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Mangalore: ‘Dharma Nema’ at Maladi House on Mar 25, 26

  •   Tue, Mar 22 2011 10:17:06 PM

Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network—Mangalore (PS/CN)
 
Mangalore, Mar 22: The ‘Dharma Nemotsava’ of Shree Jarandaya Jumadi, Banta and Mysandaya deities will be held at Maladi House on Friday March 25 and Saturday March 26.
 
“The festivities will commence with religious rituals on Friday at 6 am. Ganayaga, Poornahuthi, and Anna Santharpane will also be conducted on the same day,” informed Kodialguttu Ajith Kumar Rai Maladi at a press meet held on Tuesday March 22.
 


As part of cultural programmes, ‘Namasankeerthane’ from various Bhajana Mandalis will be held on Friday from 8 am and the convention will be held at 4.30 pm.
 
Internationally-famed artiste Bhasker Kogga Kamath and team, Uppinakudru, will present a puppet show ‘Lanka Dahana’ (Gombeyata) at 7.30 pm.
 
“On Saturday, Dharma Nema will be held 5.30 pm onwards with pomp and gaiety,” said Rai. At the convention to be held at Maladi Manjayya Shetty Stage, Dr Chinnappa Gowda, chancellor of Mangalore University, will preside and a work titled ‘Dharma Nema’ will be released. “The achievers who have contributed to the field of ‘Bhootharadane’ will be felicitated,” he added.
 
Supreetha Shetty, Pratham Bhandary, Asha Jyothi, and Sarika Bhandary were present at the press meet.
  

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  • Pyp, Mangalore

    Sat, Jan 28 2017

    [26/01, 17:45] naina: City News »Largest Shiva-Linga at Viraat Ramayan Mandir

    Largest Shiva-Linga at Viraat Ramayan Mandir BIHAR

    Jainarain Pandey| TNN | Updated: Dec 12, 2016, 12.54 PM IST

    Representative image

    PATNA: The Mahavir Mandir Trust has decided to start work on its Viraat Ramayan Mandir (VRM) project with certain modifications following protests from the Cambodian government that the original map was a replica of its Angkor Wat Temple. The new plan has embedded the architectural designs of many other prominent temples of India and South-East Asia, including those at Ayutthaya in Thailand and Pantarama in Java (Indonesia), said trust secretary Acharya Kishore Kunal.

    "The proposed VRM, largest Hindu temple in the world, will have the largest Shiva-Linga measuring 33 feet in height and 33 feet in circumference," Kunal told TOI on Sunday. 

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    The temple is to come up at Kesaria in West Champaran, known for one of the tallest Buddhist stupas in the world and a Unesco World Heritage Site .



    "In the first phase, the temples of Anjaneya (Hanuman), Mahadeva (Shiva) and Rama will be constructed with an estimated expenditure of Rs 200 crore in the next three years. The Shiva-Linga will be the largest with 44ft high 'arghaa' and 40ft high roof. From there, the devotees will pour jal (water) on the Shiva-Linga. Similarly, 20,000 devotees would worship Lord Rama conjointly from 72ft height," Kunal said
    [26/01, 17:56] naina:  Angkor Wat temple of cambodia was constructed in the 12th century as the state temple of King Suryavarman II of the Khmer Empire of Tamil nadu India according to cambodia 
    [26/01, 18:02] naina: INCREDIBLE INDIA

    World’s Largest Hindu Temple ‘Viraat Ramayan Mandir’ to be built in India

    FURNITURE DEKHO2 WEEKS AGO0  0

    Viraat Ramayan Mandir is an upcoming Hindu temple complex in Kesaria, Bihar, India, with an estimated budget of ₹500 crore (US$74 million). When completed, it will be the largest religious monument in the world. The construction of the temple was scheduled to start in June 2015, but has since been delayed following the Cambodia government’s protest to the government of India.

    Planning

    The temple is inspired from the Angkor Wat Temple in Cambodia and Rameshwaram and Minakashi Temples in India.The temple will comprise 18 homes for various Hindu gods with focus on Lord Ram and Sita. The plan is spearheaded by Acharya Kishore Kunal.The temple will have a hall with a seating capacity of 20,000 people.The Virat Ramayan Mandir will be almost double the height of the world famous 12th century Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia, which is 215 feet high.

    Patna based, Mahavir Mandir Trust first proposed the project, under the name of Viraat Angkor Wat Ram Mandir in Hajipur, the twin city of Patna. But temple trust acquired 161 acres of land in East Champaran district and therefore the earlier site of Hajipur had been abandoned.

    In August 2012, after the concern and sentiment of the Cambodia Government, when Indian Government asked Mahavir Mandir Trust not to build the exact replica of Angkor Wat. The trust changed the name from Virat Angkor Wat Ram Temple to Virat Ramayan Mandir. On November 13, 2013, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar unveiled a model of the temple.

    

    

    

    Location

    It is located at a distance of 60 km from Vaishali and at a distance of 120 km from Patna, the capital of Bihar and 90 km from Raxaul.Its exact location is at Janaki Nagar near Kesaria in North Bihar. It will be spread over an area of 200 acres at Bahuara-Kathwalia villages on Kesariya-Chakia road in East Champaran district. It will be 2800 ft in length, 1400 ft in width and 405 ft in height.

    
    [26/01, 18:13] naina: Angkor Wat could potentially lose its status as the world’s largest religious monument to a $78 million upstart being conceived in the backlands of Bihar, one of India’s most impoverished provinces.

    The proposed temple, named Viraat Ramayan Mandir (Majestic Ramayan Temple), will be 379 feet tall with 18 spires spread across 200 acres of land. In comparison, Cambodia’s Angkor Wat—sprawling over 500 acres, equivalent to more than 300 football fields—is 215 feet tall with nine spires, but will remain the largest temple in terms of land size.

    The 800-year-old Angkor Wat, which means Capital Temple, was built by King Suryavarman II of the Khmer empire.

    Expected to be complete by 2023, a private trust—the Mahavir Mandir Trust—that plans to spend Rs500 crore ($78 million) to build the temple in the East Champaran district of Bihar. The eastern state is one of the poorest in India: In 2014, per capita income in Bihar stood at Rs31,229($490), compared to the national average of Rs74,380($1,167).

    Location of Viraat Ramayan Mandir. (Google Maps)

    “Its not just a temple. It is a masterpiece,” Kishore Kunal, secretary of Mahavir Mandir Nyas Samiti, the trust’s arm overseeing the project, told Quartz. “This temple will bring in tourists and provide a large number of jobs for the locals. That’s the main idea behind building the temple.”

    To be built of red sandstone—the same material used in New Delhi’s iconic Red Fort and Rashtrapati Bhawan—the Viraat Ramayan Mandir, as the name same suggests, will be dedicated to Lord Ram, an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu. Angkor Wat, too, is dedicated to Vishnu.

