Vol. 9, Issue 10, Part D (2023)

History of mankind has shown that man cannot live without God. ‘If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him!’ declared Voltaire. Belief in God, in a cosmic Power or cosmic Law, in a superhuman Spirit or Being is basic to all cultures. It is as it were, in the very blood of mankind.

All religions have their sacred places, places of worship. All words which denote such places of worship, etymologically speaking, mean more or less, the same thing. ‘Devalaya’ means a ‘house of God’. ‘Temple’ and ‘Synagogue’ mean a ‘building for religious exercises’ and a ‘house for communal worship’. A ‘Hindu Temple’ also means the same thing. A ‘Hindu Temple’ is a ‘place of prostration before God’.

This Hindu Temples Hren into a popular Siva Temple and Vaishnava Temple and Shkti Temple Centres During the days of Chalukyas and Cholas. It be came an important Hindu Temples Centres During the Pallava and Chalukya period. The earlies inscriptions of the Hindu Temples Refer to his reign. Later on the Vijaya Nagara Kings Greatly inproved the Hindu Temples.

In the Andhra Pradesh, the Aihole and Pattadakal group of temples (5th to 7th centuries) show early attempts to evolve an acceptable regional style based on tradition. A mount the better known early structural temples at Aihole are the Huchimalligudi and Durga temples as also the Ladkhan temple, all assigned to the period 450-650 A.D. Pattadakal another capital of the Chalukya Empire, was a major site of temple Building by Chalukyan Monarchs in the 7th and 8th centuries. During the Next Thousand years (From 600 to 1600 A.D) There was a phenomenal growth in Hindu temples Architecture Both in Quantity and Quality. Equally important are the temples of Kasinatha, Papanatha, Sangamesvara, Virupaksa and others in Pattadakal near Aihole as also the Svargabrahma temple at Alampur (Andhra Pradesh). It is in some of these temples, built by the later Calukyas, that we come across the vesara style, a combination of the Northern and the Southern modes.

In the same spirit, Hindu temples are not just sacred spaces, they are also secular spaces. Their meaning and purpose have extended beyond spiritual life to social meaning. It is the sacred duty of all the leaders of the Hindu society to make every effort in this direction.