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Temple architecture and worship according to Maadhva AagamaVasu Murthy

History of Agama texts for Temple worship:

SSVT follows the Aagama sampradaayas for Shaiva and Vaishnava Aagamas in addition to the Kerala tantra sam-pradaaya for Ayyappa worship. In the Vaishnava Aagamas, Paancharaatra Aagama is followed for Vaishnava sannidhis and Maadvha aagama is followed for Sri UDUPI Krishna sannidhi. This article provides a glimpse of Maadhva Aagama paddhati and briefly outlines its use in the Maadhva sampradaaya.

Aagama shastra in Sanaatana Dharma refers to the vedas and other valid scriptures that guide us in proper living and sAd-hana (spiritual practice) towards moksha (salvation) and liberation from the cycle of birth and death. Word “gama” means “to go” or “gain Knowledge”. Word “Aa” means towards. Aagama means words that take us towards the ulti-mate knowledge that can not be perceived by the normal five sense organs of sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. For obtaining knowledge that are beyond the five senses, scrip-tures that are either unauthored (apaurusheya) or authored by a very high authority (Paurusheya) are used. All Acharyas say that Vedas and Upanishads are unauthored texts. Authored texts by Sri Narayana himself are the paurusheya Aagamas or authored texts that are reliable. There are vari-ous Aagamas that are recognized by Sri Madhvaacharya. Among Authored texts, Brahma sutras, Sri Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharata, Moola Ramayana, Puranas like Bhagavata etc, and Paancharaatra, Vaikhanasa are recognized as Aagamas. All these authored pramanas have been written by Sri Nara-yana and his avataras such Sri Vedavyasa. Sri Acharya Madhva has stated that Paancharaatra has been written by Sri Narayana himself and is that an Agama text (pa~ncarAtrasya kR^itsnasya vaktA nArAyanaH svayam.h)

Bhagwan Sri Vasudeva dictated Paancharaatra texts on 5 nights to the following Rishis, Shaandilya, Aupagaayana, Maunjayana, Kaushika and Bhaaradwaja. Paancharaa-tra texts are vast in nature. Some of the texts are lost to us. Some of the remaining texts are: Shaandilya samhita, Vishnu samhita, Anirbudhnya samhita, Vishnu tatva samhita, Sudarshana samhita and Prakasha samhita. Paancharaatra texts are followed in major Vaishnava temples in South India.

Sri Madhvacharya says that there is another ancient text called “TaMtra saara” that consists of conversation between Vishnu and Brahma on various aspects of worship. That text is lost to us now. Sri madhvaacharya has summarized the text in a work called “taMtra saara saMgraha”. This is the authoritative text in the Maadhva sampradaaya for personal worship, Temple architecture and temple worship details in the Madhva sampradaaya.

Sri Madhvaacharya (1238 - 1317 CE) was born in Paajaka kshetra near Udupi, a town in South Western Karantaka in India. His childhood name is Vasudeva. His father’s last

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Temple architecture and worship according to Maadhva Aagama

2014 Fundraising dinner – For 2015 Jeernodharana KumbhabhisheKam

Sri Siva Vishnu Temple

name is Nadillaya. First names of his father and mother are thought to be Narayana and Vedavati, but are not cer-tain. After a childhood filled with extra ordinary incidents that showed his intellectual capacity in Philosophy, religious study and physical strength, Vasudeva was initiated into the path of renunciation (sanyaasa) at the age of 11 by Sri Achyuta preksha. PoorNa prajna was the name given to him at the time of initiation into sanyaasa. Title Ananda Theer-tha was given when Sri PoorNa prajna was crowned as the Master of Vedanta by his teacher Sri Achyuta preksha after a few years. Sri Madhva (name can be traced to Balitha sukta in Rigveda) was the pen name (nom de plume) used by Sri Acharya in all his works. Sri Madhvaacharya quickly for-mulated the Maadhva vedanta (also called tattva vaada) and wrote Gita Bhashya (commentary to Bhagavad Gita ) which he presented to his Guru Sri Vedavyaasa in Badari in Himala-yas. He travelled throughout India, spreading his philosophy and message and attracting people to his vedanta. He wrote forty works on Upanishads, Geetha and Brahma sutra, pura-nas and stotras. His established Sri Krishna Temple in Udupi that has become center for Maadhva worship.

