Hindu temple architecture

Hindu temple architecture has many varieties of style, though the basic nature of the Hindu temple remains the same, with the essential feature an inner sanctum, the garbha griha or womb-chamber, where the primary Murti or the image of a deity is housed in a simple bare cell. Around this chamber there are often other structures and buildings, in the largest cases covering several acres. On the exterior, the garbhagriha is crowned by a tower-like shikhara, also called the vimana in the south. The shrine building often includes an ambulatory for parikrama (circumambulation), a mandapa congregation hall, and sometimes an antarala antechamber and porch between garbhagriha and mandapa. There may further mandapas or other buildings, connected or detached, in large temples, together with other small temples in the compound.

Hindu temple architecture reflects a synthesis of arts, the ideals of dharma, beliefs, values and the way of life cherished under Hinduism. The temple is a place for Tirtha - pilgrimage. All the cosmic elements that create and celebrate life in Hindu pantheon, are present in a Hindu temple - from fire to water, from images of nature to deities, from the feminine to the masculine, from kama to artha, from the fleeting sounds and incense smells to Purusha - the eternal nothingness yet universality - is part of a Hindu temple architecture. The form and meanings of architectural elements in a Hindu temple are designed to function as the place where it is the link between man and the divine, to help his progress to spiritual knowledge and truth, his liberation it calls moksha.

The architectural principles of Hindu temples in India are described in Shilpa Shastras and Vastu Sastras. The Hindu culture has encouraged aesthetic independence to its temple builders, and its architects have sometimes exercised considerable flexibility in creative expression by adopting other perfect geometries and mathematical principles in Mandir construction to express the Hindu way of life.

Holy texts
The collections of the scriptures, the branches, and its special parts, the shrines, define in detail accuracy almost every aspect of Hindu religious life. The descriptions cover the building of the temple, the formation and worship of idols and gods , the presentation of various philosophical doctrines, meditative exercises.

The silpa-mails contain primarily the Hindu texts of manual arts, including the standards of religious Hindu iconography, including the proportions of carved figures and the rules of Hindu architecture. Sixty such art or crafts art, including "external or practical art", such as carpentry, architecture and jewelery, are included, but there are also the knitting-school workshop, acting, dancing, music, medicine and even poetry. It extends to the so-called "secret arts", which includes the modalities of erotic arts and sexual life.

While the silpa-shrubs specially deal with carvings, statues, icons and wall paintings, the Vásztu-shastra is primarily a system of rules for the construction of buildings, churches, castles and dwellings. The Vásztu-sásztra is part of the "The Science of Construction", one of the Vedas , the Sthapatja Protector, describing the modalities of construction.

The nature of the Hindu temples
Like a Buddhist shrine, the Hindu temple also incorporates the relationship between the gods and the believer in a sacred space, but in contrast to the Buddhists who focus primarily on the life and teachings of the Buddha , Hindus respect many deities and their various forms and forms of expression. The symbolism of the church is manifold. At the same time, the symbol of God's dwelling - for the northern believers the Hill of Meru Hill in the south, the real mountain of Kailasza, the place of worship and worship are in themselves the shadows of the celestial chariots of the gods. The latter symbol was captured in the concrete form of the temple decoration, with twelve huge wheels on the side of the Konar temple, and they received horses from stone.  Since there is no compulsory church worship, at first there was no particular need for common prayer in large, closed spaces than in Western religions or even in Islam. Nevertheless, the church and its surroundings as a landscape of a three-dimensional form become the center of community life as the buildings of Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions are also the main symbols of social, cultural centers and religious-related activities.

Prayer is usually a mantra , which the believers say in the vicinity of the temple. The sermon is in the vicinity of the church, but even more than once, and the believer stays beside him most, hears his teachings. Priests regularly perform strictly prescribed ordinances for the benefit of the whole community, but individual prayers can be offered at any time of the day. The sanctuary and its surroundings are extremely busy, humorous people, animals, holy cows, blessing-giving elephants, generous donations, beggars and artists built for the poor. These include the booths of the dwellings of the Brahmans , the dancers ( deceptive k, "the godfathers of the gods"), baskets and charity stores. Outside the caste, the members of the lowest caste (the unclean) are in the area of active churches, though they are only the designated places of the complex. The movement of the ascetics (theirs) is not restricted within the temple.