    The project was first proposed in 2012 by the Mahavir Mandir Trust—which also runs four hospitals in Bihar—as the Virat Angkor Wat Ram Mandir but later changed names after objection from Cambodia.
    [26/01, 18:24] naina: Angkor Wat (Khmer: អង្គរវត្ត or "Capital Temple") is a temple complex in Cambodia and the largest religious monument in the world, with the site measuring 162.6 hectares (1,626,000 m2; 402 acres).[1] It was originally constructed as a Hindu temple of god Vishnu for the Khmer Empire, gradually transforming into a Buddhist temple toward the end of the 12th century.[2] It was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II[3] in the early 12th century in Yaśodharapura (Khmer: យសោធរបុរៈ, present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum. Breaking from the Shaiva tradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious center since its foundation. The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia,[4] appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors.[5]

    Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture: the temple-mountain and the later galleried temple. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology: within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west; scholars are divided as to the significance of this. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs, and for the numerous devatas adorning its walls.

    EtymologyEdit

    The modern name, Angkor Wat, means "Temple City" or "City of Temples" in Khmer; Angkor, meaning "city" or "capital city", is a vernacular form of the word nokor (នគរ), which comes from the Sanskrit word nagara (Devanāgarī: नगर).[6]Wat is the Khmer word for "temple grounds", also derived from Sanskrit vāṭa (Devanāgarī: वाट), meaning "enclosure".[7]

    The original name of the temple was Vrah Viṣṇuloka (Sanskrit) or Brah Bisnulōk (Local variant) which means the sacred dwelling of Vishnu.

    HistoryEdit

    

    King Suryavarman II, the builder of Angkor Wat

    Angkor Wat lies 5.5 kilometres (3.4 mi) north of the modern town of Siem Reap, and a short distance south and slightly east of the previous capital, which was centred at Baphuon. In an area of Cambodia where there is an important group of ancient structures, it is the southernmost of Angkor's main sites.

    According to legend, the construction of Angkor Wat was ordered by Indra to act as a palace for his son Precha Ket Mealea.[8] According to the 13th century Chinese traveler Daguan Zhou, it was believed by some that the temple was constructed in a single night by a divine architect.[9]

    The initial design and construction of the temple took place in the first half of the 12th century, during the reign of Suryavarman II (ruled 1113 – c. 1150). Dedicated to Vishnu, it was built as the king's state temple and capital city. As neither the foundation stela nor any contemporary inscriptions referring to the temple have been found, its original name is unknown, but it may have been known as "Varah Vishnu-lok" after the presiding deity. Work seems to have ended shortly after the king's death, leaving some of the bas-relief decoration unfinished.[10] In 1177, approximately 27 years after the death of Suryavarman II, Angkor was sacked by the Chams, the traditional enemies of the Khmer.[11]Thereafter the empire was restored by a new king, Jayavarman VII, who established a new capital and state temple (Angkor Thom and the Bayon respectively) a few kilometers to the north.

    Toward the end of the 12th century, Angkor Wat gradually transformed from a Hindu center of worship to Buddhism, which continues to the present day.[2]Angkor Wat is unusual among the Angkor temples in that although it was somewhat neglected after the 16th century it was never completely abandoned, its preservation being due in part to the fact that its moat also provided some protection from encroachment by the jungle.[12]

    One of the first Western visitors to the temple was António da Madalena, a Portuguese monk who visited in 1586 and said that it "is of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world. It has towers and decoration and all the refinements which the human genius can conceive of."[13]

    By the 17th century, Angkor Wat was not completely abandoned and functioned as a Buddhist temple. Fourteen inscriptions dated from the 17th century discovered in Angkor area testify to Japanese Buddhist pilgrims that had established small settlements alongside Khmer locals.[14] At that time, the temple was thought by the Japanese visitors as the famed Jetavana garden of the Buddha, which originally located in the kingdom of Magadha, India.[15] The best-known inscription tells of Ukondafu Kazufusa, who celebrated the Khmer New Year at Angkor Wat in 1632.[16]

    In the mid-19th century, the temple was visited by the French naturalist and explorer Henri Mouhot, who popularised the site in the West through the publication of travel notes, in which he wrote:

    "One of these temples—a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michelangelo—might take an honorable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome, and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation is now plunged."[17]

    Mouhot, like other early Western visitors, found it difficult to believe that the Khmers could have built the temple and mistakenly dated it to around the same era as Rome. The true history of Angkor Wat was pieced together only from stylistic and epigraphic evidence accumulated during the subsequent clearing and restoration work carried out across the whole Angkor site. There were no ordinary dwellings or houses or other signs of settlement, including cooking utensils, weapons, or items of clothing usually found at ancient sites. Instead there is the evidence of the monuments themselves.[18]

    

    Facade of Angkor Wat, a drawing by Henri Mouhot, c. 1860

    

    1870 photograph by Émile Gsell

    

    French postcard about Angkor Wat in 1911

    Angkor Wat required considerable restoration in the 20th century, mainly the removal of accumulated earth and vegetation.[19] Work was interrupted by the civil war and Khmer Rouge control of the country during the 1970s and 1980s, but relatively little damage was done during this period. Camping Khmer Rouge forces used whatever wood remained in the building structures for firewood, a pavilion was ruined by a stray American shell, and a shoot-out between Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese forces put a few bullet holes in a bas relief. Far more damage was done after the wars, by art thieves working out of Thailand, which, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, claimed almost every head that could be lopped off the structures, including reconstructions.[20]

    The temple is a powerful symbol of Cambodia, and is a source of great national pride that has factored into Cambodia's diplomatic relations with France, the United States and its neighbor Thailand. A depiction of Angkor Wat has been a part of Cambodian national flags since the introduction of the first version circa 1863.[21] From a larger historical and even transcultural perspective, however, the temple of Angkor Wat did not become a symbol of national pride sui generis but had been inscribed into a larger politico-cultural process of French-colonial heritage production in which the original temple site was presented in French colonial and universal exhibitions in Paris and Marseille between 1889 and 1937.[22] Angkor Wat's aesthetics were also on display in the plaster cast museum of Louis Delaporte called musée Indo-chinois which existed in the Parisian Trocadero Palace from c.1880 to the mid-1920s.[23]

    The splendid artistic legacy of Angkor Wat and other Khmer monuments in the Angkor region led directly to France adopting Cambodia as a protectorate on 11 August 1863 and invading Siam to take control of the ruins. This quickly led to Cambodia reclaiming lands in the northwestern corner of the country that had been under Siamese (Thai) control since AD 1351 (Manich Jumsai 2001), or by some accounts, AD 1431.[24] Cambodia gained independence from France on 9 November 1953 and has controlled Angkor Wat since that time. It is safe to say that from the colonial period onwards until the site's nomination as UNESCO World Heritage in 1992, this specific temple of Angkor Wat was instrumental in the formation of the modern and gradually globalized concept of built cultural heritage.[25]

    In December 2015, it was announced that a research team from University of Sydney had found a previously unseen ensemble of buried towers built and demolished during the construction of Angkor Wat, as well as massive structure of unknown purpose on its south side and wooden fortifications. The findings also include evidence of low-density residential occupation in the region, with a road grid, ponds and mounds. These indicate that the temple precinct, bounded by moat and wall, may not have been used exclusively by the priestly elite, as was previously thought. The team used LiDAR, ground-penetrating radar and targeted excavation to map Angkor Wat.[26]

    ArchitectureEdit

    Site and planEdit

    

    Satellite view and location of Angkor Wat in relation to other Angkor archaeological sites such as Angkor Thom

