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Home > Temples of Kerala > Wall (Bhitthi) Wall (Bhitthi)The walls, as stated earlier, are built on the vedika, all of them made up of either granite stones, laterite stones, burnt bricks or wood. The laterite stones and burnt bricks may sometimes be lime-plastered. The walls have the following decorative elements:
According to isaanasiva Gurudeva Paddhathi, the temple has four doors - the saanthi-dwaara, the door of 'peace' in the east; vidya-dwaara, the door of knowledge in the south. nivartthi-dwaara, the door of turning away from the world in the west; and Prathishta-dwaara, the door of 'firm basis' in the north. (vide The Hindu temple, Stella Kramrisch, p.317). The measurements of prqasaada-dwaara of the sreekovil is closely related to the thickness of the wall of the garbha-grha. Let the thickness of the wall be 't'. Then the door has to be so fixed that the thickness from the centre of side pillars of door is (5/ 12)t outwards and (7/ 12)t inside. Further the slight deviation of the mid point of the door is 2/49 and 1/38 from the central point of the praasaada and that too clock-wise and related to the yoni of the garbha-grha. The garbha-grha contains a bimba in anthropomorphic form or in the form of a linga or without form or symbolic. If the bimba is in anthropomorphic form then the measurements of the main entrance of garbha-grha, known as garbha-grha-dwaara or praasaada-dwaara, are in five ways. . Let the breadth of the garbha-grha is 'b'. Then the measurements are as follows.
In this context it is to be noted that the inner width of garbha- grha-dwaara is always of even measure (either in koles or angulams). The inner height has therefore to be adjusted slightly to agree with the yoni of the garbha-grha. (The height of the door of the garbha-grha is related to the size of the idol which is discussed in Chapter 4.) The measurements of other entrances are based on the height of the pillars. If 'p' is the height of the pillar then the measurements are
It may be noted that for nirandhaara type the praasaada-dwaara and garbha-grha-¬dwaara are equal. The width of the sill of the door may be 1 ¼ or 1 ½ times of sthamba and having thickness equal to half of the breadth. The sill is made in the shape of vaajana, and its height is equal to two-fifth of the difference between the height of the pillar and the height of the garbha-dwaara. The thickness of the two doors is one-fourth, one-sixth or one-eighth of a dand. The door panels will have bhramarakas (hinges) at the top and base, argala (inner bolt), sandhi-paala or sandhi¬-phalaka (protector joints), prakshepaneeya (outer bolt), va!ayas (chain), and adornment such as pathrakas (leaf-line metallic bands) both length and breadth wise, pulakas, aarthavas and kudmlas (nails in the form of flowers in three stages of bloom viz. closed bud, semi-open and blossomed), indu-sakalas (ornament in the shape of crescents) accompanied by sreemukha (face of the Goddess). The breadth of the door is equal to half of the breadth of the entrance plus the thickness of the door. It must also have strong panels, both at the top and bottom. All the more, it is good if the door panel is covered with brass (a mixture of copper and zinc) with ornamentation like odd number of projections in the shape of breast, crest, and iron rings, besides lock. The breadth of the ghana-dwaara is 5/ 8th of the praasaada¬-dwaara and length equals two or two and a half times of its breadth. Ghana-dwaaras may also have decoration of pillars, thoranas, false doors, locks etc. Thoranas (a decorative garland or scroll either straight or arched, spinning the tops of two columns) are of three types pathra-thorana (leaf-shaped), makara-thorana (head of the monster) and vichithra-thorana (a combination of the shapes of bird and sea-monster). The position of ghana-dwaara is related to the position of the idol. There are certain other terms which need further explanation. The walls may have central projections known as bhanda and corner projections called krnas. Over the parapet there may also be haara (garland). The entablature over the wall and pillars is known as prasthara. It has different mouldings like utthara, vaajana, valabhi, kapotha, aalinga and anthari and all these are explained below:
Above the prasthara rarely a simha-maala (a garland or row of lion-heads) decoration is seen. These types of decorations are generally noticed only in dwi-thala or thri¬thala vimaanas. Walls are made up of laterite blocks with or without motifs or granite slabs bearing rough surface and chisel marks. Another feature, specially of square type sreekovil is that the walls have alternate projections and recesses. At times this pattern goes down to the adhishtaana as well. Rarely such projections and recesses are seen in circular and apsidal sreekovils. All vimaal1as (praasaada) have vedika, pillars, ghaaa-dwaaras, thoraT}as etc. In pancha-hasthaadi-praasaadas, jaala-panjaras can be built in intervening sections of the wall, i.e. between bhandra and kan;La projections. For ashta-hasthadi¬praasaadas, kootas can be made at its lower wall. Similarly daSa-hasthaadi praasaadas may contain kootas at comers, saalas at orients, andjaala-panjaras in between pillars. It may also contain naasikas. The width of the wall of the sreekovil is divided by 10, 9 or 8 in such cases with one part thereof for its breadth. The measurement equal to breadth is adopted for kootas and saalas, 3/4 part in between for naasika and 3/4 part for jaala-panjaras. Some niches built in certain temples are extremely beautiful. Thus the elevation of the alpa-praasaada as explained earlier contains different constituent units and each is built remarkably well. Some of them have exquisite architectural designs, particularly the niches as can be seen from Diagram
12 representing the elevation of the famous Peruv~am temple at Cherppu (south¬west of Thrissur on the Thrissur-Kodungallur bus-route).
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