DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0458
448 Temples and Sacred Places. Sri-rahgam.
throng its streets, and on great anniversaries myriads of wor-
shippers crowd its corridors, and press towards its sanctuary.
No sight is to be seen in any part of India that can at all
compare with the unique effect produced by its series of seven
quadrangular enclosures formed by seven squares of massive
walls, one within the other—every square pierced by four
lofty gateways, and each gateway surmounted by pyramidal
towers rivalling in altitude the adjacent rock of Trichinopoly.
The construction of this marvellous congeries of sacred
buildings must have cost millions of rupees, and since its first
construction fabulous sums have been spent on its main-
tenance and enlargement. It is said that kings and princes
have emptied their coffers and given up their revenues for
the completion and extension of its many-storied towers;
rich men of every rank have parted with their treasures
for the adding of column after column to its thousand-
pillared courts; misers have yielded up their hoards for
the decoration of its jewelled images; capitalists have be-
queathed vast benefactions for the support of its priests;
architects and artists have exhausted all their resources for
the production of a perfect shrine, the worthy receptacle of
an idol of transcendent glory.
The idea is that each investing square of walls shall form
courts of increasing sanctity which shall conduct the wor-
shipper by regular gradations to a central holy of holies
of unique shape and proportions. In fact, the entire fabric of
shrines, edifices, towers, and enclosures is supposed to be a
terrestrial counterpart of Vishnu's heaven (Vaikuntha), to
which his votaries are destined to be transported.
The idol itself is recumbent, and its legendary history is
curious. ' When Rama dismissed his ally Vibhlshana—the
brother of the conquered demon Ravana who had carried off
Slta to Ceylon—he gave him, out of gratitude for his services,
a golden idol of Vishnu, with instructions not to lay it down
till he had reached home. Vibhlshana accordingly set out on
throng its streets, and on great anniversaries myriads of wor-
shippers crowd its corridors, and press towards its sanctuary.
No sight is to be seen in any part of India that can at all
compare with the unique effect produced by its series of seven
quadrangular enclosures formed by seven squares of massive
walls, one within the other—every square pierced by four
lofty gateways, and each gateway surmounted by pyramidal
towers rivalling in altitude the adjacent rock of Trichinopoly.
The construction of this marvellous congeries of sacred
buildings must have cost millions of rupees, and since its first
construction fabulous sums have been spent on its main-
tenance and enlargement. It is said that kings and princes
have emptied their coffers and given up their revenues for
the completion and extension of its many-storied towers;
rich men of every rank have parted with their treasures
for the adding of column after column to its thousand-
pillared courts; misers have yielded up their hoards for
the decoration of its jewelled images; capitalists have be-
queathed vast benefactions for the support of its priests;
architects and artists have exhausted all their resources for
the production of a perfect shrine, the worthy receptacle of
an idol of transcendent glory.
The idea is that each investing square of walls shall form
courts of increasing sanctity which shall conduct the wor-
shipper by regular gradations to a central holy of holies
of unique shape and proportions. In fact, the entire fabric of
shrines, edifices, towers, and enclosures is supposed to be a
terrestrial counterpart of Vishnu's heaven (Vaikuntha), to
which his votaries are destined to be transported.
The idol itself is recumbent, and its legendary history is
curious. ' When Rama dismissed his ally Vibhlshana—the
brother of the conquered demon Ravana who had carried off
Slta to Ceylon—he gave him, out of gratitude for his services,
a golden idol of Vishnu, with instructions not to lay it down
till he had reached home. Vibhlshana accordingly set out on