DEVALAYAS OF BHARAT -
SYMBOLISM OF COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS
Yathapinde,Tatha Brahmande [macrocosm in microcosm]
COSMOGENIC CULTURE
In a Hindu temple resides both:
• Nirguṇa Brahman — the formless, attributeless absolute
• Saguṇa Brahman — the divine with form, accessible through image and ritual
The temple is not merely a structure.
It is a bridge between the unmanifest and the manifest.
ANTARYAMIN & AGAMA-SHASTRAS
The human body itself is a devalaya — a living temple.
Āgama and Śilpa Shāstra describe five modes of divine presence:
• Parama — the supreme, formless
• Vyūha — cosmic expansion
• Vibhava — divine incarnation
• Antaryāmin — the indwelling presence
• Arcā — the consecrated image
Antaryāmin is the inner image —
the subtle presence of the divine within consciousness itself.
The temple mirrors the human body,
and the human body mirrors the cosmic order.
VASTU PURUSHA MANDALA
The square of the Vāstu Maṇḍala represents Puruṣa — cosmic being.
It holds energy in equilibrium and reflects universal order.
Its geometry expresses:
• The four directions
• The balance of forces
• The rhythm of creation, dissolution, and renewal
The square symbolises completeness —
order arising from infinite movement.
THE BINDU - BELOW & ABOVE
Hidden beneath the garbhagṛha is the bīja — the seed of consciousness.
A corresponding point rises above in the śikhara — the summit.
This vertical axis symbolises:
• Descent of consciousness into form
• Ascent of awareness toward the formless
The Bindu — dimensionless point —
holds the potential of all form.
From it arises creation.
Into it, creation dissolves.
This is not architecture alone.
This is consciousness shaped into stone.
PRADAKSHINA PATHA [CIRCUM AMBULATION]
Devotees perform pradakṣiṇā around the garbhagṛha to experience the macrocosm through its reflection in the microcosm — the temple.
This right-handed circumambulation is not a ritual habit; it is a conscious movement around the still centre.
By walking around the sanctum, one acknowledges:
• The endlessness of creation (Ananta)
• The beginning-less source (Anādi)
• The rhythm of emergence and dissolution
Pradakṣiṇā is a bodily meditation —
the human form moving around the cosmic axis.
As the devotee walks, the temple teaches without words:
that all motion arises from stillness,
and all form returns to the formless.
As the devotee do the Pradaskina/Parikrama he utters-
Thani thani vinashyanthi Pradakshinam pade pade
HRYDAYA VISHRANTHI AND GENESIS OF VASTU AND SHILPA
In Bharat, great art was born when artists entered yogic stillness.
Ṛṣis, śilpins, and temple builders were not merely craftsmen —
they were meditators who created from chitta-bhūmi, the ground of awareness.
The sculptor did not “design.”
He remembered.
The painter did not “invent.”
She revealed.
From this inner silence arose vigrahas, murals, temples —
not as objects of display,
but as instruments of transformation.
This is why temple art endured:
because it was born from consciousness,
and therefore speaks to consciousness.
Why is this thread of yogic consciousness broken since 1200 AD without any evidence of further manifestations?
Why did this thread of yogic consciousness weaken after the 12th century, with so few visible continuations in art?
Why did direct experience of yogic chitta–bhūmi and its many expressions in form gradually fall silent?
What separates us from the makers of Ellora, from the Rashtrakutas, from Ahilyabai Holkar — and what have we forgotten that they once lived?How are we different from Rashtrakutas or Ahilyabai Holkar?
A reconstruction of shattered base sculptures – Kailasa temple
A WARM INVITE FOR SHILPINS AND SHILPINIS
We wish for a reclaimed cultural connection—an emerging mind that can touch the cosmos and create miracles with the hand.
With that in mind, we invite shilpins and shilpinis of wood and plastic arts to relearn and replicate—beginning with miniature models of what was known to our forebearers. Guided by the Shastras, their sacred geometry, and the living lineages of Kashyapa, Manasara, Narada, and Samarangana Sutradhara, we begin again: with discipline, devotion, and form.