the

minute particles of space. This luminous

space is supersensitive, capable of becoming conscious of itself and

vibrating into objects that it becomes

conscious of. This action is its intrinsic nature and responsible for

the forms that occur in the inner space of

individuals as well as in the outer space of the universe. The

experience of this form, in terms of space, is

Spiritual Vision. This phenomenon is nothing but abstract science held

by the Vastu tradition.

 

The Vastu tradition designates the inner being as

Shilpi and the inner manifest subtle

form as Shilpa, and as such the whole inner and

outer universes are filled with

shilpas. The gross visual forms are projected

outside from the inside, by the inner

being. This is the transformation of the subtle

inner form into the gross visual,

through the fingers exactly in tune with the

subtle in terms of time and space. That

"the sculptor becomes the sculpture and the poet

becomes the poem" is therefore a

powerful Vaignanic statement of the Vastu Vedins,

and it is of pure advaitic tone.

The projected visual form has the touch of a

lyric, depending upon the individual

inner culture.

 

Sidebar: The Linguistic Similarities

Text: Chacla in Mayan refers to force centers of

the body similar to the chakras of

Hinduism. K'ultanlilni in Mayan refers to the

power of God within man which is

controlled by the breath, similar in meaning to kundalini. Mayan

chilambalam refers to a sacred space, as does

Tamil Chidambaram. Yok'hah in Mayan means "on top of truth," similar to

yoga in Sanskrit.