    Plan of Angkor Wat

    

    General plan of Angkor Wat with central structure in the middle

    

    Detailed plan of the central structure

    Angkor Wat, located at 13°24′45″N 103°52′0″E, is a unique combination of the temple mountain (the standard design for the empire's state temples) and the later plan of concentric galleries. The temple is a representation of Mount Meru, the home of the gods: the central quincunx of towers symbolises the five peaks of the mountain, and the walls and moat symbolise the surrounding mountain ranges and ocean.[27] Access to the upper areas of the temple was progressively more exclusive, with the laity being admitted only to the lowest level.[28]

    Unlike most Khmer temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west rather than the east. This has led many (including Maurice Glaize and George Coedès) to conclude that Suryavarman intended it to serve as his funerary temple.[29][30]Further evidence for this view is provided by the bas-reliefs, which proceed in a counter-clockwise direction—prasavya in Hindu terminology—as this is the reverse of the normal order. Rituals take place in reverse order during Brahminic funeral services.[19] The archaeologist Charles Higham also describes a container which may have been a funerary jar which was recovered from the central tower.[31] It has been nominated by some as the greatest expenditure of energy on the disposal of a corpse.[32] Freeman and Jacques, however, note that several other temples of Angkor depart from the typical eastern orientation, and suggest that Angkor Wat's alignment was due to its dedication to Vishnu, who was associated with the west.[27]

    A further interpretation of Angkor Wat has been proposed by Eleanor Mannikka. Drawing on the temple's alignment and dimensions, and on the content and arrangement of the bas-reliefs, she argues that the structure represents a claimed new era of peace under King Suryavarman II: "as the measurements of solar and lunar time cycles were built into the sacred space of Angkor Wat, this divine mandate to rule was anchored to consecrated chambers and corridors meant to perpetuate the king's power and to honor and placate the deities manifest in the heavens above."[33][34] Mannikka's suggestions have been received with a mixture of interest and scepticism in academic circles.[31] She distances herself from the speculations of others, such as Graham Hancock, that Angkor Wat is part of a representation of the constellation Draco.[35]

    StyleEdit

    

    Angkor Wat as viewed from the rear

    Angkor Wat is the prime example of the classical style of Khmer architecture—the Angkor Wat style—to which it has given its name. By the 12th century Khmer architects had become skilled and confident in the use of sandstone (rather than brick or laterite) as the main building material. Most of the visible areas are of sandstone blocks, while laterite was used for the outer wall and for hidden structural parts. The binding agent used to join the blocks is yet to be identified, although natural resins or slaked lime has been suggested.[36]

    The temple has drawn praise above all for the harmony of its design. According to Maurice Glaize, a mid-20th-century conservator of Angkor, the temple "attains a classic perfection by the restrained monumentality of its finely balanced elements and the precise arrangement of its proportions. It is a work of power, unity and style."[37]

    

    Aerial view of Angkor Wat

    Architecturally, the elements characteristic of the style include: the ogival, redented towers shaped like lotus buds; half-galleries to broaden passageways; axial galleries connecting enclosures; and the cruciform terraces which appear along the main axis of the temple. Typical decorative elements are devatas (or apsaras), bas-reliefs, and on pediments extensive garlands and narrative scenes. The statuary of Angkor Wat is considered conservative, being more static and less graceful than earlier work.[38] Other elements of the design have been destroyed by looting and the passage of time, including gilded stucco on the towers, gilding on some figures on the bas-reliefs, and wooden ceiling panels and doors.[39]

    FeaturesEdit

    Outer enclosureEdit

    

    View of the three ruined towers on the west of the outer enclosure from across the moat

    The outer wall, 1,024 m (3,360 ft) by 802 m (2,631 ft) and 4.5 m (15 ft) high, is surrounded by a 30 m (98 ft) apron of open ground and a moat 190 m (620 ft) wide. Access to the temple is by an earth bank to the east and a sandstone causeway to the west; the latter, the main entrance, is a later addition, possibly replacing a wooden bridge.[40] There are gopuras at each of the cardinal points; the western is by far the largest and has three ruined towers. Glaize notes that this gopura both hides and echoes the form of the temple proper.[41] Under the southern tower is a statue of Vishnu, known as Ta Reach, which may originally have occupied the temple's central shrine.[40] Galleries run between the towers and as far as two further entrances on either side of the gopura often referred to as "elephant gates", as they are large enough to admit those animals. These galleries have square pillars on the outer (west) side and a closed wall on the inner (east) side. The ceiling between the pillars is decorated with lotus rosettes; the west face of the wall with dancing figures; and the east face of the wall with balustered windows, dancing male figures on prancing animals, and devatas, including (south of the entrance) the only one in the temple to be showing her teeth.

    The outer wall encloses a space of 820,000 square metres (203 acres), which besides the temple proper was originally occupied by the city and, to the north of the temple, the royal palace. Like all secular buildings of Angkor, these were built of perishable materials rather than of stone, so nothing remains of them except the outlines of some of the streets.[42] Most of the area is now covered by forest. A 350 m (1,150 ft) causeway connects the western gopura to the temple proper, with naga balustrades and six sets of steps leading down to the city on either side. Each side also features a library with entrances at each cardinal point, in front of the third set of stairs from the entrance, and a pond between the library and the temple itself. The ponds are later additions to the design, as is the cruciform terrace guarded by lions connecting the causeway to the central structure.[42]

    Central structureEdit

    

    Aerial view of the central structure; in front of the central structure lies the cruciform terrace.

    The temple stands on a terrace raised higher than the city. It is made of three rectangular galleries rising to a central tower, each level higher than the last. Mannikka interprets these galleries as being dedicated to the king, Brahma, the moon, and Vishnu.[10] Each gallery has a gopura at each of the points, and the two inner galleries each have towers at their corners, forming a quincunx with the central tower. Because the temple faces west, the features are all set back towards the east, leaving more space to be filled in each enclosure and gallery on the west side; for the same reason the west-facing steps are shallower than those on the other sides.

    

    A tower of Angkor Wat

    The outer gallery measures 187 m (614 ft) by 215 m (705 ft), with pavilions rather than towers at the corners. The gallery is open to the outside of the temple, with columned half-galleries extending and buttressing the structure. Connecting the outer gallery to the second enclosure on the west side is a cruciform cloister called Preah Poan (the "Hall of a Thousand Gods"). Buddha images were left in the cloister by pilgrims over the centuries, although most have now been removed. This area has many inscriptions relating the good deeds of pilgrims, most written in Khmer but others in Burmese and Japanese. The four small courtyards marked out by the cloister may originally have been filled with water.[43] North and south of the cloister are libraries.

    Beyond, the second and inner galleries are connected to each other and to two flanking libraries by another cruciform terrace, again a later addition. From the second level upwards, devatas abound on the walls, singly or in groups of up to four. The second-level enclosure is 100 m (330 ft) by 115 m (377 ft), and may originally have been flooded to represent the ocean around Mount Meru.[44]Three sets of steps on each side lead up to the corner towers and gopuras of the inner gallery. The very steep stairways represent the difficulty of ascending to the kingdom of the gods.[45] This inner gallery, called the Bakan, is a 60 m (200 ft) square with axial galleries connecting each gopura with the central shrine, and subsidiary shrines located below the corner towers. The roofings of the galleries are decorated with the motif of the body of a snake ending in the heads of lions or garudas. Carved lintels and pediments decorate the entrances to the galleries and to the shrines. The tower above the central shrine rises 43 m (141 ft) to a height of 65 m (213 ft) above the ground; unlike those of previous temple mountains, the central tower is raised above the surrounding four.[46] The shrine itself, originally occupied by a statue of Vishnu and open on each side, was walled in when the temple was converted to Theravada Buddhism, the new walls featuring standing Buddhas. In 1934, the conservator George Trouvé excavated the pit beneath the central shrine: filled with sand and water it had already been robbed of its treasure, but he did find a sacred foundation deposit of gold leaf two metres above ground level.[47]

    DecorationEdit

    

    The bas-relief of the Churning of the Sea of Milk shows Vishnu in the centre, his turtle Avatar Kurma below, asuras and devas to left and right, and apsaras and Indra above.

    Integrated with the architecture of the building, and one of the causes for its fame is Angkor Wat's extensive decoration, which predominantly takes the form of bas-relief friezes. The inner walls of the outer gallery bear a series of large-scale scenes mainly depicting episodes from the Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Higham has called these, "the greatest known linear arrangement of stone carving".[48] From the north-west corner anti-clockwise, the western gallery shows the Battle of Lanka (from the Ramayana, in which Rama defeats Ravana) and the Battle of Kurukshetra (from the Mahabharata, showing the mutual annihilation of the Kaurava and Pandava clans). On the southern gallery follow the only historical scene, a procession of Suryavarman II, then the 32 hells and 37 heavens of Hinduism.

    

    Devatas are characteristic of the Angkor Wat style.

    

    Decoration on the corner

    On the eastern gallery is one of the most celebrated scenes, the Churning of the Sea of Milk, showing 92[49] asuras and 88 devas using the serpent Vasuki to churn the sea under Vishnu's direction (Mannikka counts only 91 asuras, and explains the asymmetrical numbers as representing the number of days from the winter solstice to the spring equinox, and from the equinox to the summer solstice).[50] It is followed by Vishnu defeating asuras (a 16th-century addition). The northern gallery shows Krishna's victory over Bana (where according to Glaize, "The workmanship is at its worst"),[51] and a battle between the Hindu gods and asuras. The north-west and south-west corner pavilions both feature much smaller-scale scenes, some unidentified but most from the Ramayana or the life of Krishna.

    Angkor Wat is decorated with depictions of apsaras and devata; there are more than 1,796 depictions of devata in the present research inventory.[52] Angkor Wat architects employed small apsara images (30 cm (12 in)–40 cm (16 in)) as decorative motifs on pillars and walls. They incorporated larger devata images (all full-body portraits measuring approximately 95 cm (37 in)–110 cm (43 in)) more prominently at every level of the temple from the entry pavilion to the tops of the high towers. In 1927, Sappho Marchal published a study cataloging the remarkable diversity of their hair, headdresses, garments, stance, jewelry and decorative flowers, which Marchal concluded were based on actual practices of the Angkor period.[53]

    Construction techniquesEdit

    The stones, as smooth as polished marble, were laid without mortar with very tight joints that are sometimes hard to find. The blocks were held together by mortise and tenon joints in some cases, while in others they used dovetails and gravity. The blocks were presumably put in place by a combination of elephants, coir ropes, pulleys and bamboo scaffolding. Henri Mouhot noted that most of the blocks had holes 2.5 cm (0.98 in) in diameter and 3 cm (1.2 in) deep, with more holes on the larger blocks. Some scholars have suggested that these were used to join them together with iron rods, but others claim they were used to hold temporary pegs to help manoeuvre them into place.

    The monument was made out of 5 million to 10 million sandstone blocks with a maximum weight of 1.5 tons each.[54] In fact, the entire city of Angkor used up far greater amounts of stone than all the Egyptian pyramids combined, and occupied an area significantly greater than modern-day Paris. Moreover, unlike the Egyptian pyramids which use limestone quarried barely 0.5 km (0.31 mi) away all the time, the entire city of Angkor was built with sandstone quarried 40 km (25 mi) (or more) away.[55] This sandstone had to be transported from Mount Kulen, a quarry approximately 25 miles (40 km) to the northeast. The route has been suggested to span 35 kilometres (22 mi) along a canal towards Tonlé Sap lake, another 35 kilometres (22 mi) crossing the lake, and finally 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) against the current along Siem Reap River, making a total journey of 90 kilometres (56 mi). However, Etsuo Uchida and Ichita Shimoda of Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan have discovered in 2012 a shorter 35-kilometre (22 mi) canal connecting Mount Kulen and Angkor Wat using satellite imagery. The two believe that the Khmer used this route instead.[56]

    Virtually all of its surfaces, columns, lintels and even roofs are carved. There are miles of reliefs illustrating scenes from Indian literature including unicorns, griffins, winged dragons pulling chariots as well as warriors following an elephant-mounted leader and celestial dancing girls with elaborate hair styles. The gallery wall alone is decorated with almost 1,000 square metres of bas reliefs. Holes on some of the Angkor walls indicate that they may have been decorated with bronze sheets. These were highly prized in ancient times and were a prime target for robbers. While excavating Khajuraho, Alex Evans, a stonemason and sculptor, recreated a stone sculpture under 4 feet (1.2 m), this took about 60 days to carve.[57] Roger Hopkins and Mark Lehner also conducted experiments to quarry limestone which took 12 quarrymen 22 days to quarry about 400 tons of stone.[58] The labor force to quarry, transport, carve and install so much sandstone must have run into the thousands including many highly skilled artisans. The skills required to carve these sculptures were developed hundreds of years earlier, as demonstrated by some artifacts that have been dated to the seventh century, before the Khmer came to power.[18][32]

    Angkor Wat todayEdit

    Restoration and conservationEdit


    Angkor Wat (Khmer: អង្គរវត្ត or "Capital Temple") is a temple complex in Cambodia and the largest religious monument in the world, with the site measuring 162.6 hectares (1,626,000 m2; 402 acres).[1] It was originally constructed as a Hindu temple of god Vishnu for the Khmer Empire, gradually transforming into a Buddhist temple toward the end of the 12th century.[2] It was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II[3] in the early 12th century in Yaśodharapura (Khmer: យសោធរបុរៈ, present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum. Breaking from the Shaiva tradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious center since its foundation. The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia,[4] appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors.[5]

    Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture: the temple-mountain and the later galleried temple. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology: within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west; scholars are divided as to the significance of this. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs, and for the numerous devatas adorning its walls.

    EtymologyEdit

    The modern name, Angkor Wat, means "Temple City" or "City of Temples" in Khmer; Angkor, meaning "city" or "capital city", is a vernacular form of the word nokor (នគរ), which comes from the Sanskrit word nagara (Devanāgarī: नगर).[6]Wat is the Khmer word for "temple grounds", also derived from Sanskrit vāṭa (Devanāgarī: वाट), meaning "enclosure".[7]

    The original name of the temple was Vrah Viṣṇuloka (Sanskrit) or Brah Bisnulōk (Local variant) which means the sacred dwelling of Vishnu.

