Intriguing optical and acoustical phenomena in six Indian Temples

Guest Contribution by Prof. R.V. Kolluri

While well known Indian temples such as Konark, Ellora, and Khajuraho have been visited and covered extensively, there are many lesser known temples with intriguing features and often baffling designs.

I had the opportunity to visit a few such temples over the past five decades, and have noted my observations of six of such temples - specifically noting curious optical and in some cases acoustic phenomena.  I am sure there are many more such discoveries that await the curious.

I hope you enjoy these observations and share your experiences as well.

1.  Chaya Someswaralayam

 

Chaya Someswaralaya Temple

This is a small temple located in Panagal town of Telangana state in South India. This temple was built in the 11th century.

The Chaya Someswaralaya temple is the smaller temple compared to the adjacent Pachala Someswara temple. This temple dedicated to Lord Shiva and the name ‘Chaya’ in Telugu language means ‘shadow’.

Vertical Shadow

The intriguing aspect of this temple is that there is a vertical shadow on the deity in the sacred chamber, whenever there is light (daylight or moonlight) all 365 days of the year.

The shadow on backside wall of Shiva Lingam looks like a shadow of a pillar. The size and direction of this shadow does not change with Sun’s motion. Nor is it affected by any movement of people in the temple.

For a while, it was thought that the shadow is created by the two pillars in front of the sacred chamber. But this had to be discarded due to two reasons. First, the shadow does not have the shape of the pillars. Second, the regions on either side of the pillar are much brighter than what one would expect in a dark sacred chamber. Further, the dark shadow is not altered by touching one of the pillars or by people standing in front of the doorway.

The two pillars

It is now known that the light and dark shadows are due to a phenomenon called ‘double slit diffraction’. This phenomenon deals with wave nature of light and was not known until Francesco Grimaldi, an Italian scientist discovered it in 1660 AD.

When light passes through extremely small slits (holes) next to each other and captured on a screen (wall) at a distance, due to the interference of the waves, dark and bright ‘fringes appear on the wall. The diffraction from a double slit is shown below. In this phenomenon, the dark and bright lines alternate. The brighter portions will be brighter than the incident light and the darker portions will be completely dark. Diffraction of light has been thoroughly understood in later centuries and has application in many branches of Optics.

But three questions arise. i) where are these slits, ii) how can ordinary light (also know as incoherent light) produce such a diffraction pattern and iii) how did this architect in eleventh century know about this diffraction five centuries before it is discovered?

Diffraction Pattern

The answer to the first question was finally discovered. These slits are formed by the spacings above the door sill of the chamber. Light enters the chamber through entrance from two sides.

The second question is still a mystery.  As for the third question, it could be inferred that the eleventh century architect might have been intuitively aware of wave properties of light and had constructed the temple in such a way that the light enters the inner chamber through these slits to create the appropriate diffraction pattern, with the dark fringe forming a shadow on the deity.

In any event, this is an extraordinary phenomenon found in a small temple in a remote village in southern India.


II . Veda Narayana Swami Temple  

Veda Narayana Swami Temple

This temple is in Nagalapuram on the Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu border in South India. It is about sixty kilometers from the temple town Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. It was built during the sixteenth century. The temple is dedicated to Lord Veda Narayana. According to legend, Brahma and Vishnu, recovered the stolen Vedas by a demon called Somakasura and hence the name Veda Narayana.

A unique feature of the temple is that it faces West rather than East, unlike most of the temples in India. There is an reason for this, that can be explained by an optical phenomenon.

Rays through the entrance

In the month of March, the central deity is decorated and brought to main temple as the Sun God. On a particular day in March, a festival is dedicated to the Lord Veda Narayana. This festival goes on for three days. The Deity’s feet are worshiped on the first day, the stomach on the second day and the head on the final day.
 
The temple is built such a way that during the Sunset, the Sun’s rays from the horizon, enter the sacred chamber and fall on the Lord’s Feet on the first day, Navel (Naabhi) on the second day and Forehead on the third day.

View from inside

This is possible as the lord is facing the west rather than the east.

All this happens not from the ceiling or any other opening in the temple, but directly from the entrance of the temple itself. The deity is about 600 meters from the main Gopuram entrance and the Sun’s rays have to pass through such a long distance to fall directly on the deity. This phenomenon does not happen again throughout the year except on those 3 days.

It is extraordinary that such a temple could be built so precisely during, a period when solid geometry was still unknown. This is a testimony to the architectural or astronomical brilliance of the temple architects of that period.


III. Ramappa Temple

Ramappa Temple

Ramappa temple is also known as the Ramalingeswara temple. It is located 77 km from Warangal, the ancient capital and 157 km from the city of Hyderabad. This temple is built in the 13th Century.

It is perhaps the only temple in India named after the builder rather than the deity.

This temple also has an intriguing optical aspect. It has intricate and beautiful architecture. Of particular interest are twelve dancing figurines, known as Mandakinis which form the brackets between the roof and the walls of the temple. These figurines are made with completely different poses, each with flowing clothes, complex jewelry and fantastic facial expressions.

Dancing figurines

The interesting thing about these figurines are their legs.

A sculpture tilted at 45 degrees towards the viewer and placed up above will have the lower portion away from the viewer making it appear shorter than the front portion. It means that if the sculptures were made in the normal way, the legs of these dancing girls would appear shorter. To make the figurines look natural, the sculptors have made their legs slightly longer than normal to make the figurines look exactly as they would, if they are standing vertical.

