Building Architecture Of Sthapatya Veda Pdf
Kayleigh Telega
The book is both a scholarly exposition of the philosophical principles of Sthapatya Veda and a practical presentation of the rhythm and creation of rhythm bound forms which give rise to a variety of structures. A complete compendium on the science of Sthapatya Veda, popularly known as Vaastu Veda, with special reference to principles and practices of Vaastu based building architecture. Apart from the valuable textual matter, the book is also enriched with illustrations on the design process and aesthetic elevation treatment for buildings based Vaastu.
For any serious student of Vaastu Shastra this book is an essential bible. It is the culmination of the life work of Dr.Sthapathi, India's foremost temple builder, architect and Vaastu house builder. Dr. Sthapathi's words, like his buildings, are alive with consciousness and spirit.
"Vaastu Shastra has nowadays come to be related to the mere design principle of located the bedroom and kitchen inside a built space and only very few think beyond this point as to what is that which brings in a spritually alluring ambience when the built space or oriented according to Vaastu. Now comes the question of the attributes of the Space that surrounds us. Is there any relations between our inner space and the space surrounding us? If so, what is that? And how is the resonance between our inner space andbuilt space effected by the Vaastu science? What is that which we are able to experience when we are inside a temple in front of the sanctum-sanctorum? Can we say that it is the resonance in vibration of our inner self and that of the built space of the sanctum, which in popular terms is called "Bhakti?" Quite intriguing isn't it?"
Dr. V. Ganapati Sthapati was born at Pillayarpatti, a village in Tamil Nadu. He hails from an illustrious family of traditional architects and sculptors, with an unbroken lineage of centuries, who built the great Brihadeeswara Temple at Tanjore. Dr. Sthapati was the Principal of the Govt. College of Architecture and Sculpture at Mamallapuram, near Chennai, for many years. Now he has founded the Vaastu Vedic Trust and created a research institution called the Vaastu Vedic Research Foundation. He has designed the palatial library and administrative block of the Tamil University at Tanjore, the Muthiah Mundram at Madurai and several other buildings and complexes, which are looked upon as visual musical forms. He is also the master sculptor and builder of the huge 133 feet statue of Thiruvalluvar in stone, which stands off the shore in mid-sea at Kanyakumari, at the southern tip of India. He has organised several international seminars and workshops in India and abroad on the Vaastu tradition. He is the author of many books related to the ancient science and art of Indian architecture and sculpture. At present he is also Professor and Head of the Dept. of Sthapatya Veda, in the World University of Traditional Indian Science and Technology and Culture at Chennai.
The Science and technology of Vaastu Shastra - re-defined re-interpreted and its relevance and all - time universal applicabililty re - established. Archetypal building forms illustrated and punctuated with apt quotations. The textual matter enriched. The book is both a scholarly exposition of the philosophical principles of Sthapatya Veda and a practical presentation of the rhythm and creation of rhythm bound forms which give rise to a variety of structures. A complete compendium on the science of Sthapatya Veda, popularly known as Vaastu Veda, with special reference to principles and practices of Vaastu based building architecture. Apart from the valuable textual matter, the book is also enriched with illustrations on the design process and aesthetic elevation treatment for buildings based Vaastu. For any serious student of Vaastu Shastra this book is an essential bible. It is the culmination of the life work of Dr.Sthapathi, India's foremost temple builder, architect and Vaastu house builder. Dr. Sthapathi's words, like his buildings, are alive with consciousness and spirit.