    HistoryEdit

    

    King Suryavarman II, the builder of Angkor Wat

    Angkor Wat lies 5.5 kilometres (3.4 mi) north of the modern town of Siem Reap, and a short distance south and slightly east of the previous capital, which was centred at Baphuon. In an area of Cambodia where there is an important group of ancient structures, it is the southernmost of Angkor's main sites.

    According to legend, the construction of Angkor Wat was ordered by Indra to act as a palace for his son Precha Ket Mealea.[8] According to the 13th century Chinese traveler Daguan Zhou, it was believed by some that the temple was constructed in a single night by a divine architect.[9]

    The initial design and construction of the temple took place in the first half of the 12th century, during the reign of Suryavarman II (ruled 1113 – c. 1150). Dedicated to Vishnu, it was built as the king's state temple and capital city. As neither the foundation stela nor any contemporary inscriptions referring to the temple have been found, its original name is unknown, but it may have been known as "Varah Vishnu-lok" after the presiding deity. Work seems to have ended shortly after the king's death, leaving some of the bas-relief decoration unfinished.[10] In 1177, approximately 27 years after the death of Suryavarman II, Angkor was sacked by the Chams, the traditional enemies of the Khmer.[11]Thereafter the empire was restored by a new king, Jayavarman VII, who established a new capital and state temple (Angkor Thom and the Bayon respectively) a few kilometers to the north.

    Toward the end of the 12th century, Angkor Wat gradually transformed from a Hindu center of worship to Buddhism, which continues to the present day.[2]Angkor Wat is unusual among the Angkor temples in that although it was somewhat neglected after the 16th century it was never completely abandoned, its preservation being due in part to the fact that its moat also provided some protection from encroachment by the jungle.[12]

    One of the first Western visitors to the temple was António da Madalena, a Portuguese monk who visited in 1586 and said that it "is of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world. It has towers and decoration and all the refinements which the human genius can conceive of."[13]

    By the 17th century, Angkor Wat was not completely abandoned and functioned as a Buddhist temple. Fourteen inscriptions dated from the 17th century discovered in Angkor area testify to Japanese Buddhist pilgrims that had established small settlements alongside Khmer locals.[14] At that time, the temple was thought by the Japanese visitors as the famed Jetavana garden of the Buddha, which originally located in the kingdom of Magadha, India.[15] The best-known inscription tells of Ukondafu Kazufusa, who celebrated the Khmer New Year at Angkor Wat in 1632.[16]

    In the mid-19th century, the temple was visited by the French naturalist and explorer Henri Mouhot, who popularised the site in the West through the publication of travel notes, in which he wrote:

    "One of these temples—a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michelangelo—might take an honorable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome, and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation is now plunged."[17]

    Mouhot, like other early Western visitors, found it difficult to believe that the Khmers could have built the temple and mistakenly dated it to around the same era as Rome. The true history of Angkor Wat was pieced together only from stylistic and epigraphic evidence accumulated during the subsequent clearing and restoration work carried out across the whole Angkor site. There were no ordinary dwellings or houses or other signs of settlement, including cooking utensils, weapons, or items of clothing usually found at ancient sites. Instead there is the evidence of the monuments themselves.[18]

    

    Facade of Angkor Wat, a drawing by Henri Mouhot, c. 1860

    

    1870 photograph by Émile Gsell

    

    French postcard about Angkor Wat in 1911

    Angkor Wat required considerable restoration in the 20th century, mainly the removal of accumulated earth and vegetation.[19] Work was interrupted by the civil war and Khmer Rouge control of the country during the 1970s and 1980s, but relatively little damage was done during this period. Camping Khmer Rouge forces used whatever wood remained in the building structures for firewood, a pavilion was ruined by a stray American shell, and a shoot-out between Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese forces put a few bullet holes in a bas relief. Far more damage was done after the wars, by art thieves working out of Thailand, which, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, claimed almost every head that could be lopped off the structures, including reconstructions.[20]

    The temple is a powerful symbol of Cambodia, and is a source of great national pride that has factored into Cambodia's diplomatic relations with France, the United States and its neighbor Thailand. A depiction of Angkor Wat has been a part of Cambodian national flags since the introduction of the first version circa 1863.[21] From a larger historical and even transcultural perspective, however, the temple of Angkor Wat did not become a symbol of national pride sui generis but had been inscribed into a larger politico-cultural process of French-colonial heritage production in which the original temple site was presented in French colonial and universal exhibitions in Paris and Marseille between 1889 and 1937.[22] Angkor Wat's aesthetics were also on display in the plaster cast museum of Louis Delaporte called musée Indo-chinois which existed in the Parisian Trocadero Palace from c.1880 to the mid-1920s.[23]

    The splendid artistic legacy of Angkor Wat and other Khmer monuments in the Angkor region led directly to France adopting Cambodia as a protectorate on 11 August 1863 and invading Siam to take control of the ruins. This quickly led to Cambodia reclaiming lands in the northwestern corner of the country that had been under Siamese (Thai) control since AD 1351 (Manich Jumsai 2001), or by some accounts, AD 1431.[24] Cambodia gained independence from France on 9 November 1953 and has controlled Angkor Wat since that time. It is safe to say that from the colonial period onwards until the site's nomination as UNESCO World Heritage in 1992, this specific temple of Angkor Wat was instrumental in the formation of the modern and gradually globalized concept of built cultural heritage.[25]

    In December 2015, it was announced that a research team from University of Sydney had found a previously unseen ensemble of buried towers built and demolished during the construction of Angkor Wat, as well as massive structure of unknown purpose on its south side and wooden fortifications. The findings also include evidence of low-density residential occupation in the region, with a road grid, ponds and mounds. These indicate that the temple precinct, bounded by moat and wall, may not have been used exclusively by the priestly elite, as was previously thought. The team used LiDAR, ground-penetrating radar and targeted excavation to map Angkor Wat.[26]

    ArchitectureEdit

    Site and planEdit

    

    Satellite view and location of Angkor Wat in relation to other Angkor archaeological sites such as Angkor Thom

    Plan of Angkor Wat

    

    General plan of Angkor Wat with central structure in the middle

    

    Detailed plan of the central structure

    Angkor Wat, located at 13°24′45″N 103°52′0″E, is a unique combination of the temple mountain (the standard design for the empire's state temples) and the later plan of concentric galleries. The temple is a representation of Mount Meru, the home of the gods: the central quincunx of towers symbolises the five peaks of the mountain, and the walls and moat symbolise the surrounding mountain ranges and ocean.[27] Access to the upper areas of the temple was progressively more exclusive, with the laity being admitted only to the lowest level.[28]

    Unlike most Khmer temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west rather than the east. This has led many (including Maurice Glaize and George Coedès) to conclude that Suryavarman intended it to serve as his funerary temple.[29][30]Further evidence for this view is provided by the bas-reliefs, which proceed in a counter-clockwise direction—prasavya in Hindu terminology—as this is the reverse of the normal order. Rituals take place in reverse order during Brahminic funeral services.[19] The archaeologist Charles Higham also describes a container which may have been a funerary jar which was recovered from the central tower.[31] It has been nominated by some as the greatest expenditure of energy on the disposal of a corpse.[32] Freeman and Jacques, however, note that several other temples of Angkor depart from the typical eastern orientation, and suggest that Angkor Wat's alignment was due to its dedication to Vishnu, who was associated with the west.[27]

