DAYAL BAGH TEMPLE
This beautiful structure is being constructed in memory
of the founder “
Radha-Swami Faith”.
This is the true and real “Dhwanyatmak”
(Maheshwari 1969) name of the supreme creator. The name Radha-Swami was
given out by the Supreme Creator himself (Farquhar, 1915). Radha-Swami is no religion
at all, but rather than an amalgam of
the teaching of the saints, not meant a particular saint
but all of the world” (Singh, 1966). This
name has no connection with
Lord Krishna or his consort Radha.
According to Radha-Swami faith redemption cannot be achieved
without a Saint or Sat-
Guru. Guru has a
significant place in every body’s life. The great saint Kabir
Dass ji had also written, only the people who take
the shelter from Guru can get the God or Moksha.
“KabirMarg kathin hai,Muni Jan baithe
thaki,
Than katir chali gaya goh satguru ki
rakhi” (Shrikant.2009)
Kabir also compared guru
and God who is great and conclude that Guru is great who show me
the way to God so at first we
should bend in front of Guru.
“Guru Gobind dau khare,kako lage pau ,
Bblihari guru apno , jin govind diyo
batheyen” (Shrikant et.al)
Eck has written in her study of “Darshan”
that in Hinduism, “God is eminently visible although human beings
have not
always had the refinement of sight to see” (Dians, 1981). To find the God first
everyone has go to Saint. This building shows
love to the great saint Parma Purush Puran Dhani Swami Ji
Maharaj, who was the founder of Radha-Swami faith, was
born
on the city of Agra at Panni Gali on Janamashtmi
in 1818 AD (Juergensmeyer, 1991).
He was a great Saint. There are many
people who follow their words like a great saint.
In Charan Singh’s view Swami Dayal is one link in
sacred chain that includes
not only the medieval saints but their ancient
predecessors, figures such as Jesus and Buddha (Singh,
1978). According to
their followers he was the carnation in Human form of the
Almighty. “The swami Ji married at an early age to Narayani Devi,
a
woman of caste whose family had settled in the new
industrial city of Faridabad located between Agra and Delhi”
(Juergensmeyer, 1991).In
school it is said that he read the books as if he already knew their content (Singh, 1966). In his
adult life he would spend days without food or sleep he
would not even feel that “call of nature” (Rai) “He would go off to the
field outside Agra, where he could escape notice and
remain in solitude” (Juergensmeyer, 1991).
This holy building is situated
in Swami-Bagh Agra. It is concern that the ancestors of
Swami ji came from Punjab.Swami Bagh is about five kilometers from
Agra city. Its literally mean “the garden of the supreme
lord”. Maharaj Saheeb departed from this world from 1907.
2. ARCHITECTURE OF THE TEMPLE
Samadh is a Hindi word. In
Radha-Swami
faith it does not mean by grave (Mazar) or tomb or a
memorial (yaadgaar). “An
immense marble and granite building is being constructed
as both a place of worship and tomb” (Juergensmeyer,
1991). It
stands for spiritual equanimity, spiritual ecology or
conscious merger in the Supreme Being. “One has to begin with the
Samadh. A Samadh
place is a resting place for the physical remains of a great
religious personage (Lawrence, 1991). The
foundation of this ground structure was laid by third
master Maharaj Saheeb in 1904.The main
structure of 110 feet x110 feet and its height including
dome and kalasha will be 193 feet. A platform
55 feet broad runs all around the main structure and
height of the plinth is 20 feet above the ground
level. The pillars are in octagonal in shape are of
marble monoliths each supported on a carved
base of marble and covered with an even more elaborately
carved cap of marble. On the northern
and southern sides, there are in front of the octagonal
pillars, cylindrical and marble monoliths. The
rest is masonry work of brick and stone in line covered
with marble slabs. The whole building looks
like a garden. The interior and the exterior walls of the
building are decorated with flowers, plants,
creeper and trees by inlay and carving, which give the
spontaneity. The entrance of the Samadh is
decorated by tree on the upper side and then flowers. The
side walls are also decorated with flower
like kena, lotus, Marigold and
many others. The main quality of this temple is the plenty of nature
and this is the reason that no one can forget the natural
things. The rose and the sunflower on the
pillar create welcoming effect and in waiting for us and
as we look them, it is similar as chatting with
us (Figure 1) .On the
other hand, no one can get a chance to see the plant of wheat, Bajra
and
Jawar because everyone is
busy in modern life and no one desire to go in nature due to hectic
schedule. So it is very hard to see the vegetation of
grain and cuisine seeds in its original form. Every type of flower, fruit and
creeper are decorated here in carving and inlay work.
Colour is also used on carving at some places in the temple as in the
interior, at the place of Samadh in present time there
are some decorative pillars having grape-vine are painted in green
yellow and brown colours. There are some motifs of books
on the right side of exterior wall in carving. It shows that a guru is
like a candle of knowledge, so the people come here to
get some knowledge. May be the intention of all things is, to show the
authenticity and feeling of nature so one who came here
gets the natural feeling from these motifs. The roof and the floors are
also decorated with flower. The border is decorated with
creeper and circle, square, and octagonal shapes are made in the
middle one by one. These different design are fully
decorated with different motifs and coloured stones. The monument is a
unique monument in itself” its builders hope that when
finished it will rival the Taj Mahal” (Juergensmeyer,
1991).
