I was enjoying reading my childhood books. I got such a long duration of free time after so many days. As mentioned earlier, imagination of ancient astronomers who imagined shapes of different animals while observing groups of stars attracted my attention. This comparison of animal shapes reminded me some of my childhood memories and observations.

When I was child we used to live in a village. That village was situated on the banks of small river. There were lot of hills and greenery around village. There was one famous Shiva temple in the village. My father used to visit that Shiva temple regularly to offer prayers to lord Shiva. I used to go to that Shiva temple along with my father.

All of us know that Indians believe in various forms of god. There were framed photos of many gods and goddesses at our home. Many gods and goddesses are worshipped in the form of various animals. 

It is believed that to save our world gods and goddesses took forms of various animals to save our world. I used to observe these photos of animal forms of god. There is a long list of animal forms of god. Here are some of the animal forms of gods and goddesses:

Lord Matsya - Form of a fish

Lord Varaha - Form of a pig

Lord Kurma - Form of a tortoise

Lord Narasimha - Form of a lion

Lord Hanuman - Form of a monkey

Lord Ganesha - Form of a elephant

Along with animal forms god is worshipped in the form of various sacred symbols too. Here is the list of some of the sacred symbols in Indian culture:

Shiva Linga

Swastika

Shankha (a shell)

Kalasha (a pot)

Shrifal (a coconut)

Om

Nandi (a bull)

Ghanta (a bell)

There are many more symbols which are considered as sacred in Indian culture. I always used to wonder after looking at these sacred symbols and animal forms of the god. I curiously used to ask my father about the logic why the god took so many different forms. My father used to provide me best answers as per his knowledge. Some of those answers used to satisfy me while others didn’t.

One day I decided to explore the famous Shiva temple of our village carefully. That day I went alone to the temple. The Shiva temple was at walking distance from our home. It hardly used to take 10-15 mins to reach the temple. It was a holiday, so was free for whole day. I also decided to take notes of my finding while exploring the Shiva temple. I still have those notes with me.

I left home and reached at the entrance of the Shiva Temple. Entire Shiva temple and its surrounding wall was built using stones. The entrance of the Shiva temple premises had a huge wooden door and it was decorated with carvings of flowers, elephants, gandharvas (dancers), etc. There were many shops around the entrance of the Shiva temple. Many villagers used to sale flowers, sweets and other material with is used during prayers of lord Shiva through these shops.

There was one board at the entrance of the Shiva temple. It had detailed information regarding the Shiva temple. It was mentioned on the board that the Shiva temple was built around 500 AD i.e. around 1500 years back. It was built by a king who was a great Shiva devotee. It was mentioned that the king also donated large portion of land in his empire for the welfare of the people. Since that time people from surrounding area of the temple maintained the temple and protected it from various calamities. The other thing I noticed that the entrance of the Shiva temple was facing East direction. In India, there is a tradition according to which most of the temples are built such a way that their entrance facing east direction. Only exception I observed regarding Lord Hanuman temples, in some parts of India entrance of Hanuman temple is South facing. Other than these few Lord Hanuman temples most of the temples have entrance facing east direction. In India, east direction is considered as very sacred as the sun rises from the east direction in India. In India, there is a tradition according to which Lord Surya i.e. the sun is worshipped during sunrise everyday. In Indian culture, heavenly objects like the sun, the moon, etc. are also considered as very sacred.

Here is the list of heavenly objects which are considered as sacred in India.

Lord Surya (the sun)

Lord Soma (the moon)

Lord Brihaspati (the jupiter)

Lord Shani (the saturn)

Lord Shukra (the venus)

Lord Budha (the mercury)

Lord Mangal (the mars)

So, along with animal forms of the god and sacred symbols I found it interesting to know that even stars and planets are worshiped in Indian culture.

I was noting down my observations about the Shiva temple. I removed my sandals outside the entrance of the Shiva temple. Then I entered the temple premises. As soon as I entered the Shiva temple premises, I saw a bull statue which is called as Nandi. This Nandi was sitting and it was facing towards the Shiva Linga in the main temple. So, this Nandi statue was facing west direction. In temple, there is a tradition according to which the Nandi should be worshiped before Lord Shiva as Nandi is considered as the greatest devotee of Lord Shiva. It is believed that the Nandi always carries Shiva Linga on his back as there is portion like a shiva linga on the back of the Nandi.

I observed that at the top of the temple there was a golden pot called as Kalasha. Devotees were walking in around the temple in circular direction, this tradition is called as Pradakshina. During performing Pradakshina, devotees rotate around temple keeping the main god or the main part of the temple that the center in clockwise direction. The number of Pradakshinas performed for different gods are different.

I went ahead and entered the main temple. As I entered the main temple I saw a statue of tortoise on the floor. This tortoise is the representation of Kurma Avatara of Lord Vishnu. Then I started looking around on the inner walls of the temple. There were beautiful pictures of gods and goddesses on the inner walls of the temple. The names of those gods and goddesses were mentioned at the bottom of those pictures. I noticed that those gods were associated with different direction. Later on when I visited other temples I found that same god was associated with same direction in all the temples. Somehow, I felt that directions play an important role in the architecture of a temple. There is a tradition according to which devotees around themselves in the temple. This action is performed to perform Pradakshina around themselves. While I was performing self pradakshina I was looking at the pictures of gods and goddesses on the inner walls of the temple. I felt as if they are rotating around me in opposite direction. 

Then I entered the inner part of the main temple. I saw many devotees were offering prayers to Lord Shiva in the Shiva Linga form. I also saw a huge metal bell hanging from the top of the temple roof. Devotees were tapping the bell. The sound of this bell is considered as very sacred in Indian culture. I moved ahead and I saw the sacred Shiva Linga. I offered player to the Shiva Linga for of the Lord Shiva. Then I started observing the structure of the Shiva Linga. One thing I observed that extended part around the Shiva Linga was facing North. Milk or water used to perform Abhisheka of the Shiva Linga flows towards the extended part i.e. towards North. Similarly, I observed many other things in the Shiva temple and I took notes of these observations.

Somehow I felt that There must be some deep relationship between the geographical directions and these sacred symbols and animal forms of the god. I also thought that there must be some connection between the heavenly bodies worshipped in the Indian culture and geographical directions. So, I took out my notes regarding the things I observed in the temple and started searching on the web about the information available regarding the temple architecture.

As I started searching for the information on Indian temple architecture, I found lot of material on various sites. I also found many books on topic Indian temple architecture. Most of the books were referring to ancient Indian science of house architecture referred as Vastu  Shastra. When I read in depth I found that Vastu Shastra is mainly related to construction of houses, halls and other public places. I kept searching for books which were especially explained Indian temple architecture. Then I found that at many places it was mentioned that temple architecture is mentioned in detail in Brihad Sanhita and Panchasiddhantika written by Varahamihira. Temple architecture is also explained in detail in some of the Puranas. I searched for these books and I got pdf formats of these books. I downloaded books and started reading. These books are written in Sanskrit but luckily I english translations was provided in the books I downloaded.

Varahamihira was a great ancient Indian astronomer. It is considered that he lived around 500 AD in central India. He was excellent mathematician as well as great astronomer. He wrote many books many on topic of astronomy. Panchasiddhantika, Brihad Sanhita, Brihad Jataka, etc. are some of his famous works. When I started reading the book Brihad Sanhita, I found that there are 20 types of temples mentioned in Brihat Samhita.

Here is the list of temple types mentioned in Brihat Samhita: