Abhishekams

In 1986, we had heard that a 350 year old Rukmini temple that exists on a private property in Nagpur was going to be demolished to make way for apartments. As young students of Architecture, we were bothered by this and decided to approach the Archeological Survey of India. They told us that they only protect monuments over 500 years old. I guess there were just too many for them to manage/protect. We then approached the owner of the land and after failed efforts to persuade him, we managed to take permission to document the temple, in case we were able to raise money to have it moved. So, we raised money to build a scaffold around the temple. We measure and figured out the geometry and all the sculptures were documented in pen and ink. During this process, we found some interesting facts about ancient stone construction techniques where stone was cut, dipped in oil, washed with milk, rinsed with water and thus conditioned for construction. Sometimes it is rinsed with citrus juice; perhaps so that algae doesn’t grow over the stone that has absorbed moisture. This processing allowed the stone to not crack due to seasonal temperature and humidity changes over long periods of time. While we were spending considerable time doing this, people came and used the temple for daily poojas and other events. Years later, as I began reading more about our traditions, I began to connect the dots. While geometry of temples, going round and round with diyas for arti, bathing and decorating the vigraha etc have deep psycho-spiritual benefits and symbolic meanings, the Abhishekham to the stone vigraha had a very practical significance as well. It is the beautiful genius of our ancestors, that this maintenance procedure was turned into act of devotion, service, and love for the divine that manifests in millions of ways in the world we inhabit. That process has helped preserve the stone Vigrahas for centuries! 

Next time you see milk being poured, you know where that is coming from. It takes only a little effort to see a pattern that more often than not, our traditions have deep spiritual and symbolic meaning but have their origins in practical applications. This is true of many practices such as putting haldi on our home thresholds (gadapas), rangolis in front of the House, vegetarianism, wearing a thread (jagnopavita or janjem or janevu) around our bodies, postures and mudras, etc. Most of these evolved as practical and spiritual  applications that have been made a part of our daily lives through art, ceremony, and tied to cyclic rhythms of the planets and seasons. It is like putting a chore for Sunday morning on your calendars and checking the “recurring every week” box. The only difference is that our ancients used a luni-solar calendar and therefore we see pournimas, ekadashis, dashmis, ashtamis, etc.