3. TECHNIQUE AND MATERIAL
This building is made of marble in nar-mada (man-woman)
techniques. In the interview with their worker, it is also known that
there is no any iron-rode in the beam or roof and the
whole building is in nar-mada style. The marble of different colours as
white, pink, green yellow, import from different parts of
India as Makrana (Jodhpur), Amba Ji, Baroda, Jaislmer, and Gwalior.
The carving in marble is very superior. If we compare it
with Mughal carving work than it will be scored high, because every
leaf, every flower and every vegetable is in its original
form and the tree of mango look like its original leaves, Here this style
is different from Mughal because there artist had been
used flowers and fruits with different leaves.
4. THEME OF THE BUILDING
This building is based on the theme of unity. The
unanimity of different religions and their symbols, vegetables and fruits has
been used here. Structure of the building is made in the
form of Temple, Mosque, church and Gurudwara. “To the western
eye it looks like a cathedral with minarets encircling a
giant turnip shape dome” (Juergensmeyer, 1991).
The same theme is
also based on the different ornaments used in this
building. In a deeper way the true significance of vegetative and floral
themes was that they gave a tremendous sense of life to
the ornament. There are many stories to attract the different
religious people in one faith “other stories recall that
he could make tree wither and elephant appear (Rai).
5. PERSONAL TASTE OF RADHA-SWAMI FAITH
Natural vegetation was very much visually depicted on
this building. The monument had always feeling of the combination of
manmade and natural beauty. Every flower and vegetable is
carved out in very natural way .Swami loved nature very much
.He used to walk in the fields. “He would go off to the
field outside Agra, where he could escape notice and remain in solitude”
(Juergensmeyer, 1991).
Swami ji always convey the message that the work is worship for God so their
pupils do many work
by themselves and many factories milk dairy shop opened
in Dayal Bagh “During the 1930s is what great miracle can be
performed by God force-like other force of nature e.g.
steam, electricity etc. when building up an idea structure of human
society” the editor of an news paper went on to state
that Dayal Bagh was as grand. An achievement for the city of Agra in the
social realm as the Taj-Mahal had been in the
architecture” (Juergensmeyer, 1991). In
spite of guru ji being a strict follower of
saint mat he accepted all
the religion on his architectural monument, as the half moon, star and the
motifs from all religion.
“Since they felt bound to no orthodox, individual saints
were free to adopt spiritual resources available to them according to
their various personal religious visions and styles.”
“His sanctified personality standing independent of conflicting bases of
Hindu and Muslims authority” (Daniel,
1987). This picture shows unity in diversity. It is also thinking that
this monument will be
a very good example of the symbol of love and union as
well as natural decoration Figure 2.
6. SUBJECT MATTER
The whole building has ornamented with carving, inlay and
paintings. These are the ancient art of the India. This building is
like a pearl in the Hindu architecture .There are
different motifs which are made in this building as flowers, vegetables, trees,
leaves and creepers. The most frequent motif is lotus.
The lotus flower was depicted in dissimilar
perspective at different places as carved inside called
auspicious motifs, full bloomed or sometimes only a
bud could be seen. Floral motifs were mostly used on
panel capital and tail of pillars and most popularly on
the dado centers as plant, bud flowers leaves and
branches in natural form. It is concern that Hindu used
vegetation design chiefly trees in their naturalistic
form and there is rarely any attempt toward stylization.
Depiction of different exotic fruits was also found in
this monument. Which also give an idea that Guru ji were
the man or power, who planted such kind of exotic fruits
in their garden. Natural leaves and the grape vine
creepers are clearly visible in the interior and exterior
of the monument. Vegetative motifs played an
imported role in the reproduced nature with a great deal
of accuracy.
7. SYMBOLISM
However this shows the hidden meaning of symbols. The way
the design elements are shaped the section
positioning of all the motifs may be indicating the
message of goodwill. They have characteristic themes like
longevity, prosperity, happiness and so forth these
meaning are conveyed not by words but by the vegetative
words.
8. AESTHETICAL PHILOSOPHY
According to Nath (1986)
Rasa is the cause of Ananda which leads to
creation and sustenance”. In Indian context there are
eight Rasas in the Natya Shastra of Bharata Muni:
sringar, hasya, karuna, raudra, veera, bhayanka, bibhatsa and adbhut.
According to CoomaraSwami (1971)
art is a metaphysical statement. When rasa is applied to art and aesthetic
experiences
the word significance a state of heightened delight or ananda.
This kind of pleasure can be experienced only by the soul. In
Dayal-Bagh temple craftsmen wanted to communicate
emotions, thoughts visualization, ideas through their designs, motifs,
symbols and style. The most dominating rasa are Shanta
rasa, Sringar rasa and adbhuta rasa.
9. CONCLUSION
To conclude, this is clear that the architecture has a
symbolic meaning as the guru or saint want to see everyone with an eye,
in the same way the artist used different colours,
different motifs of vegetables, flowers and fruits and make a wonderful
architecture. In spite of these artist used the moon the
sun and the stars. They also used the different motifs which are
auspicious in about every religion. All these type of
ornamentation enhance the beauty of this building. Due to all these
qualities it may not be wrong to say that this monument
is a triumph over nature.