    A further interpretation of Angkor Wat has been proposed by Eleanor Mannikka. Drawing on the temple's alignment and dimensions, and on the content and arrangement of the bas-reliefs, she argues that the structure represents a claimed new era of peace under King Suryavarman II: "as the measurements of solar and lunar time cycles were built into the sacred space of Angkor Wat, this divine mandate to rule was anchored to consecrated chambers and corridors meant to perpetuate the king's power and to honor and placate the deities manifest in the heavens above."[33][34] Mannikka's suggestions have been received with a mixture of interest and scepticism in academic circles.[31] She distances herself from the speculations of others, such as Graham Hancock, that Angkor Wat is part of a representation of the constellation Draco.[35]

    StyleEdit

    

    Angkor Wat as viewed from the rear

    Angkor Wat is the prime example of the classical style of Khmer architecture—the Angkor Wat style—to which it has given its name. By the 12th century Khmer architects had become skilled and confident in the use of sandstone (rather than brick or laterite) as the main building material. Most of the visible areas are of sandstone blocks, while laterite was used for the outer wall and for hidden structural parts. The binding agent used to join the blocks is yet to be identified, although natural resins or slaked lime has been suggested.[36]

    The temple has drawn praise above all for the harmony of its design. According to Maurice Glaize, a mid-20th-century conservator of Angkor, the temple "attains a classic perfection by the restrained monumentality of its finely balanced elements and the precise arrangement of its proportions. It is a work of power, unity and style."[37]

    

    Aerial view of Angkor Wat

    Architecturally, the elements characteristic of the style include: the ogival, redented towers shaped like lotus buds; half-galleries to broaden passageways; axial galleries connecting enclosures; and the cruciform terraces which appear along the main axis of the temple. Typical decorative elements are devatas (or apsaras), bas-reliefs, and on pediments extensive garlands and narrative scenes. The statuary of Angkor Wat is considered conservative, being more static and less graceful than earlier work.[38] Other elements of the design have been destroyed by looting and the passage of time, including gilded stucco on the towers, gilding on some figures on the bas-reliefs, and wooden ceiling panels and doors.[39]

    FeaturesEdit

    Outer enclosureEdit

    

    View of the three ruined towers on the west of the outer enclosure from across the moat

    The outer wall, 1,024 m (3,360 ft) by 802 m (2,631 ft) and 4.5 m (15 ft) high, is surrounded by a 30 m (98 ft) apron of open ground and a moat 190 m (620 ft) wide. Access to the temple is by an earth bank to the east and a sandstone causeway to the west; the latter, the main entrance, is a later addition, possibly replacing a wooden bridge.[40] There are gopuras at each of the cardinal points; the western is by far the largest and has three ruined towers. Glaize notes that this gopura both hides and echoes the form of the temple proper.[41] Under the southern tower is a statue of Vishnu, known as Ta Reach, which may originally have occupied the temple's central shrine.[40] Galleries run between the towers and as far as two further entrances on either side of the gopura often referred to as "elephant gates", as they are large enough to admit those animals. These galleries have square pillars on the outer (west) side and a closed wall on the inner (east) side. The ceiling between the pillars is decorated with lotus rosettes; the west face of the wall with dancing figures; and the east face of the wall with balustered windows, dancing male figures on prancing animals, and devatas, including (south of the entrance) the only one in the temple to be showing her teeth.

    The outer wall encloses a space of 820,000 square metres (203 acres), which besides the temple proper was originally occupied by the city and, to the north of the temple, the royal palace. Like all secular buildings of Angkor, these were built of perishable materials rather than of stone, so nothing remains of them except the outlines of some of the streets.[42] Most of the area is now covered by forest. A 350 m (1,150 ft) causeway connects the western gopura to the temple proper, with naga balustrades and six sets of steps leading down to the city on either side. Each side also features a library with entrances at each cardinal point, in front of the third set of stairs from the entrance, and a pond between the library and the temple itself. The ponds are later additions to the design, as is the cruciform terrace guarded by lions connecting the causeway to the central structure.[42]

    Central structureEdit

    

    Aerial view of the central structure; in front of the central structure lies the cruciform terrace.

    The temple stands on a terrace raised higher than the city. It is made of three rectangular galleries rising to a central tower, each level higher than the last. Mannikka interprets these galleries as being dedicated to the king, Brahma, the moon, and Vishnu.[10] Each gallery has a gopura at each of the points, and the two inner galleries each have towers at their corners, forming a quincunx with the central tower. Because the temple faces west, the features are all set back towards the east, leaving more space to be filled in each enclosure and gallery on the west side; for the same reason the west-facing steps are shallower than those on the other sides.

    

    A tower of Angkor Wat

    The outer gallery measures 187 m (614 ft) by 215 m (705 ft), with pavilions rather than towers at the corners. The gallery is open to the outside of the temple, with columned half-galleries extending and buttressing the structure. Connecting the outer gallery to the second enclosure on the west side is a cruciform cloister called Preah Poan (the "Hall of a Thousand Gods"). Buddha images were left in the cloister by pilgrims over the centuries, although most have now been removed. This area has many inscriptions relating the good deeds of pilgrims, most written in Khmer but others in Burmese and Japanese. The four small courtyards marked out by the cloister may originally have been filled with water.[43] North and south of the cloister are libraries.

    Beyond, the second and inner galleries are connected to each other and to two flanking libraries by another cruciform terrace, again a later addition. From the second level upwards, devatas abound on the walls, singly or in groups of up to four. The second-level enclosure is 100 m (330 ft) by 115 m (377 ft), and may originally have been flooded to represent the ocean around Mount Meru.[44]Three sets of steps on each side lead up to the corner towers and gopuras of the inner gallery. The very steep stairways represent the difficulty of ascending to the kingdom of the gods.[45] This inner gallery, called the Bakan, is a 60 m (200 ft) square with axial galleries connecting each gopura with the central shrine, and subsidiary shrines located below the corner towers. The roofings of the galleries are decorated with the motif of the body of a snake ending in the heads of lions or garudas. Carved lintels and pediments decorate the entrances to the galleries and to the shrines. The tower above the central shrine rises 43 m (141 ft) to a height of 65 m (213 ft) above the ground; unlike those of previous temple mountains, the central tower is raised above the surrounding four.[46] The shrine itself, originally occupied by a statue of Vishnu and open on each side, was walled in when the temple was converted to Theravada Buddhism, the new walls featuring standing Buddhas. In 1934, the conservator George Trouvé excavated the pit beneath the central shrine: filled with sand and water it had already been robbed of its treasure, but he did find a sacred foundation deposit of gold leaf two metres above ground level.[47]

    DecorationEdit

    

    The bas-relief of the Churning of the Sea of Milk shows Vishnu in the centre, his turtle Avatar Kurma below, asuras and devas to left and right, and apsaras and Indra above.

