Studies in Haribhadrasuri

Author(s): N M Kansara, G C Tripathi
Publisher: B L Institute of Indology

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Studies in Haribhadrasuri
These three Sanskrit sections of the Sodaśaka contain, among others, interesting chapters on the construction of temples, making and installation of images and offering of worship. The viewpoints are delightfully modern and humanistic as well as scientific. They also throw light on the eternal human follies to deny adequate prices for both the goods and the services to fellow human beings.
It states, among other things, that only those who have earned their wealth righteously (ruling out black money, to use modern terminology), and have set aside sizeable funds, who are intelligent and so inclined, who are known for their rectitude (so that presumably they may not commit any act of injustice or impropriety), are entitled to undertake the construction of a temple. It is apparent that a temple could be commissioned only by the righteous and only if adequate well-earned funds are available. Funds could arise from economical living and savings.
The land on which a temple is to be built has to be pure (not being a burial ground, cremation area or otherwise polluted in any way), and acquired by payment of a proper price to the owner, without causing suffering or harassment (through forcible eviction or displacement, etc.), and with money that has been righteously earned.
The bricks and stones to be used in the construction should also be paid for adequately to their makers or quarrymen and carvers. The wood to be used in the construction should be of good quality, drawn from trees grown in sacred places. It should not be worn out or suffering from rot, nor should it be sapwood. It should be hard (as hard as Khadira or Catechu tree as explained by the commentator) and straight (i.e. free from curvature which could make it weal) and also free from knots. These are the yardsticks to assess the quality of wood and could be commended to the modern wood-anatomist or connoisseur of wood among architects and engineers.