SHILPA
SHASTRA
Date - 28-October-2023
Temples are the heart and soul of
Indian culture and heritage and
they stood the test of time since
thousands of years the charm of
the sculptures on this temples its
architecture the way they are
built thousands of years ago just
unparallel.Temples are epicenter
of Indian art , culture and
heritage so beautiful are carvings
and the sculptures but what's
actually behind them let's have a
look
Shilpa refers to any art or craft in ancient Indian texts,
while shastram means science. Shilpa Shastram literally
means the science of arts and Crafts. It is an ancient
umbrella term for numerous Hindu texts that describe
arts, crafts, and their design rules, principles and
standards. In the context of Hindu temple architecture
and sculpture, Shilpa Shastras were manuals for
sculpture and Hindu iconography, prescribing among
other things, the proportions of a sculptured figure,
composition, principles, meaning as well as rules of
architecture.
Shilpa and Vastu Shastras are related,
Shilpa Shastra deal with arts and crafts
such as forming statues, icons, stone
murals, painting, carpentary, pottery,
jewellery, dying, textiles and others.
Vastu shastra deals with building
architecture- building house, forts,
temples, apartments, village
and town layout etc.The ancient
Sanskrit texts use the term Shilpin
(male artist) and Shilpini (female
artist) for artist and crafts person,
while shilpani refers to works of arts of
man
Walls
Shilpaofshastra
a temple there
gives are
the different varieties
geometrical of designs
guidelines about
depending on the deity of the temple there are specified
constructing and carving different kinds of pillars it
designs not just any random ones to be carved in
gives the structural guidelines as well as the aesthetic
accordance with the scriptures of agama managara or
guidelines in building
shilpa shastra the are
these books pillars and other
different booksparts
whichof
temple
describe how a temples construction
Arches would be
constructed in the temple
the interesting part is all
these designs are
explained in form of
Sanskrit shlok it's quite
interesting to see how
ARCHES such great details are
encoded in Sanskrit
Here are the most catchy
parts of the temples the
vimanas or the gopuram
shilpa shastra explains great
detail about how these needs
to be layered and sculpted
both for it's structure as well
as for its aesthetics and in all
geometrical principles are
VIMANA well blended in each of them
The meaning of Shilpa, according to stella Kramrisch is
complex. She writes that it consists of "art, skill, craft, labor,
ingenuity, rite and ritual, form and creation. The range of
crafts encompassed by the term Shilpa extends to every
aspect of culture, includes sculptor, the potter, the
perfomer, the wheelwright, the painter, the weaver, the
architect, the dancer the musician, the arts of love, and
others. Ancient Indian texts assert that the number of the
arts is unlimited, they deploy sixty-four Kala and thirty two
vidyas. Shilpa is discussed in Agamas, Puranas and vastu
shastra where it is linked to the mythology of vishwakarma.
A Hindu temple is a symmetry-driven structure, with many variations,
on a square grid of padas, depicting perfect geometric shapes such as
circles and squares. Susan Lewandowski states that the underlying
principle in a Hindu temple is built around the belief that all things are
one, everything is connected. A temple, states Lewandowski, "replicates
again and again the Hindu beliefs in the parts mirroring, and at the
same time being, the universal whole" like an "organism of repeating
cells". The pilgrim is welcomed through mathematically structured
spaces, a network of art, pillars with carvings and statues that display
and celebrate the four important and necessary principles of human
life—the pursuit of artha (prosperity, wealth), the pursuit of kama
(desire), the pursuit of dharma (virtues, ethical life) and the pursuit of
moksha (release, self-knowledge).
At the centre of the temple, typically below and sometimes
above or next to the deity, is mere hollow space with no
decoration, symbolically representing Purusa, the Supreme
Principle, the sacred Universal, one without form, which is
present everywhere, connects everything, and is the essence o
everyone. A Hindu temple is meant to encourage reflection,
facilitate purification of one's mind, and trigger the process of
inner realization within the devotee. The specific process is lef
to the devotee's school of belief. The primary deity of different
Hindu temples varies to reflect this spiritual spectrum.
THANK YOU
Anshika Gangwar
Presented
Chhavi Verma
By:- Khushi Mahajan