We now give a quick summary of the work TaMtra saara saMgraha. TaMtra saara saMgraha is a small text, but has summarized all the Vaishnava Aagama texts very well.

Details of Personal worship:

In the first chapter of Tamtra saara saMgraha Sri Madh-vaacharya has outlined the principles of personal worship. Here details of the OMkaara and the eight-maha mantras are described. Sri Madhvaacharya goes into details of how many aksharaas are there in each mantra, how to do AMga nyaasa for each mantra etc. Achaarya states that there are eight aksharaas in OMkaara even through commonly we only know about three aksharaas. These are the, “a” kaara, “u” kaara, “ma” kaara the commonly known aksharaas. In addi-tion there are, naada, bindu, ghosha, shaaMta, atishaaMta aksharas in OM kaara. Then he talks about details of the naaraayaNa ashtaakshara, vaasudeva dvaadhashaakshara mantra etc. Then details of how to do AaavaraNa pooja and peeTa pooja as part of the daily worship are given. These are very important details for the individual saadhaka for the daily personal worship.

Details of Kalasha and Homa:

In the second chapter, Sri Madhvaacharya has described details of kalasha pooja. He has described how to meditate

on the forms of paramaatma in the Kalasha. Kalasha is essential to bring special sannidhaana (presence) of the Lord in the icons. This chapter also describes how to construct Homa kundaas. It also briefly describes how to do homas.

Details of Temple architecture and worship:

In the third chapter of Tamtra saara saMgraha, Sri Madh-vaacharya talks about details of preparing Pratima (icons) of worship. Accurate measurements of different parts of Prathima are stated. This is a special contribution of Sri Madhvaacharya to Shilpa shaastra (scripture on icons). Sri Madhvaacharya has described how to construct prathimas, and the temple architectures, Vaastu related details etc. Sri-madaachaarya has also described how to do prathisTaapana of the prathimaas in the temple. Srimadaachaarya states that there are many ways to do this, but he has described the simplest means that gives the results of the full anushTaana (religious practice).

Maadhwa aagama procedures at SSVT: SSVT hosts a beau-tiful sanctum for Udupi Sri Krishna. Since its inception, a Maadhwa priest trained in one of the Dvaita siddhanta paatashaalas run by Udupi matham-s or other matham-s has been conducting daily puja. The current priest Sri Rakesh Acharya is a graduate of Poornaprajna Vidhyapeetha in Ban-galore. In addition to daily puja to Sri Krishna, Sri Krishna jayanthi, Deepavali, and Tulasi kalyana utsavams are con-ducted in a traditional manner. In addition, the temple conducts Sri Raghavendra Jayanthi, Sri Madhwa navami as a community –participating religious events. Fortunately, a pontiff of one of the Eight mathams, Sri Sugunendra Teertha swamiji of Sri Puthige Matha at Udupi, has established a “Sri Krishna Brindavana” in New Jersey. We are in the middle of our efforts to embellish our current pujas and celebrations as per Maadhwa aagama at SSVT with Swamiji’s blessings and guidance.

Summary:

This article gives a summary of the Maadhva Aagama accord-ing to taMtra saara saMgraha text by Sri Madhvaacharya. Full study of the text is essential for all Vaishnava aspi-rants in their daily spiritual practices and for temples in the prathishTaapana and daily poojas in the temple.

Reference:

• Sarva moola graMtha of Sri madhvaacharya - published by Sri Poorna prajna vidyapeetha, Bangalore.