The shrine is usually small enough. The temples were built for gods and not for people. Initially, in the era of Brahmanism, it was the scene of the presentation of sacrifices to the gods, where the priests (brahmanas or brahmins) could not enter the ceremony itself. They sent the sacrificial animal to the priests, asking them to intervene for the fulfillment of their wishes. The central core of the sanctuary is also known as a "wormhole" or " wardrobe chamber" (garbhagriha) , which contains a sacred image of a sculpted statue or a symbol of the god it is consecrated. To accommodate the needs of the masses (typically columnar) halls were placed around the sanctuary, the so-called mandapas , some of which are intended to receive sacrificial gifts, while others are the venue of celebrations.

If the ancient rituals and the rituals of the occasion are not respected, God may choose to move to another place, and besides worship and priestly ordinances, believers seek to express their presence as welcoming and provide entertainment with music, food, dance, with the preamble of religious texts and hymn singing. For these rituals, they create special architectural forms, halls, cabins.

The Hindu gods have a special affinity for the mountains and caves. In the design of most Hindu temples, the sacred mountain, the sacred cave, and a cosmic axis are present in symbolic form. The hill is the Meru Hill , the gods' residence, modeling it with giant tower-like structures and swarms . The cave itself is an interior shrine (garbhagriha) , a picture depicting the deity, a carved figure, or a symbol of the union of male and female polarities with the lingo . The phallic, non-anthropomorphic representation of the linga Siva , with its rounded form, is constantly oiled, melted butter, and many of them symbolize the cosmic axis. The linga is placed above a bowl, which symbolizes Siva's female energy, the chit- symbol, that good . The merging of these two secures the survival and balance of the universe.

History
There are hardly any remains of Hindu temples before the Gupta dynasty in the 4th century CE; no doubt there were earlier structures in timber-based architecture. The rock-cut Udayagiri Caves are among the most important early sites. The earliest preserved Hindu temples are simple cell-like stone temples, some rock-cut and others structural, as at Sanchi. By the 6th or 7th century, these evolved into high shikhara stone superstructures. However, there is inscriptional evidence such as the ancient Gangadhara inscription from about 424 CE, states Meister, that towering temples existed before this time and these were possibly made from more perishable material. These temples have not survived.

Examples of early major North Indian temples that have survived after the Udayagiri Caves in Madhya Pradesh include Deogarh, Parvati Temple, Nachna (465 CE), Lalitpur District (c. 525 CE), Lakshman Brick Temple, Sirpur (600-625 CE); Rajiv Lochan temple, Rajim (600 CE).

No pre-7th century CE South Indian style stone temples have survived. Examples of early major South Indian temples that have survived, some in ruins, include the diverse styles at Mahabalipuram. However, according to Meister, the Mahabalipuram temples are "monolithic models of a variety of formal structures all of which already can be said to typify a developed "Dravida" (South Indian) order". They suggest a tradition and a knowledge base existed in South India by the time of the early Chalukya and Pallava era when these were built. Other examples are found in Aihole and Pattadakal.

By about the 7th century most main features of the Hindu temple were established along with theoretical texts on temple architecture and building methods. From between about the 7th and 13th centuries a large number of temples and their ruins have survived (though far fewer than once existed). Many regional styles developed, very often following political divisions, as large temples were typically built with royal patronage. In the north, Muslim invasions from the 11th century onwards reduced the building of temples, and saw the loss of many existing ones. The south also witnessed Hindu-Muslim conflict that affected the temples, but the region was relatively less affected than the north. In late 14th century, the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire came to power and controlled much of South India. During this period, the distinctive very tall gopuram gatehouse actually a late development, from the 12th century or later, typically added to older large temples.

South-East Asian Hindu temples

The cultural sphere often called Greater India extended into South-East Asia. The earliest evidence trace to Sanskrit stone inscriptions found on the islands and the mainland Southeast Asia, dated between the 4th and 5th-century CE.[note 1] Prior to the 14th-century local versions of Hindu temples were built in Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. These developed several national traditions, and often mixed Hinduism and Buddhism. Theravada Buddhism prevailed in many parts of the South-East Asia, except Malaysia and Indonesia where Islam displaced them both.

Hindu temples in South-East Asia developed their own distinct versions, mostly based on Indian architectural models, both North Indian and South Indian styles. However, the Southeast Asian temple architecture styles are different and there is no known single temple in India that can be the source of the Southeast Asian temples. According to Michell, it is as if the Southeast Asian architects learned from "the theoretical prescriptions about temple building" from Indian texts, but never saw one. They reassembled the elements with their own creative interpretations. The Hindu temples found in Southeast Asia are more conservative and far more strongly link the Mount Meru-related cosmological elements of Indian thought than the Hindu temples found in the subcontinent. Additionally, unlike the Indian temples, the sacred architecture in Southeast Asia associated the ruler (devaraja) with the divine, with the temple serving as a memorial to the king as much as being house of gods. Notable examples of Southeast Asian Hindu temple architecture are the Shivaist Prambanan Trimurti temple compound in Java, Indonesia (9th century), and the Vishnuite Angkor Wat in Cambodia (12th century).

Design
A Hindu temple is a symmetry-driven structure, with many variations, on a square grid of padas, depicting perfect geometric shapes such as circles and squares. Susan Lewandowski states that the underlying principle in a Hindu temple is built around the belief that all things are one, everything is connected. A temple, states Lewandowski, "replicates again and again the Hindu beliefs in the parts mirroring, and at the same time being, the universal whole" like an "organism of repeating cells".:68, 71 The pilgrim is welcomed through mathematically structured spaces, a network of art, pillars with carvings and statues that display and celebrate the four important and necessary principles of human life - the pursuit of artha (prosperity, wealth), the pursuit of kama (desire), the pursuit of dharma (virtues, ethical life) and the pursuit of moksha (release, self-knowledge).

At the center of the temple, typically below and sometimes above or next to the deity, is mere hollow space with no decoration, symbolically representing Purusa, the Supreme Principle, the sacred Universal, one without form, which is present everywhere, connects everything, and is the essence of everyone. A Hindu temple is meant to encourage reflection, facilitate purification of one’s mind, and trigger the process of inner realization within the devotee. The specific process is left to the devotee’s school of belief. The primary deity of different Hindu temples varies to reflect this spiritual spectrum.

The Site
The appropriate site for a Mandir, suggest ancient Sanskrit texts, is near water and gardens, where lotus and flowers bloom, where swans, ducks and other birds are heard, where animals rest without fear of injury or harm. These harmonious places were recommended in these texts with the explanation that such are the places where gods play, and thus the best site for Hindu temples.

While major Hindu Mandirs are recommended at sangams (confluence of rivers), river banks, lakes and seashore, the Brhat Samhita and Puranas suggest temples may also be built where a natural source of water is not present. Here too, they recommend that a pond be built preferably in front or to the left of the temple with water gardens. If water is neither present naturally nor by design, water is symbolically present at the consecration of temple or the deity. Temples may also be built, suggests Visnudharmottara in Part III of Chapter 93, inside caves and carved stones, on hill tops affording peaceful views, mountain slopes overlooking beautiful valleys, inside forests and hermitages, next to gardens, or at the head of a town street.

In practice most temples are built as part of a village or town. Some sites such as capitals of kingdoms and those considered particularly sacred geography had numerous temples. Some of the ancient capitals vanished, the surviving temples are now found in a rural landscape. Aihole, Badami, Pattadakal and Gangaikonda Cholapuram are examples.

The Layout
The design, especially the floor plan, of the part of a Hindu temple around the sanctum or shrine follows a geometrical design called vastu-purusha-mandala. The name is a composite Sanskrit word with three of the most important components of the plan. Mandala means circle, