The Ark

Architect Alan Croker discovered his heart at the Nataraja Temple in Tamil Nadu, India, and he's been visiting it for 20 years.

Transcript

Rachael Kohn: Hello, I'm Rachael Kohn, welcome to The Ark on ABC Radio National.

Imagine going to India every year and visiting a temple because you found your heart, your higher purposes and your belief in God right there. That's what happened to heritage architect Alan Croker 20 years ago on December 25th. The temple is the Nataraja Temple, named for the Hindu god, Shiva, Lord of the Dance. To visit the temple, Alan went to Chidambaram, a town south of Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu, South India.

Alan Croker: This was a very ancient temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. It's quite an unusual temple in that it houses a particular image of Shiva which is probably one of the most well-known, and that is the figure of the dancing Shiva, with his arms outstretched in a wheel if fire. And he's performing a dance which is known as the Ananda Tandavam but this particular temple, the temple at Chidambaram, is the temple which houses this image even though there's lots of other places around who've got copies of this, but that's where it comes from.

Rachael Kohn: You've said the temple is dedicated to Shiva, the Lord of the Dance; is it just a matter of having his statue there, or is the temple itself uniquely expressive of Shiva?

Alan Croker: The temple itself has a very, very unusual arrangement.

This particular temple, because it is dealing with a form of Shiva which has a different type of energy, the form of temple while it's basically cruciform, none of the gateways or doorways line up, and it's arranged in concentric circles. So the outside wall of the temple is the outermost section with the biggest gateways.

As you go closer to the centre, the gateways are smaller and each concentric circle represents an aspect of subtlety of both the symbolism of the Deity but also of ourselves which goes further and further in towards the heart of the temple, towards the sanctum. Now in this particular temple, you must proceed in a clockwise direction, because this dance is in fact - if you were to put it on a plan form - is a swastika, which is revolving in both directions at once. Clockwise is the constructive direction, anti-clockwise is the destructive direction, and that dance of Lord Shiva in this figure of Nataraja, the Lord of the Dance, is both constructive and destructive.

Rachael Kohn: So when the pilgrim goes in, or the pilgrims go in, do they actually follow something of a labyrinth? Is that part of the exercise?

Alan Croker: There may be some quality of that, but it's more that you always proceed around the deity, any sacred spot, and I've discovered this is the same for all traditions. You always keep the god, if you like, or the sacred, on your right. So you proceed in a clockwise direction.

Rachael Kohn: Well looking at photographs of the temple at Chidambaram, one sees what I think most people expect when they look at a Hindu temple, and that is its encrustation with figures. Now are these figures telling a story about Lord Shiva?

Alan Croker: A lot of the figures do. It's a bit like a pictorial Bible as it were, in much the same way as the mediaeval and pre-mediaeval cathedrals had pictures around the walls for those people who couldn't read.

These images on particularly the gateways and the walls, and painted on the ceilings, tell these stories about the origin of the temple and also the actions performed by the person or the deity inside the temple. So they're all mythical stories, historical stories all mixed up together.

But another aspect of them, and one of their real meanings, is that all of these images are not a different God if you like or different deities. What they represent is a different aspect of one singular absolute being. So while a lot of people see an Indian temple and think, This temple is polytheistic, it's worshipping so many different gods - we've got a temple to Lord Rama down the street, then we've got one to goddess Durga, then we've got one to Lord Shiva, another one to Lord Vishnu, they worship so many different gods - but in fact, all of these different gods are only aspects of one absolute being who is beyond any limit, beyond any definition, and beyond any attributes at all. Beyond all forms.

Rachael Kohn: You've described Lord Shiva's dance as one of construction and destruction. It's also been described as a dance of bliss. What is that referring to?

Alan Croker: The dance of bliss, the Ananda Tandavam which in Sanskrit is the performance of Lord Shiva to create and sustain the world and also to destroy it. But it has something much bigger, beyond all of that. It is the action of the Absolute Being, God if you like, but without any form or limitation. The action of the Absolute Being in creating, sustaining and destroying or transforming this universe, as well as the individual being.

