page_title: Hindu temple
section_title: Arts inside Hindu temples
hierarchical_section_title: Hindu temple / Arts inside Hindu temples
caption_attribution_description: Chennakesava temple at Somanathapura, Karnataka, India. Wonderful example of Hoysala architecture of the 13th century. This and other idols were desecrated by marauding invaders. Hindu temple, India Sep 2013
context_page_description: A Hindu temple is a symbolic house, seat and body of divinity. It is a structure designed to bring human beings and gods together, using symbolism to express the ideas and beliefs of Hinduism. The symbolism and structure of a Hindu temple are rooted in Vedic traditions, deploying circles and squares. It also represents recursion and equivalence of the macrocosm and the microcosm by astronomical numbers, and by "specific alignments related to the geography of the place and the presumed linkages of the deity and the patron". A temple incorporates all elements of Hindu cosmos—presenting the good, the evil and the human, as well as the elements of Hindu sense of cyclic time and the essence of life—symbolically presenting dharma, kama, artha, moksa, and karma.
  The spiritual principles symbolically represented in Hindu temples are given in the ancient Sanskrit texts of India, while their structural rules are described in various ancient Sanskrit treatises on architecture. The layout, the motifs, the plan and the building process recite ancient rituals, geometric symbolisms, and reflect beliefs and values innate within various schools of Hinduism.
context_section_description: A typical, ancient Hindu temple has a profusion of arts – from paintings to sculpture, from symbolic icons to engravings, from thoughtful layout of space to fusion of mathematical principles with Hindu sense of time and cardinality.
  Ancient Sanskrit texts classify idols and images in number of ways. For example, one method of classification is the dimensionality of completion:
  Chitra: images that are three-dimensional and completely formed
  Chitrardha: images that are engraved in half relief
  Chitrabhasa: images that are two-dimensional such as paintings on walls and cloth
  Another way of classification is by the expressive state of the image:
  Raudra or ugra: are images that were meant to terrify, induce fear. These typically have wide, circular eyes, carry weapons, have skulls and bones as adornment. These idols were worshiped by soldiers before going to war, or by people in times of distress or terrors. Raudra deity temples were not set up inside villages or towns, but invariably outside and in remote areas of a kingdom.
  Shanta and saumya: are images that were pacific, peaceful and expressive of love, compassion, kindness and other virtues in Hindu pantheon. These images would carry symbolic icons of peace, knowledge, music, wealth, flowers, sensuality among other things. In ancient India, these temples were predominant inside villages and towns.
  A Hindu temple may or may not include an idol or images, but larger temples usually do. Personal Hindu temples at home or a hermitage may have a pada for yoga or meditation, but be devoid of anthropomorphic representations of god. Nature or others arts may surround him or her. To a Hindu yogin, states Gopinath Rao, one who has realised Self and the Universal Principle within himself, there is no need for any temple or divine image for worship. However, for those who have yet to reach this height of realization, various symbolic manifestations through images, idols and icons as well as mental modes of worship are offered as one of the spiritual paths in the Hindu way of life. This belief is repeated in ancient Hindu scriptures. For example, the Jabaladarshana Upanishad states:
  शिवमात्मनि पश्यन्ति प्रतिमासु न योगिनः |
  
  अज्ञानं भावनार्थाय प्रतिमाः परिकल्पिताः || ५९ ||
  
  - जाबालदर्शनोपनिषत्
  A yogin perceives god (Siva) within himself,
  
  images are for those who have not reached this knowledge.
  — Jabaladarsana Upanishad, verse 59
caption: Illustration of Chitrardha style of art work in a Hindu temple.
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