ENCOUNTERING THE COSMIC PERSON'S IDENTITY

September 12, 2005

One have not yet considered the underlying floor plan-- the layout of the base of the Hindu temple before the massive edifice is mounted up.

Before considering that geometric plan, it is necessary to recognize certain ideas in the Hindu outlook. Hindu culture is less enamored of sheer nature than classical Taoism in China. The word "Sanskrit" suggests high culture, the refined-- not raw and spontaneous but well-shaped, "confected," not amateur but classical. The idea of a cave is important, but nature's rough cave, a mere hole in the rock, is refined in the temple into a smoothened archetype, a well-made shape, deliberately rectangularized in form to express an idea. Similarly raw impulses and passions are to be controlled and sublimated in yoga. All of this concern to shape raw nature into refinement has geometric implications for temple design.

Since the circle is found in nature it is considered too natural to be favored in Hindu sacred architecture, which seeks to participate in the divine realm. The square is a consciously artificed shape. The Hindu temple is based on the square because it is conceptualized as a perfect form. "The circle and curve belong to life in its growth and movement. The square is the mark of order, of finality to the expanding life, its form; and of perfection beyond life and death."(23) That said, we can explore the meaning of the typical floor plan, the vastupurusha grid of 64 or 81 squares, and the cosmic person's outline within the over-all square shape. This idea of the circle being less refined and less perfect than the square often sounds odd to modern people, including Hindus. The ancient symbolism goes back to Vedic images-- the shape of the Vedic altar, the shape of the fire

container, the emblem placed on Indra's banner by Vishvakarma, the shape of the base of Mount Meru (and the consequent four directions in which the castes were to be arranged), as well as the proportions derived from the human body with arms outstretched to the sides. Though it may seem counter-intuitive, the square represents the order of the world, perfection, finality, balance of opposites. Thus, because of these ancient associations, the square is the prominent symbol in Indian architectural forms, as Kramrisch and others have pointed out.

Image of the Cosmic Person drawn in an old manual used by temple architects.

Drawing from George Michell’s book The Hindu Temple.

The cosmic person is sung in Rig Veda hymn X.90, which tells the origin story of self-sacrifice. In it the divine original person of vast dimensions divided to become the various parts of creation. This paradigmatic primal event is recalled and repeated ritually by traditional Hindus whenever they undertake significant actions-- such as planning a city or a temple. To clear and level land at a sacred site, to ritually purify it to measure and lay down the foundation lines, orienting the structure to the East, involves conceptualizing the construction as a replication on a different scale that original sacrificial scenario. And like the Vedic altar, the construction ritually enacts the restoration of the Purusha's body.(24)

To use a musical metaphor the Vastupurusha mandala is the tonic, the stable tone humming in the background over which the superstructure melody of forms takes shape. It is a diagram, or yantra, a geometrical device to represent an aspect of the supreme and make it available to the pilgrim.

"The form of the temple, all that it is and signifies, stands upon the diagram of the Vastupurusha. It is a 'forecast' of the temple and is drawn on the levelled ground; it is the fundament from which the building arises. Whatever its actual surroundings... the place where the temple is built is occupied by the Vastupurusa in his diagram, the Vastupurusha mandala.... It is the place for the meeting and marriage of heaven and earth, where the whole world is present in terms of measure, and is accessible to man."(25) The cosmic person became the universe, and to recreate this origin is to construct a cosmos which offers a return to the transcendent oneness.

The Vastupurusha mandala is a microcosm with some fractal qualities. As shown in the illustration, there are squares within squares within squares. The geometric configuration "of central squares with others surrounding it is taken to be a microscopic image of the universe with its concentrically organized structure." Thus the grid at the spatial base and temporal beginning of the temple represents the universe, with its heavenly bodies. It is also more-- it simultaneously symbolizes the pantheon of Vedic gods-- "each square [is] a seat of particular deity."(26) The gods altogether make up the composite body of the Purusha.

Two Vastupurusha mandala plans from architectural texts.

Drawings from George Michell’s book The Hindu Temple.

The Purusha is the Universal Essence, the Principle behind all things that exist, the Prime Person who is a spirit, the origin of all. "Vastu is the site; in it Vastu, bodily existence, abides and from it Vastu derives its name. In bodily existence, Purusha, the Essence, becomes the Form." The temple building rising above the diagram is a massively substantial structure. "The 'plan' mandala is the ritual, diagrammatic form of Purusha. Purusha himself has no substance. He gives it his impress."(27) The navel (or in some texts, the heart) of the outlined Purusha is in the center of the central square of the grid. "In the Purusha, Supernal man, the Supreme Principle is beheld. Man and Universe

are equivalent in this their indwelling center...."(28) There is divine city imagery also involved in the grid.(29) There are 32 types of mandalas, an array of configurations of squares in arithmetic progression, beyond the scope of this piece.(30) Around the border of the Vastupurusha mandala there are 32 squares, each with a presiding deity, to stand for the cardinal and intermediate directions. This border represents the passage of the moon in its complete cycle.

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