This a testimony to the ingenious way the sculptors have made the figurines look natural and beautiful.

Structure of ice

This temple has a number of other intriguing features as well. First among them are the floating bricks. In order to make the roof lighter, the roof of the temple is built with bricks. These bricks are so light that they can float on water. Though they are lighter than normal bricks, they are in no way inferior and in fact, stronger and more durable than the normal bricks. The sculptors made these bricks with a principal similar to the ice floating in water. The molecules of ice form a cage enclosing large space. This makes it less dense than water and hence it floats in water.

These ancient builders used forest gum, jute, paddy husk and mixed them with a particular type of clay to make these bricks. When the bricks were burnt in kilns, the organic materials vaporized and holes were formed inside the brick. This gave the bricks high porosity. This was a great innovation but lost during subsequent centuries.

Additionally, the supporting pillars are made with single rock and with magnificent designs on them.

Pillar from a single rock

There are five hundred elephants lining the base of the temple. The beauty of them is that, all of them are different and not one of them look like the other.

Procession of elephants

                                       
IV. Kailasanatha Temple

Tharamangalam is a town in Salem district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The place is known for its beautiful and historic Kailasanatha temple.  It was built in the 13th century and completed in the 17th century.

An intriguing feature is related to optics and architecture of the temple.  Every year, on February 21, and the subsequent three days, during sunset, the Sun’s rays travel through a small hole in the Gopuram at the front of the temple and travel all the ways across the temple courtyard, the sacred chamber of the temple and fall directly on the deity, a Siva Lingam. When this happens, the central deity appears to be glowing.

There is another interesting carving in this temple bringing to life an ancient myth. In the myth, Lord Shiva reduces Manmatha (God of Love) to ashes because Manmatha tried to disturb his meditation.  But when Manmatha’s wife Rati prays to Lord Shiva, he grants her a boon that her husband will live but only appear to her and no one else.

The architect cleverly depicted this in such a way that one can see the Manmatha statue only while standing above the statue of Rati (as though Rati is looking at Manmatha), but not from any other angle away from the statue.

The temple also features a number of exquisite stone carvings of the Yaali (mythological dragon). This Yaali has a stone ball in its mouth. Both the Yaali and the ball are carved out of the same stone.  One can even put one's finger inside the Yaali's mouth and rotate the ball. The perfect spherical shape of the ball inside the mouth of Yaali is indeed a tribute to the architectural skills of the sculptors.

                 



V. Suchindram

Suchindram is a temple town situated in the southern most district of Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu State. The temple was built during 12th to 17th centuries by different Dravidian kings.  It is one of the very few temples which is dedicated to all the three main Hindu deities Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva as a single deity. It is called Sthanumalayan (Sthanu-Shiva; Maal-Vishnu and Ayan-Brahma) kovil.

The temple is grand architecturally. The seven-story white Gopuram's facade is covered with sculptures of deities.

Musical Pillars

There are four large pillars each formed by a group of smaller pillars, all of them carved from a single stone. Two of these large pillars have 33 smaller pillars and the other two 25 each.  These are musical pillars. Each of these smaller pillars produce a different musical note when tapped.

In one ear and out the other

In addition to these pillars, there are many sculptures with secret messages.  For example one sculpture has a tiny hole which goes all the way form one ear to the other ear. This is designed to teach that in the Royal court, whatever one hears with one ear, must go out only through the other ear and not the mouth.

Outside there is a gigantic figure of Hanuman. The figure is 18 feet high and depicts 'Visvaroopam'  the cosmic form of this deity. The strange thing about this statue is that, while it is constantly adorned by the worshipers with butter, not a single ant or fly is seen anywhere near.

Believers say it is a miracle and scientists say that the statue is made of rock containing excessive Sulphur which repels these insects.

There are so many carvings and sculptures in this temple which are a feast to the eye and the imagination.

VI. Sun Temple

This Temple dedicated to the Sun God, is situated in Arasavilli Village in coastal Andhra Pradesh. It is one of the two temples in India, dedicated to Sun God. The other temple is in Konark, Orissa. The temple is built in the 7th Century and is built in the Orissa style of temple architecture.

A black granite image of Surya is depicted as riding on a 7 horse driven chariot. The seven horses represent the seven colors in the white light. This implies that the sculptors of that time perhaps intuitively knew that white light is composed of primary colors.
                                         

The sun’s rays shine on the deity twice a year in the months of February and June during the early hours of the day. The Sun’s rays travel from outside the temple all the way into the temple and the sacred chamber and fall on the feet of idol for a few minutes. This will not happen on any other day during the year.

This again, is a testimony to the engineering and architectural skills of the great sculptors of India in those early centuries.




In summary, India is an ancient land with great culture dating many thousands of years. It has produced philosophers, musicians, sculptors and architects throughout the centuries. There are hundreds of examples of the achievements of these personalities, scattered all over the country. Their contributions are slowly but surely coming to light.

Perhaps the world will begin to appreciate and enjoy these varied examples of architectural splendor, including the intriguing optical and acoustical phenomenon described in these six instances.

Prof. Kolluri has specialized in Optics with a Doctorate in Spectroscopy and a career in Laser Physics.