Before I proceed further, let me just brush up where we left in the previous episode. We were talking about the mathematical genius of Vedic Indians. We were wondering why these people went so deep into geometry and such other mathematical subjects, while they were totally focused on religious rituals. What is the connection?
A few episodes ago we talked about the communion of these Vedic Indians who could summon alien beings and have dialogue with them. And if you believe whatever is narrated in the Vedas as true, these beings did come and had a long session with these devout people. They accepted their hospitality, heard their demands, and finally bestowed them whatever they wanted, or even safeguarded them from their enemies.
Don’t such prolonged sessions need any meeting place or some kind of podium, so to speak, where they can sit together and take part in the exchanges and hospitalities? Afterall, these divine guests have come from far-off place. But these are not human guests. These are the guests who appear as luminous beings, who come on invitation sent through the ritual fire, who accept hospitality also through the offerings poured into the fire! Basically, these podiums are the fire altars in common parlance.
Depending on what the sponsor or the Yajamana of the fire ritual wants from these divine beings, different types of podiums were constructed. These podiums were called citi or VEdi. At the center of the citi a blazing ritual fire was lit and all the offerings were done into that fire. The divine beings are supposed to accept these offerings by being present on that occasion.
If one wants to ascend to heaven, a special altar called Syena citi was constructed. This was in the shape of a bird with its wings spread out as if it is soaring high in the sky.
There were other types of citis such as a Ratha citi which is in the shape of a chariot wheel.
Or it could even be shaped like a turtle or Koorma lying with its limbs and neck stretched out of its shell.
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| Syena citi odd and even layers |
If one wants to ascend to heaven, a special altar called Syena citi was constructed. This was in the shape of a bird with its wings spread out as if it is soaring high in the sky.
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| Ratha citi odd and even layers |
There were other types of citis such as a Ratha citi which is in the shape of a chariot wheel.
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| Koorma citi odd and even layers |
Or it could even be shaped like a turtle or Koorma lying with its limbs and neck stretched out of its shell.
Each design was aesthetically beautiful. If you are listening from my blog page, probably you should look at these designs that I have depicted. Unfortunately, I am not as adept as the Vedic Indians who could convey everything through words. I am a product of written era. I believe that a picture is worth more than thousand words 😉
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| Remnants of Syena citi at a Harappan site |
It is not just the aesthetics. In terms of construction too these Citis were interesting. Each Citi, irrespective of its shape was made using 1000 bricks, stacked in five layers, 200 bricks each in a layer. These bricks could be square or triangular or sometimes even wedge shaped as in the case of circular Citis. No cementing was done to bind these bricks. They remained in position sheerly because of their weight.
To make such a Citi stable, the most challenging thing was to take care that brick edges in adjacent layers don’t align among themselves. That ensured stability to the structure. All odd numbered layers were constructed in one way, so are even numbered layers. This added to the complexity of the construction.
You are allowed to use only bricks of certain shapes and sizes. You can’t slice these bricks to fit the gaps. Nor you can use any filler to cover the gaps. Basically, these bricks should fit quite snugly. And further the layout should be such that the edges in adjacent layers are not aligned. The overall shape of each layer should match and be perfect and the entire Citi should look like a solid block.
To make things more complex, the sizes of these Citis are not arbitrary nor are they fixed. They are in some way proportioned to meet the Yajamana’s body proportions. The total height of the Yajamana standing erect with his hands raised up is considered as a measure. It was called one Purusha. This was divided into 120 parts and each part was used as a basic unit to decide the sizes of various bricks.
That is where this entire Citi construction becomes complex. You have only a few restricted shapes of bricks, bricks cannot be sliced to fill in the gaps, they have to fit together perfectly, the outer shapes of each layer should match, the edges of bricks in adjacent layers should not be aligned. To top it all, the size of these bricks should be in some way related to the body proportions of the Yajamana!
Now probably you will appreciate why these Vedic Indians needed such advanced mathematical skills. Try drawing one such Citi yourselves without resorting to any modern drafting devices or complex calculations.
Do you call such people as primitive? At least I cannot.
A series discussing the most ancient of the Indian scriptures, nay the world scriptures namely the Vedas. © Dr. King, Swami Satyapriya 2021
Unbelievable and simply amazing architecture of the vedic Indians!! I think the present architects may not even be able to completely understand the science behind it,leave alone replicate it! There
ReplyDeleteare not just 7 wonders in India but hundreds of them