    Integrated with the architecture of the building, and one of the causes for its fame is Angkor Wat's extensive decoration, which predominantly takes the form of bas-relief friezes. The inner walls of the outer gallery bear a series of large-scale scenes mainly depicting episodes from the Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Higham has called these, "the greatest known linear arrangement of stone carving".[48] From the north-west corner anti-clockwise, the western gallery shows the Battle of Lanka (from the Ramayana, in which Rama defeats Ravana) and the Battle of Kurukshetra (from the Mahabharata, showing the mutual annihilation of the Kaurava and Pandava clans). On the southern gallery follow the only historical scene, a procession of Suryavarman II, then the 32 hells and 37 heavens of Hinduism.

    

    Devatas are characteristic of the Angkor Wat style.

    

    Decoration on the corner

    On the eastern gallery is one of the most celebrated scenes, the Churning of the Sea of Milk, showing 92[49] asuras and 88 devas using the serpent Vasuki to churn the sea under Vishnu's direction (Mannikka counts only 91 asuras, and explains the asymmetrical numbers as representing the number of days from the winter solstice to the spring equinox, and from the equinox to the summer solstice).[50] It is followed by Vishnu defeating asuras (a 16th-century addition). The northern gallery shows Krishna's victory over Bana (where according to Glaize, "The workmanship is at its worst"),[51] and a battle between the Hindu gods and asuras. The north-west and south-west corner pavilions both feature much smaller-scale scenes, some unidentified but most from the Ramayana or the life of Krishna.

    Angkor Wat is decorated with depictions of apsaras and devata; there are more than 1,796 depictions of devata in the present research inventory.[52] Angkor Wat architects employed small apsara images (30 cm (12 in)–40 cm (16 in)) as decorative motifs on pillars and walls. They incorporated larger devata images (all full-body portraits measuring approximately 95 cm (37 in)–110 cm (43 in)) more prominently at every level of the temple from the entry pavilion to the tops of the high towers. In 1927, Sappho Marchal published a study cataloging the remarkable diversity of their hair, headdresses, garments, stance, jewelry and decorative flowers, which Marchal concluded were based on actual practices of the Angkor period.[53]

    Construction techniquesEdit

    The stones, as smooth as polished marble, were laid without mortar with very tight joints that are sometimes hard to find. The blocks were held together by mortise and tenon joints in some cases, while in others they used dovetails and gravity. The blocks were presumably put in place by a combination of elephants, coir ropes, pulleys and bamboo scaffolding. Henri Mouhot noted that most of the blocks had holes 2.5 cm (0.98 in) in diameter and 3 cm (1.2 in) deep, with more holes on the larger blocks. Some scholars have suggested that these were used to join them together with iron rods, but others claim they were used to hold temporary pegs to help manoeuvre them into place.

    The monument was made out of 5 million to 10 million sandstone blocks with a maximum weight of 1.5 tons each.[54] In fact, the entire city of Angkor used up far greater amounts of stone than all the Egyptian pyramids combined, and occupied an area significantly greater than modern-day Paris. Moreover, unlike the Egyptian pyramids which use limestone quarried barely 0.5 km (0.31 mi) away all the time, the entire city of Angkor was built with sandstone quarried 40 km (25 mi) (or more) away.[55] This sandstone had to be transported from Mount Kulen, a quarry approximately 25 miles (40 km) to the northeast. The route has been suggested to span 35 kilometres (22 mi) along a canal towards Tonlé Sap lake, another 35 kilometres (22 mi) crossing the lake, and finally 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) against the current along Siem Reap River, making a total journey of 90 kilometres (56 mi). However, Etsuo Uchida and Ichita Shimoda of Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan have discovered in 2012 a shorter 35-kilometre (22 mi) canal connecting Mount Kulen and Angkor Wat using satellite imagery. The two believe that the Khmer used this route instead.[56]

    Virtually all of its surfaces, columns, lintels and even roofs are carved. There are miles of reliefs illustrating scenes from Indian literature including unicorns, griffins, winged dragons pulling chariots as well as warriors following an elephant-mounted leader and celestial dancing girls with elaborate hair styles. The gallery wall alone is decorated with almost 1,000 square metres of bas reliefs. Holes on some of the Angkor walls indicate that they may have been decorated with bronze sheets. These were highly prized in ancient times and were a prime target for robbers. While excavating Khajuraho, Alex Evans, a stonemason and sculptor, recreated a stone sculpture under 4 feet (1.2 m), this took about 60 days to carve.[57] Roger Hopkins and Mark Lehner also conducted experiments to quarry limestone which took 12 quarrymen 22 days to quarry about 400 tons of stone.[58] The labor force to quarry, transport, carve and install so much sandstone must have run into the thousands including many highly skilled artisans. The skills required to carve these sculptures were developed hundreds of years earlier, as demonstrated by some artifacts that have been dated to the seventh century, before the Khmer came to power.
    [26/01, 19:33] naina:  
     
     Spain too came forward with it s electronic gadgets in contributing little efforts for construction of viraat Ramayan mandir in Bihar state India

    Planning of the Viraat Ramayan Mandir


    The celebrated temple trust of Patna Hanuman Mandir, which is called Mahavir Mandir, in this part of the country, is going to build a magnificent temple which is now named Viraat Ramayan Mandir at Angkor Nagar near Kesaria which boasts of the tallest Buddhist stupa in the world. The name has been changed from Viraat Angkor Wat Ram Mandir to Viraat Ramayan Mandir to respect the sentiments of the Cambodian people and to highlight the importance of the eternal epic Ramayan. All major incidents of Ramayan will be presented in the temple premises either in the sanctum sanctorum or in the galleries which will have the electronic gadgets brought from Spain for the purpose. The place is hallowed by the arrival of Shri Ram and Janaki while they were returning from Janakpur to Ayodhya after their marriage.
     
    It is located at a distance of 60 Kms from Vaishali, where dawned the first republic of the world and at a distance of 120 Kms. from Patna, the capital of Bihar.

    Here the Temple Trust has acquired 110 acres of land and therefore the earlier site of Islampur near Hajipur has been abandoned.

    Now the site plan of the temple shown in the map covers an area 2800 ft. in length and 1400 ft. in width. This area of the temple comes to 90 acres of land. The length of the main temple itself is 1240 ft. in length, 1150 ft. in width. The height of the shikhar (spire) will be 270 ft. Thus it will be the largest temple in the world in all dimensions i.e. length, width and height. The architectural plan of the Ramayan Mandir is finalized with the consultation of Shri Piyush Sompura of Ahmadabad who is the architect of the temple. Sompuras of Ahmadabad are traditional architects of temples since centuries. 
    The proposed temple has taken the design of spires from the Angkor Wat but it has 13 shikhars whereas the original Angkor Wat temple has got only 9 spires. The proposed temple follows the layer pattern prevalent in the South-East Asian temple instead of floor pattern prevalent in our country. In addition, it will incorporate some features of Ramesvaram and Madurai temple also.

    Despite the fact that the length, width and height of the proposed Viraat Ramayan Mandir will be more than the present Angkor Wat temple, the idea is not to supersede the grandeur of the present Angkor Wat temple. No structure in the present time can beat the beauty of the most splendid monument created by the skill of mankind. Our idea is to construct the largest Hindu temple with the tallest spire in the world. Therefore, the competition is not with the Cambodian temple, but with other Hindu temples in the abroad.

