3rd Belur post from my India trip
Something about Vishnu
The Chennkeshava temple at Belur was built in adoration to Vishnu in his manifestation as Keshava. So many names and variations. It all can get a bit confusing, and one doesn't need to go to the temple with all this information.
(this is going to be longer than I though, I was just going to show a couple photos with some tiny captions... Oh well. Make it through the next couple paragraphs and then your pretty much home free.)
A temple like Belur is structured to open you to your facilities of adoration and also deepen your understanding and knowledge. It can be perceived like a super picto-text made from stone. When you go to temple, as time goes by one can learn the images names, their significance and relationships to each other, then the many stories associated with them. The beauty of Hinduism is that although there are countless gods they have their relationships to each other and are tied to each other, they are set communities in a giant pantheon that have interacted in epic stories.
Someone explains to you some of the significance of a carving, you take it in and then if you choose, then you pass it on. Its visual and oral on the surface. I'd say if you went by dialectical materialism (now that's an oxymoron when talking about a temple! but say you did OK?) the ideal would be to see the secular image and combine it with an oral interpretation, then from you, a synthesis occurs, a realization, a deeper connection.
In time you can 'read' a temple at a glance and be prompted to it just by knowing what's being represented. For example, when I enter the Chennkeshava temple complex I'm greeted by a statue of Garuda (He's half eagle half man) who is the vehicle of Vishnu and always associated with him (every main god in the pantheon has their vehicle they are associated with), so I know from the onset that I'm entering a Vishnu temple. If I was greeted by Nandi (the bull) then I would know I was entering a Shiva temple.
Traditionally when one actually steps up to a Hindu temple you first walk around the exterior going clockwise, you do a complete round before entering. Belur takes advantage of this by placing 100s and 100s of carvings around its exterior. So the effect is you see, and to your level of comprehension you are effected. Then you enter. Well that is so simplified, really this is the "Idiot's Guide" version of things ;p
So anyway, I get to what I was going to show in the first place. Vishnu and some of his incarnations. Vishnu has seven main incarnations, each one is a progression to his present form. Here are a few I took photos of from Belur.
Matsya the Fish and Kurma the Turtle, Vishnu's first and second incarnations.
Varaha the Boar carrying Bhoomi Devi (the Mother Earth) from the bottom of the ocean. Varaha is Vishnu's third incarnation.
Narasimha (the half-man/half lion) Vishnu's fourth incarnation.
Vishnu in his present incarnation asleep on the serpent Ananta dreaming the universe into existence.
This isn't an incarnation, but represents Vishnu. Vishnu footprints.
the rest of my Belur pics here:
http://flickr.com/photos/byronic501/sets/72057594082516916/
That's all for now, next stop the next Hoysala temple not far away at Halebid.
The Chennkeshava temple at Belur was built in adoration to Vishnu in his manifestation as Keshava. So many names and variations. It all can get a bit confusing, and one doesn't need to go to the temple with all this information.
(this is going to be longer than I though, I was just going to show a couple photos with some tiny captions... Oh well. Make it through the next couple paragraphs and then your pretty much home free.)
A temple like Belur is structured to open you to your facilities of adoration and also deepen your understanding and knowledge. It can be perceived like a super picto-text made from stone. When you go to temple, as time goes by one can learn the images names, their significance and relationships to each other, then the many stories associated with them. The beauty of Hinduism is that although there are countless gods they have their relationships to each other and are tied to each other, they are set communities in a giant pantheon that have interacted in epic stories.
Someone explains to you some of the significance of a carving, you take it in and then if you choose, then you pass it on. Its visual and oral on the surface. I'd say if you went by dialectical materialism (now that's an oxymoron when talking about a temple! but say you did OK?) the ideal would be to see the secular image and combine it with an oral interpretation, then from you, a synthesis occurs, a realization, a deeper connection.
In time you can 'read' a temple at a glance and be prompted to it just by knowing what's being represented. For example, when I enter the Chennkeshava temple complex I'm greeted by a statue of Garuda (He's half eagle half man) who is the vehicle of Vishnu and always associated with him (every main god in the pantheon has their vehicle they are associated with), so I know from the onset that I'm entering a Vishnu temple. If I was greeted by Nandi (the bull) then I would know I was entering a Shiva temple.
Traditionally when one actually steps up to a Hindu temple you first walk around the exterior going clockwise, you do a complete round before entering. Belur takes advantage of this by placing 100s and 100s of carvings around its exterior. So the effect is you see, and to your level of comprehension you are effected. Then you enter. Well that is so simplified, really this is the "Idiot's Guide" version of things ;p
So anyway, I get to what I was going to show in the first place. Vishnu and some of his incarnations. Vishnu has seven main incarnations, each one is a progression to his present form. Here are a few I took photos of from Belur.
Matsya the Fish and Kurma the Turtle, Vishnu's first and second incarnations.
Varaha the Boar carrying Bhoomi Devi (the Mother Earth) from the bottom of the ocean. Varaha is Vishnu's third incarnation.
Narasimha (the half-man/half lion) Vishnu's fourth incarnation.
Vishnu in his present incarnation asleep on the serpent Ananta dreaming the universe into existence.
This isn't an incarnation, but represents Vishnu. Vishnu footprints.
the rest of my Belur pics here:
http://flickr.com/photos/byronic501/sets/72057594082516916/
That's all for now, next stop the next Hoysala temple not far away at Halebid.