Hindu temple architecture as the main form of Hindu architecture has many varieties of style, though the basic nature of the Hindu temple remains the same, with the essential feature an inner sanctum, the garbha griha or womb-chamber, where the primary Murti or the image of a deity is housed in a simple bare cell. For rituals and prayers, this chamber frequently has an open space that can be moved in a clockwise direction. There are frequently additional buildings and structures in the vicinity of this chamber, with the largest ones covering several acres. On the exterior, the garbhagriha is crowned by a tower-like shikhara, also called the vimana in the south. The shrine building often includes an circumambulatory passage for parikrama, a mandapa congregation hall, and sometimes an antarala antechamber and porch between garbhagriha and mandapa. In addition to other small temples in the compound, there may be additional mandapas or buildings that are either connected or separate from the larger temples.[1]
The architectural principles of Hindu temples in India are described in Shilpa Shastras and Vastu Sastras.[4][5] The Hindu culture has encouraged aesthetic independence to its temple builders, and its architects have sometimes exercised considerable flexibility in creative expression by adopting other perfect geometries and mathematical principles in Mandir construction to express the Hindu way of life.[6]
Remains of early elliptical shrines discovered in Besnagar (3rd-2nd century BCE)[10] and Nagari (1st century BCE), may be the earliest known Hindu temple structures, associated to the early Bhagavata tradition, a precursor of Vaishnavism.[11][12][13] In Tamil Nadu, the earliest version of the Murugan Temple, Saluvankuppam, north-facing and in brick, appears to date from between the 3rd century BCE and 3rd century CE.[14]
Though there are hardly any remains of stone Hindu temples before the Gupta dynasty in the 5th century CE, there probably were earlier structures in timber-based architecture. The rock-cut Udayagiri Caves (401 CE) are among the most important early sites, built with royal sponsorship, recorded by inscriptions, and with impressive sculpture.[20] The earliest preserved Hindu temples are simple cell-like stone temples, some rock-cut and others structural, as at Temple 17 at Sanchi.[21] By the 6th or 7th century, these evolved into high shikhara stone superstructures. However, there is inscriptional evidence such as the ancient Gangadhara inscription from about 424 CE, states Meister, that towering temples existed before this time and these were possibly made from more perishable material. These temples have not survived.[21][22]
Examples of early major North Indian temples that have survived after the Udayagiri Caves in Madhya Pradesh include those at Tigawa,[23] Deogarh, Parvati Temple, Nachna (465),[22] Bhitargaon, the largest Gupta brick temple to survive,[24] Lakshman Brick Temple, Sirpur (600-625 CE); Rajiv Lochan temple, Rajim (7th-century).[25] Gop Temple in Gujarat (c. 550 or later) is an oddity, with no surviving close comparator.[26]
No pre-7th century CE South Indian free-standing stone temples have survived. Examples of early major South Indian temples that have survived, some in ruins, include the diverse styles at Mahabalipuram, from the 7th and 8th centuries. According to Meister, the Mahabalipuram temples are "monolithic models of a variety of formal structures all of which already can be said to typify a developed "Dravida" (South Indian) order". They suggest a tradition and a knowledge base existed in South India by the time of the early Chalukya and Pallava era when these were built. In the Deccan, Cave 3 of the Badami cave temples was cut out in 578 CE, and Cave 1 is probably slightly earlier.[27] Other examples are found in Aihole and Pattadakal.[25][28]
By about the 7th century most main features of the Hindu temple were established along with theoretical texts on temple architecture and building methods.[29] From between about the 7th and 13th centuries a large number of temples and their ruins have survived (though far fewer than once existed). Many regional styles developed, very often following political divisions, as large temples were typically built with royal patronage. The Vesara style originated in the region between the Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers that is contemporary north Karnataka. According to some art historians, the roots of Vesara style can be traced to the Chalukyas of Badami (500-753AD) whose Early Chalukya or Badami Chalukya architecture built temples in a style that mixed some features of the nagara and the dravida styles, for example using both the northern shikhara and southern vimana type of superstructure over the sanctum in different temples of similar date, as at Pattadakal. This style was further refined by the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta (750-983AD) in sites such as Ellora. Though there is clearly a good deal of continuity with the Badami or Early Chalukya style,[30] other writers only date the start of Vesara to the later Western Chalukyas of Kalyani (983-1195 AD),[31] in sites such as Lakkundi, Dambal, Itagi, and Gadag,[32] and continued by the Hoysala empire (1000-1330 AD).
The earliest examples of Pallava architecture are rock-cut temples dating from 610 to 690 CE and structural temples between 690 and 900 CE. The greatest accomplishments of the Pallava architecture are the rock-cut Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram at Mahabalipuram, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, including the Shore Temple. This group includes both excavated pillared halls, with no external roof except the natural rock, and monolithic shrines where the natural rock is entirely cut away and carved to give an external roof. Early temples were mostly dedicated to Shiva. The Kailasanatha temple also called Rajasimha Pallaveswaram in Kanchipuram built by Narasimhavarman II also known as Rajasimha is a fine example of the Pallava style temple.
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