Temples, Kings and Patronage

Lesson 43 ended with images needing buildings. This lesson asks who built them and what they got for it.

Lesson 30 opened mandira and found no specialised religious sense at all: any abiding-place, habitation, dwelling, house, palace, town, camp — and, separately, the body. A temple in that word is simply a residence.

The word the architectural literature uses is prāsāda, and it says something else.

The lexicon derives it from pra-sad, literally "sitting forward" — sitting on a seat in a conspicuous place. Its senses run: a lofty seat or platform for spectators, a terrace; the top storey of a lofty building; and then "a lofty palatial mansion (approached by steps), palace, temple."

Palace and temple in one gloss, and the root sense is elevated, visible, forward-seated.