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SIBIKA-VAKRAVAMSA-LAKSANAM :
A Method to Grow Crooked Bamboos for
Palanquin Beams
K. V. Sarma
Curator, Vishveshvaranand Institute, Hoshiarpur.
The Sibika (palanquin) has been popular in India from early times as a mode of conveyance for the royalty and the upper strata of the society. Its use in temple festivals as a vahana (carrier) to take the image of the deity in procession along the outer corridors of shrines and through the city for public worship is also popularly known, especially in South India. The Mayamata, is, perhaps, the earliest text on Indian architecture to give a detailed description of the Sibika in its three types, viz., Pithi, Sikhart and Maundi, and also enunciate the measurements for their construction. Ther is a parallel description also in the Paddhti Isänasivagurudeva.
The basic structure of the Sibika is succinctly indicated thus in the Viswakarma-vastui astra, in the context of the description of Vahanas to be used in temple festivals (ch. 8+: Kalpavṛkṣādivāhanalakṣaṇakramakathanam):
farfast मानवैधय पेटिकाकारसंयुताम् ॥18॥ अथ पाश्र्वविरणकैना वेण्यादिदण्डकाम् । भूतेशो वा वृषो नानालक्रियामण्डितो मतः ॥19
The commentary on this passage by Anantakṛpa Bhattaraka is elucidative and might be extracted here:
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अथ शिविकालक्षणमाह शिविकामिति, विविधरूपं शिबिकालक्षणं तु पुरोभागे पश्चाद्भागे दृढं संयोजितमाषारदण्डं मानव भटस्कन्धेयं प्रकल्पयेत् तादृशाधारण्डस्तु वेणुकृतो वा वटकृतो वा सौकर्य - दायीति समयः । एवं मानव स्कन्धबाह्याधारदण्डसहितस्य शिबिकाख्यस्य वाहनस्य निर्माणं तु पेटिका रूपं
1. For an account of the Sibika-vahana in Vaisnavite temples, see the Vimanar canaKalpa of Marici, of the Vaikhänasa School (Madras, 1626), Sn, on Šibikadiyānotsavaḥ, pp. 352-54
Jain Education International
2. Cf. Mayamata of Mayamuni, ed. T. Ganapati Sastri, Trivandrum, 119, Ch, 31, verses 1-29.
3. See lšanas ivgurudeva-Paddhati of Isanasivagurudeva, ed. by T. Ganapati Sastri, pt, IV, Trivandrum, 1925, pp. 453-55 Patala 40, Nityotsaza-yana-śanadi-pațala), verses 39.64.
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