    The temple trust of Mahavir Mandir, which has spent almost one hundred crore rupees on the establishment of charitable institutions like Mahavir cancer Sansthan and has saved lives of thousands of infants by the establishment of a pediatric hospital will execute this project of three hundred crores within a period of ten years. Now all the structures and spires will be built with the Chunar stones which Emperor Ashok had used in his inscriptions and pillars instead of the concrete planned earlier.

    When this project is contemplated, it will cement further the strong bond between the two culturally rich countries India and Cambodia. This strong bond has existed between the two countries for a period of two millennia. There are numerous Sanskrit inscriptions found in Cambodia. The beauty of the language of some inscriptions is so charming that few Sanskrit inscriptions in India can excel them. Here one such inscription of King Yashovarman who ruled from 889 to 900 A.D. is quoted. In this marvellous and elegant verse he compares the protection of his capital Kambupuri with that of Ayodhya which was protected by Rãma.

    सुमन्त्रसुहृदं सीताभूषणां सुविभीषणाम्। 
    जुगोप यः कम्बुपुरीमयोध्यामिव राघवः।

    i.e. He (Yashovarman) protected Kambupuri like Rãma protected Ayodhya with the wise counsel of his well wishing friends (sumantra-suhridam) with brilliant friend as his ornament (sita-bhushanãm) and was awe-inspiring to his enemies as being subibhishanam.

    King Yashovarman took pride in comparing himself with Rãma, the ideal incarnation of Bhagawan Vishnu. Now we are taking pride in following the style of the Angkor Wat. So Cambodian people should be happy that there stands a matchless, marvellous monument in their country which has inspired some devotees in India to follow the architectural plan of the original temple, although it is a fact that no religious monument can match the marvel of Angkor Wat temple.
    The proposed temple is unique in many respects. There is no Ramayan temple in the world. The architectural design of the spires of the largest Hindu temple i.e. Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia has not been followed in any temple in India. There is no temple in the world where in one sanctum sanctorum Shri Ram, Sita, Lava-Kush and Maharshi Valmiki have been placed. 
    In the addition, the temple premise will have the largest Shivalinga in one of its sanctum sanctorum. There will be many Sanskar Mandaps, meditation (Dhyan) conference halls and other allied services will be provided. 
    After the construction of the temple Mahavir Mandir trust which has established four charitable hospitals in Patna will establish a school where the students below the poverty line will be imparted free education. In addition, it will establish a charitable hospital which will be the branch of cancer and paediatric hospitals run by the temple trust in Patna
    [26/01, 20:01] naina: Don't take our tourists! Cambodia complains to Centre over Bihar temple 'inspired by famous Angkor Wat shrine'

    By Giridhar Jha

    PUBLISHED: 22:23 GMT, 2 June 2015 | UPDATED: 22:23 GMT, 2 June 2015

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    An ambitious project to construct the largest Hindu temple in the world in Bihar has left the Cambodian government worried, because its model is said to have been inspired by the world famous Angkor Wat shrine. 

    Cambodia does not want a bigger replica of its 12th-century temple, which attracts tourists and pilgrims from the world over. The country’s acting ambassador Hun Han on Sunday visited the proposed site near Kesaria in East Champaran district of Bihar, where the Viraat Ramayan Mandir is being built by a Patna-based religious trust. 

    Talking to reporters, Hun Han said that the Cambodian government had sought a status report on the proposed temple in Bihar as it was believed to be a replica of the Angkor Wat temple. 

    

    The model of the proposed temple, which is said to be inspired by the famous Angkor Wat shrine in Cambodia (below).

    

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    “This is a sensitive issue for Cambodia and our government has taken the media reports about its probable replication seriously,” he said. 

    Han said that the Cambodian government had taken up the issue with the Indian government way back in 2012 when the news about the plans to construct an Angkor Wat temple had come for the first time. 

    “But the chief secretary of the state had then written that the temple in Bihar would not be a replica of the Angkor Wat temple,” he said. 

    

    Acting Cambodian ambassador Hun Han (centre) at the site of the proposed temple in East Champaran district, Bihar

    The envoy said that though the construction work had not started yet in Bihar, the temple’s model had a 60 to 65 per cent resemblance to the Cambodian shrine. 

    “This is not acceptable to us,” he said. 

    “We will take up the matter with the ministry of external affairs in India.” 

    Han said that though the replica of Angkor Wat temple existed in countries such as China, Japan and Thailand, those were smaller in size and their governments had taken prior permission from the Cambodian government. 

    Kishore Kunal, a former IPS officer who heads the Mahavir Mandir Trust which is constructing the temple, denied that the proposed new temple was an exact replica of the famous Angkor Wat temple. 

    “The apprehensions of the Cambodian authorities are unnecessary,” he said. 

    “The new temple was never intended to be the exact replica of the original temple.” 

    He said that the new temple, to be built at an estimated budget of Rs 500 crore, would be bigger in size. 

    “The domes and designs are different. It will have 18 towers unlike Angkor Wat which has only nine. Besides, it will also have the largest Shiva linga,” he said. 

    Kunal, who also heads the Bihar State Religious Trust Board, said that the upcoming temple would also have features of different temples located in India such as Rameshwaram, Madurai and many others. 

    He said that he had suggested the Cambodian authorities to send a team of experts to get a fair idea of its architecture and design. 

    “It will be one-of-its-kind temple,” he said. 

    “Similarities in temple architecture can be found at many places and if there is any law prohibiting it, we will make suitable changes. And if needed, we will also seek permission of the Cambodian government in writing.”

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  • Pyp, Mangalore

    Sat, Jan 28 2017

    ISKCON builds world’s largest temple at Mayapur Source : Last Updated: Tue, Feb 26, 2013 07:59 hrs Kolkata: The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) announced the progress in making their largest project for the Krishna devotees- the ‘Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir’- which is under construction and is going to be an international institute for Vedic literature for the spiritualists across the globe on the philosophy of Shrila Prabhupada, the founder of the ISKCON. In the gracious presence of Alfred B Ford, the great grandson of legendary Henry Ford and the founder of Ford Motor Company, ISKCON announced formally the shouldering of financing the project ‘Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir’ by him which he had been taking care of since the last 15 years.   “I first came to Calcutta in 1976 when under the assistance of Shrila Prabhupada I came across the philosophy of Lord Krishna and Mahaprabhu. I am extremely fortunate that Lord Krishna bestowed his kindness on me for taking care of this huge responsibility,” said Alfred B Ford, who now is saint Ambarisa Das. Radha Jivan Das, another saint, devotee and the spokesperson of the ISKCON said, “By 2016 the phase -1 of the construction of our holy temple will be completed and this 340 ft. tall temple will rise more than Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and if we get to see the diameter, the dome and floor space will be larger than St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.” He informed, “This 1, 25,000 sq feet temple will be going to be graced with the largest Kirtan Hall in the world for chanting Hare Krishna and more than 10000 people can dance over there with the enchanting tune of the holy hymn.” The President of United States, the Queen of United Kingdom and the President of India will come under the same roof on the occasion of inaugurating the largest temple in the world in 2016, said Radha Jivan Das on this occasion.

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