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Vol. XXXIII, 2010
Prāsāda as cosmos
the Underworld (Nāga-s), of Forest (Yakşa-s) and of Mountains (Kimnara-s) are desired to stay. The wish to make Māru descend in the wall's janghā and again for Mountains to dwell in the hall-coloums is prompted, once more for lending firmness to the wall for bearing the enormous weight of the superincumbent śikhara spire in the first case and of the pyramidal roof in the second. Since the vitāna (ceiling), as one beholds it from within the hall, is the metaphorical sky of the hall, the Sky is bidden to pervade the ceiling. 42 Similarly Parjanya, Lord of Rain, asked to stay in the cyma awning of the cornice, signifies that the rain water should not drain over the wall surface of the building and thus erosion is averted.
There are also considerations other than these for some other deities. For
ple Nandin is prayed to stay in the jādyakumbha because of the latter's hooflike, proliferating shape. Ganesa is invoked to occupy the gajapītha and the Aśvin-s, the aśvapītha, by reason perhaps of the coincidence of elephant (gaja) and horse (aśva) motifs in the two courses in question and the elephant and horse heads of the deities involved.
In some cases the images actually carved as they customarily are under an independent set of rules (underlying which are different theological considerations), and those invoked according to this rite are coincident because the ultimate purpose of both is the same; for instance the invocation of the Dikpālas on the temple wall and the actual placement of their images on the walls' compass points; the Yaksa-s invoked to be in the doorsil and the Yaksa figures actually carved at the extremities thereof; and the Mātr-s over the lintel is often done in door-carving.
The significance of the invocation of Nandin in the grīvā neck is not very clear, though it would have been perfectly valid in the context of Dravidian temples where vrsa figures are placed at the four corners in the grivā region of a Saivaite temple.
Here we might consider a passage in the Agnipurāņa relating to the flag-hoisting ceremony which refers to the contemplation of Siva, who is said to possess all Elements (in his Cosmic Self), as pervading the temple's body. The text next proceeds to dwell on the psychical projection of various deities in conjunction with the major templemouldings. At the outset, Ananta (Sesa, who rests beneath and supports the Globe), as the text goes on to say, may be contemplated as present in the temple's foundations.43 The text then mentions that the kūsmānda-hātaka-s, goblins, may be meditated over (invoked) in the pītha, base; the Lokapāla-s, Guardians of the Quarters,