The individual person who goes into this place, goes in destroying their ignorance. At each gateway there is a symbol proceeding to a higher level and you leave the old self behind. And as you go further and further in, you proceed closer and closer towards this inner self, the core of one's being, and at the core of one's being, is this light, and this light is fire, and this fire is dancing. And in the symbolism that's used in architecture, this dancing fire is in fact a filament, like a filament in a light bulb, of energy. And it is the dance of that energy which is symbolised by this figure of Nataraja.

The other thing is that what powers that energy is love. It is the love, the absolute love of the absolute being, beyond all forms, beyond all manifestation, and that love of the absolute being to create of itself, because it doesn't create anything which is separate from itself. In this tradition, when creation occurs, it creates of itself and that creation, that whole universe, that whole cosmos, is never separated from that Absolute Being. It cannot be separated. So that whole thing is sustained by this dance which is pure love. That is the Ananda Tandavam.

Rachael Kohn: It's good to hear you say that, because when I look at these temples, they look so formidable. This one in particular, it's quite high. Can you describe it?

Alan Croker: OK, it's really only quite high on the outside. It has massive walls on the outside when you approach from the processional streets around the outside, and it has these huge gateways which were all built in the 12th century, so they're equivalent to mediaeval cathedrals, and they're about 12, 15 storeys high. They're equivalent in scale to what we have in Europe.

As you go further and further in, the buildings become smaller. They all differ, but in this particular one, the buildings become smaller so that the sanctum itself is a tiny little building, built of timber, with a timber-framed roof with gold-leaves on it, tiles on it. And that is a very tiny building, and that is the core of the temple, and that represents the cave in the centre of the heart. And the heart of the individual being and the heart of the whole universe.

Rachael Kohn: Alan there are a lot of gates to the temple. Is there actually a significance to the concept or the idea of a doorway?

Alan Croker: There is. A doorway is a transition from one state to another, symbolically. Probably the most important doorway in this temple is actually inside the sanctum itself, where Nataraja himself is standing there and appears to be in the centre of the sanctum, but in fact the most important thing in that sanctum is a blank screen immediately behind him, and that is in the centre of the temple and is the most revered part of the temple. It's called the Rahasyam, which literally translates as the Secret. It represents the formless aspect of a god and that which is beyond the form, which is Nataraja.

Rachael Kohn: And is the style of that central structure one particular style, or has it been added to over the centuries?

Alan Croker: The temple is quite unique in that the style of that central building is a very ancient style which I've seen in 10th century textbooks on architecture, and it also exists still in Kerala. It's a little timber building with a slightly curved roof and if you think about a building which is probably in the form of a cube, with a thatched roof, which all knots together up to the top to a single point. This building is of that same style, but this particular sanctum has a ridge running along it with nine what are called kailasas, which are nine sort of pinnacles the central one being larger than the others, and inside is a space which in volume is 2 cubes.

Rachael Kohn: So when one is in the temple precinct, one's in an open-air area, is that correct? For most of it.

Alan Croker: Yes. For most of it you're in the open air, but there are some courtyards which have been closed over with stone rooves to form these enormous galleries where the sound echoes along them, and they're great processional galleries.

Rachael Kohn: What are the festivals that take place in the Chidambaram temple?

Alan Croker: It has functions which happen every day, so there's six major times and there are basically pujas, which happen every day. These pujas are worship sessions whether there is somebody there or not, it doesn't matter. There are six major festivals throughout the year, and of those two of them involve ten days of festival, where on the ninth day, Nataraja and his consort, Shivakarmasundari, are taken out of the sanctum, right outside the temple, and put up in these enormous timber chariots and taken around the four car streets, they're pulled by devotees. So these temple cars are fantastic structures, and they represent space and time.

Everybody, whether they're allowed in the temple, or whether they're sick or whatever, are able to come and see these deities in this enormous procession. And then during the night following that procession, both of these deities are given a grand bath in public, it usually takes about 4 to 6 hours. They're bathed with milk, honey, sandalwood paste, lemon juice, fruits, flowers, all sorts of things.

