The Soul of Bharat: Vedic Age’s Unique Temples

India has long been admired for its architecture that is a marvelous confluence of technology, art and exquisite craftsmanship. As one of the oldest and most diverse civilisations of the world, one can find stunning temples, in stone or wood or a combination of both across the length and breadth of the country.

Diversity of Indian climate leads to availability of different types of wood for construction in different parts of India. Teak wood, sal, pine, fir, mango, oak, silver oak, sisam and many other types of wood are used in construction. Temples were constructed in wood prior to the period of use of stone; may be in Vedic period which is considered to be from 1500 BC to 500 BC by Western historians. This period can be different if appropriate research is carried out in this field. The traces of river Saraswati now available to us date back this period to 10,000 BC. Ashoka in started replacing wood with stone in construction with the thought of having permanent structures. Wood being a perishable material very few ancient examples are available for study. However, the technology and tools for construction in wood were so well developed in Vedic period that the construction of stone that followed after that also showed the detailed carving. Detailing of construction which was necessary for the wooden structure was probably considered to be the ritual by then and thus was copied religiously in stone as well.

In the Himalayan region, most of the wooden temples are made in Deodar wood. In Sanskrit, this wood is called Devdaru, Deva means divine and daru means wood; the divine wood. The main reason to use this wood profusely is more scientific than religious. It is a resinous wood, which means that the wood preserves itself. You know about the Lakshana Devi Temple; it is now 1500 years old. And still it is in as good condition as it originally was. This wood is protected with Chuli oil.

Himachal is known for wood carvings. Temples are not only places of worship, these are examples of beautiful wooden ornamentations. All elements, the doors, jambs, beams, lintels, abacuses, etc. are exquisitely carved. Lakshana Devi temple, Dakshineswar Mahadev temple at Nirmand and Mahasu Devata temple, etc. have intricate and delicate three-dimensional carvings.