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Mandapa
A mandapa or mantapa () is a pillared hall or pavilion for public rituals in Indian architecture, especially featured in Hindu temple architecture. Mandapas are described as "open" or "closed" depending on whether they have walls. In temples, one or more mandapas very often lie between the sanctuary and the temple entrance, on the same axis. In a large temple other mandapas may be placed to the sides, or detached within the temple compound. Temple architecture In the Hindu temple the ''mandapa'' is a porch-like structure through the (''gopuram'') (ornate gateway) and leading to the temple. It is used for religious dancing and music and is part of the basic temple compound. The prayer hall was generally built in front of the temple's ''sanctum sanctorum'' (''garbhagriha''). A large temple would have many ''mandapa''. If a temple has more than one ''mandapa'', each one is allocated for a different function and given a name to reflect its use. For example, a ''mandapa'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hindu Temple Architecture
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. This chamber often has an open area designed for movement in clockwise rotation for rituals and prayers. Around this chamber there are often other structures and buildings, in the largest cases 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. There may be other mandapas or other buildings, connected or detached, in large temples, together with other small temples in the compound. Hindu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hindu Temple
A Hindu temple, or ''mandir'' or ''koil'' in Indian languages, is a house, seat and body of divinity for Hindus. It is a structure designed to bring human beings and gods together through worship, sacrifice, and devotion.; Quote: "The Hindu temple is designed to bring about contact between man and the gods" (...) "The architecture of the Hindu temple symbolically represents this quest by setting out to dissolve the boundaries between man and the divine". The symbolism and structure of a Hindu temple are rooted in Vedic traditions, deploying circles and squares. It also represents recursion and the representation of the 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 the Hindu cosmos — presenting the good, the evil and the human, as well as the elements of the Hindu sense of cyclic time and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ganesh Chaturthi
Ganesh Chaturthi (ISO: ), also known as Vinayak Chaturthi (), or Ganeshotsav () is a Hindu festival commemorating the birth of the Hindu god Ganesha. The festival is marked with the installation of Ganesha's clay idols privately in homes and publicly on elaborate pandals (temporary stages). Observances include chanting of Vedic hymns and Hindu texts, such as prayers and ''vrata'' (fasting). Offerings and ''prasada'' from the daily prayers, that are distributed from the pandal to the community, include sweets such as modaka as it is believed to be a favourite of Ganesha. The festival ends on the tenth day after start, when the idol is carried in a public procession with music and group chanting, then immersed in a nearby body of water such as a river or sea, called visarjan on the day of Anant Chaturdashi. In Mumbai alone, around 150,000 statues are immersed annually. Thereafter the clay idol dissolves and Ganesha is believed to return to his celestial abode. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nandi (bull)
Nandi ( sa, नन्दि), also known as Nandikeshwara or Nandideva, is the bull vahana of the Hindu god Shiva. He is also the guardian deity of Kailash, the abode of Shiva. Almost all Shiva temples display stone-images of a seated Nandi, generally facing the main shrine. According to Saivite siddhantic tradition, he is considered as the chief guru of eight disciples of Nandinatha Sampradaya, namely, Sanaka, Sanatana, Sanandana, Sanatkumara, Tirumular, Vyagrapada, Patanjali, and Sivayoga Muni, who were sent in eight different directions, to spread the wisdom. The Cham Hindus of Vietnam believes that when they die, the Nandi will come and take their soul to the holy land of India from Vietnam. The Sanskrit word nandi ( sa, नन्दि) has the meaning of happy, joy, and satisfaction, the properties of divine guardian of Shiva- Nandi. It is recently documented, that the application of the name Nandi to the bull (Sanskrit: ''Vṛṣabha''), is in fact a development of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vimana (shrine)
''Vimana'' is the structure over the ''garbhagriha'' or inner sanctum in the Hindu temples of South India and Odisha in East India. In typical temples of Odisha using the Kalinga style of architecture, the ''vimana'' is the tallest structure of the temple, as it is in the ''shikhara'' towers of temples in West and North India. By contrast, in large South Indian temples, it is typically smaller than the great gatehouses or ''gopuram'', which are the most immediately striking architectural elements in a temple complex. A ''vimana'' is usually shaped as a pyramid, consisting of several stories or '' tala''. ''Vimana'' are divided in two groups: ''jati vimanas'' that have up to four ''tala'' and ''mukhya vimana'' that have five ''tala'' and more. In North Indian temple architecture texts, the superstructure over the ''garbhagriha'' is called a ''shikhara''. However, in South Indian Hindu architecture texts, the term ''shikhara'' means a dome-shaped crowning cap above the ''vimana''. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tamil Language
Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Puducherry. Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in the four other South Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is also spoken by the Tamil diaspora found in many countries, including Malaysia, Myanmar, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia and Mauritius. Tamil is also natively spoken by Sri Lankan Moors. One of 22 scheduled languages in the Constitution of India, Tamil was the first to be classified as a classical language of India. Tamil is one of the longest-surviving classical languages of India.. "Tamil is one of the two longest-surviving classical languages in India" (p. 7). A. K. Ramanujan described it as "the on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khmer Architecture
Khmer architecture ( km, ស្ថាបត្យកម្មខ្មែរ), also known as Angkorian architecture ( km, ស្ថាបត្យកម្មសម័យអង្គរ), is the architecture produced by the Khmer people, Khmers during the Angkor period of the Khmer Empire from approximately the later half of the 8th century CE to the first half of the 15th century CE. The Indian rock-cut architecture, architecture of the Indian rock-cut temples, particularly in sculpture, had an influence on Southeast Asia and was widely adopted into the Indianization of Southeast Asia, Indianised architecture of Cambodian (Khmer), Names of Vietnam, Annamese and Javanese temples (of the Greater India). Evolved from Indian influences, Khmer architecture became clearly distinct from that of the Indian sub-continent as it developed its own special characteristics, some of which were created independently and others of which were incorporated from neighboring cultural traditions, re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khmer People
The Khmer people ( km, ជនជាតិខ្មែរ, ) are a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Cambodia. They comprise over 90% of Cambodia's population of 17 million.Cambodia CIA World FactBook. They speak the Khmer language, which is part of the larger Austroasiatic languages, Austroasiatic-language family found in parts of Southeast Asia (including Vietnam, Laos and Malaysia), parts of central, eastern, and northeastern India, parts of Bangladesh in South Asia, in parts of South China, Southern China and numerous list of islands in the Indian Ocean, islands in the Indian Ocean. The majority of the Khmers follow Theravada Buddhism. Significant populations of Khmers reside in adjacent areas of Thailand (Northern Khmer people, Northern Khmer) and the Mekong Delta region of neighboring Vietnam (Khmer Krom), while th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khmer Language
Khmer (; , ) is an Austroasiatic languages, Austroasiatic language spoken by the Khmer people, and the Official language, official and national language of Cambodia. Khmer has been influenced considerably by Sanskrit and Pāli, Pali, especially in the royal and religious Register (sociolinguistics), registers, through Hinduism and Buddhism. It is also the earliest recorded and earliest written language of the Mon–Khmer family, predating Mon language, Mon and Vietnamese Language, Vietnamese, due to Old Khmer being the language of the historical empires of Chenla, Angkorian Empire, Angkor and, presumably, their earlier predecessor state, Funan. The vast majority of Khmer speakers speak Central Khmer, the dialect of the central plain where the Khmer are most heavily concentrated. Within Cambodia, regional accents exist in remote areas but these are regarded as varieties of Central Khmer. Two exceptions are the speech of the capital, Phnom Penh, and that of the Khmer Khe in Stung ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Meru
Mount Meru (Sanskrit/Pali: मेरु), also known as Sumeru, Sineru or Mahāmeru, is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the centre of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes. There is no clear identification of Mount Meru with a particular geophysical location. Many famous Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu temples have been built as symbolic representations of this mountain. The "Sumeru Throne" 須彌座 xūmízuò style base is a common feature of Chinese pagodas. The highest point (the finial bud) on the pyatthat, a Burmese-style multi-tiered roof, represents Mount Meru. Etymology Etymologically, the proper name of the mountain is Meru (Sanskrit: Meru), to which is added the approbatory prefix su-, resulting in the meaning "excellent Meru" or "wonderful Meru". ''Meru'' is also the name of the central bead in a mālā. In other languages In other languages, Mount Meru is pronounced: * Assamese: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pendhapa
A pendhapa or pandhapa ( Javanese: ꦥꦼꦤ꧀ꦝꦥ or ꦥꦤ꧀ꦝꦥ, Indonesian spelling: pendapa, nonstandard spelling: pendopo) is a fundamental element of Javanese architecture unique in the southern central part of Java; a large pavilion-like structure built on columns. Either square or rectangular in plan, it is open on all sides and provides shelter from the sun and rain, but allows breeze and indirect light. The word ''pendhapa'' is cognate to the Sanskrit word ''mandapa'' ("hall"). The Dutch writer Multatuli in his colonial reformist novel ''Max Havelaar'' described the pendhapa thus: "After a broad-brimmed hat, an umbrella, or a hollow tree, a 'pendoppo' icis certainly the most simple representation of the idea 'roof'." Derived from ancient Javanese architectural elements, pendhapa are common ritual spaces primarily intended for ceremony, and also for a purposes such as receiving guests in the compounds of wealthy Javanese, and even as cottage industry work spaces ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
