area 115 | concrete

architect: Italo Rota

location: Dolvi, India

year: 2009

These notes may be helpful to you one day, if what happened to me five years ago should happen to you. On an evening at the Mumbai airport a gentleman gave me a yellow envelope, telling me “if you may be interested, open it when you reach Milan“, and saluting me. A few days before I had passed by a temple area of Mumbai, I had tried to enter many times but had always been stopped by the Siddha guarding the temple, this time they looked me in the eyes and let me in, I considered it an omen, and when I arrived in Milan I opened the yellow envelope, that contained a laconic message: Do you want to build a temple? For someone like me, born in the centre of Milan, it was truly something extravagant and marvellous, certainly not exotic or adventurous, but simply fantastic. I had only just completed a church in Rome and this made the proposal even more intriguing, also because I have always thought that it is better to have many gods than to have only one, the important thing is to find the meaning of things in all their different manifestations.
I went to see the area on the estuary near Dolvi, in the midst of metallurgic industries we found a plot suited to the founding of the new temple, which was to be dedicated to the god Hanuman. Hanuman (Sanskrit: Hanumat; nominative singular Hanuman), also known as Anjaneya, is one of the most important figures of the epic Indian poem Ramayana; he is a vanara (spirit appearing as a monkey) who helped Lord Rama (avatar of Vishnu) to free his wife, SIta, from the rakshasa king Ravana.
Many temples have been built in honour of Hanuman, and his images are generally found in every temple where there are images of the avatars of Vishnu. To found a temple one must prepare the ground which is to receive the holy fire, which will then be transformed in the temple.
While the ceremonies are very long and complex, they are based on a logical and linear thought, corresponding to a representation of the universe and its laws. First of all the yajamàna (the sacrificer, in this case the financer and builder) chooses the Sthapaka or Acharya to guide and supervise the construction. The Acharya must, in particular, be a brahmana who is pious and who has led a sinless life. He must be an expert in art, architecture and rites. The Acharya chooses the sthapati, the head architect, who is responsible for building the temple. The sthapati enjoys the same status and respect as the Acharya. The sutragrahin (surveyor), the taksaka (sculptor) and the vardhakin (mason, whitewasher and painter) help him with the construction. After the day of the sankalpa, the yajamàna and the Acharya take certain specific religious votes, and must lead a very rigorous life, adhering to those votes.
0 - The first step towards the building of a temple is the choice of a suitable site, located in or nearby a holy place, and endowed with natural beauty and peace.
1 - All vegetation is extirpated in the chosen area.
2 - The place is purified and the evil spirits cancelled.
3 - The Ankurarpana, the rite of seeds and their germination, is celebrated. This is an important religious ceremony linked to the different phases of the construction of the Hindu temple. The main purpose is to facilitate the completion of the works, without obstacles. This particular rite consists of the introduction of seeds of various types of rice, sesame and mustard in 16 copper vases in front of Soma (the lord of germination). They are offered to the divinity after the germination. 4 - Once the architectural and technical drawings have been prepared, one begins the vastuvinyasa, which consists of the compilation of the vastumandala on the building site of the temple on the chosen auspicious day. The mandala is a geometric drawing of 64 squares which represents the vastupurusa. Vastupurusa is the cosmic man who represents  Creation, and includes the different divinities of the Hindu pantheon.
5 - When the ceremonial vastumandala has been drawn, it becomes "alive" with the vastupurusa impressed on it. Once the temple is complete, the image of the symbol of the divinity is placed in the centre of this mandala during the consecration ceremony.
6 - The next step in the construction of the temple is the silanyasa or stone, which consists of the laying of the first brick, which is laid in a north-western direction. The foundations are then excavated to the necessary depth.
7 - The adharasila (a base stone) is located in the centre of this space. Certain items, as a vase, a turtle and a lotus, all made of stone, a turtle and a lotus of silver, a turtle and a lotus of gold are placed above the adharasila. A funnel-shaped copper tube called the yoganala rises from this point up to the basement. Then everything is covered by another stone slab called  brahmasila.
8 - Another important phase in the construction of a temple is the garbhanyasa (‘insemination‘ of the temple site), which is a very important rite. The materials necessary for the construction of the temple, as the stones, bricks and wood, are made specifically for the temple.
9 - When the foundations have been built up to the basement floor, the superstructure is built, either with columns or with walls, or a combination of both. The next phase of the building of a temple is the addition of doors, openings, niches, windows and porticos with decorations in the relevant phases.
10 - The construction is completed with the installation of the sikh ara, the pinnacle.
11 - Before the image of the god is installed, the Ankurarpana rite, the rite of seeds, is repeated.
12 - As soon as the image of the god enters its sacellum, the eye-opening (aksimocana) ceremony is celebrated.
13 - Hanuman can finally kindly receive us in his temple.
14 - Everyone intonates the Hanuman Chalisa in invocation to the god Hanuman, Faithful companion of Rama.
15 - Idem
16 - OM