TEMPLES
Manipuri temple art and architecture is basically of Hindu style
showing more inclination towards the traditional Hindu building art and
architecture of Bengal. There is no existence of any temple and its art relating
to the animistic faith of ancient Manipur. The architectural style of Manipuri
temples exhibit its basis in the ancestral houses of forest dwellers. The temple
construction was done with bamboo. It resembles the Bengal temple style. The
parabolic contours in the majority of temples of Manipur are a dominating characteristic.
This style is prominently achieved in hut-type temples like that of Mahabali
Temple and Nagara styles of Govindajee temple and Tangal temple.
There are a few
temples on Shikhara style .e.g. Kakching Narsingh Thakur temple, Lord Krishna
temple of Krishnampat and Krishna Chandra temple of Kakhing Bazar. Another peculiar style is given to Kamakhya
temple of Hiyangthang Lairenbi. This temple reveals the
amalgamation of Shikhara and pagoda styles. The style of Sanamahi temple
is unique, the polygonal Baptistery type in a Gothic style structure ends
with Nagara style, having Amalaka Sila on the top.
The temples are designed on the principle
that the main structure,
square in plan, its walls vertical but lines and planes (which in most buildings
are ordinarily horizontal) in this type are carried across in its front in
series of parallel curves, bent in the form of a bow. Such a distinctive
application of curves specially effects the form of the roof and its cornice or eave,
which in contour are parabolic and clearly inherited from a bamboo
framework given this shape in order to throw off heavy monsoon rains.
The site for the temple, earth's terrestrial surface, has to
be near the bank of a river or lake or amongst the groves or on a hillock in
solitude. The sites for some of the temples in Manipur have been at the places
of the capital of the king Patron. Almost all the temples of Manipur are
constructed on Brahmanical rules of Vastushastra. Therefore the square plan is
taken as the basis. It denotes the Panchratna plan with Brahma in the
central position and other gods on the sides. In all temples the material used
was brick and mud. The pedestal or the platform is distinctively prominent in
all temples of Manipur because the entire valley is a low lying area and in
rainy seasons the ground surface gets flooded. All temples in Manipur have the
Mandapas. The most artistic point about the Mandapa is the display of the
paintings about the love story of Khamba-Thoibi.
The Vishnu Temple of Bishanpur
The temple is situated at the Bishanpur town.
It was built by the king Kyamba
during 1507 AD. It is the oldest temple of Manipur. The entire structure is made
of good quality brick and mud plaster. The
pedestal consists of a series of five brick layers in concentric arrangement. The
lowest layer starts on 1-2 inches high platform. The brick layers at corners
towards the portico and the staircases have been oriented to make a
parallel turn in such a manner that these form a nice coherency of brick layers in niches. The
temple body over its pedestal is in two storeys, the lower sanctum cube, lower
Jangha and the upper sanctum cube, the upper Jangha. The porch in front reaches
up to a cornice in its height. The cornice forms a beam of five layers of bricks
stepping out a ascending order from the point of the vertical alignment
and similarly five brick layers stepping back in descending order again to
the point of the vertical alignment, between the upper and the lower sanctum. All
three walls of the east, the north and the west have corbelled arch. Below each
corbelled arch is a window made to form three slits by placing two bricks
longitudinally at a parallel distance. The facade is facing south. Above the
cornice is the four-walled upper sanctum cube. There are two false windows on
each side. On the southern wall there is a single long rectangular and half-way perforated window.
The solidity of the interior walls block the
holes. Therefore the holes do not serve the purpose of providing light to
the sanctum hall. The roof above the upper Jangha is constructed in
parabolic style and formed into a domelike structure by semicircular
arches which converge at the base of the protuberance on the top.
The sanctum
hall is square and it opens to the portico through a door opening. The Garbha Griha
is provided with three windows on east, north and west sides. Internally each
window is a square opening out through three slits to form the windows of the
corbelled arch. The walls of the sanctum hall are straight up to the point of
the neck by perpendicular stepping up of the courses of brick layers. The
entrance of the shrine is through two plasters of a rectangular opening
which carries a corbelled arch with niches and achieved through fourteen courses
of brick layers.
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