Rachael Kohn: Now for an Aussie, was that an easy thing for you to adapt to? I mean to see statues bathed in milk and honey and so forth, or was it a bit odd?

Alan Croker: I think there was a part of me that when I went into this temple on 25th December, 1986, I realised that I've actually come home, in a sense. So what I was looking at there was something that I knew intuitively before, and all of the ceremonies and things at the temple somehow made sense to me.

I read them at a symbolic level, not at a physical level necessarily, so with all these bathing ceremonies, I always see these as being like an internal cleansing process of my own. So bathing with milk to nourish, bathing with honey to sweeten, bathing with sandalwood paste to cool, bathing with flowers for love, all of these things are what we do to ourselves to nurture that very core of our own being, that which is pure and beyond limitation as well, which is also the absolute, is God. That is how I see this process, so it makes sense to me.

Rachael Kohn: It's like poetry, manifest.

Alan Croker: It is, to me.

Rachael Kohn: Alan, having gone to India so many times, you must be utterly infused with its images, the structures. Do you bring them into your work here in Australia, in any way?

Alan Croker: I try to. I don't wear a dhoti to work, I wear a dhoti only in the temple! But yes, there is something about the meaning of this temple which is very dear to me at a number of levels.

One of the things that I discovered within a few weeks of going there the first time is that this particular image of the dancing Shiva, is regarded as the personal deity of those who create in space, so that is architects, dancers, and sculptors. So I thought it's no real wonder why I ended up there, when I was searching for something which was a form which embodied these principles in spatial symbolism, and there it is.

Back here, in Australia, and in my work, it teaches me a lot about the balance of things, but it also teaches me very much, and there's a constant reminder about the fact that all of this cosmos, even the ugliest buildings, are things which are meant to be there. They have an existence which is not separate from God or the Absolute. I'm not keen on using the word 'God', but say the Absolute. They are not separate from that Absolute.

So when we are working as architects, or when I work as an architect, I would approach any of these buildings or places with some degree of reverence I suppose, or respect for what that building might have been in the past, and what it means. Hence my involvement with conservation architecture. If I approach a place with reverence and understanding for what it means and why it's valued, then I can work with that and try to assist breathing new life into that building, into that place, to allow it to survive into the future and to have a longer life, and to play an important role in other people's lives. So it's about continuing the dance, if you like, for that building.

Rachael Kohn: Alan Croker is founder and director of Design 5 Architects in Sydney, and recently co-authored Traditional Joinery - Sydney Houses 1810-1915.

Next week the story of an Anglican missionary murdered by the people he went to save in Papua New Guinea. That's on The Ark, with me, Rachael Kohn.

THEME

Guests

Alan Croker
graduated in 1977 from the University of New South Wales and is a registered architect. He is the Founder and Director of Design 5 - Architects, which he set up in 1992. This Sydney firm specialises in conservation and associated new work and have won numerous awards for their projects. Alan has recently co-authored a book entitled Traditional Joinery, Sydney Houses 1810-1915 which won a National Trust Award for education earlier this year.

Alan has a deep personal interest in the Indian sub-continent and in its traditional philosophy of Vedanta, particularly Advaita Vedanta, the teaching of non-duality. He regularly visits South India to study the temples and attend major festivals there. These visits are primarily focussed on the ancient Nataraja temple in Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu, but include visits to many other temples in the region.

He is involved with the Heritage Council of NSW as a member of the Council's Technical Advisory Group (TAG). Alan is on the executive of Australia ICOMOS, an international professional body for cultural heritage assessment and management.

Further Information

Nataraja Temple in Chidambaram

Goddess: Divine Energy
Alan Croker will be speaking at a symposium on Saturday 14 October in conjunction with this major exhibition exploring the imaginative expressions of divine female power in the art of India and the Himalayas, at the Art Gallery of NSW, 13 October 2006 - 28 January 2007.

Presenter

Rachael Kohn

Producer

Geoff Wood and Rachael Kohn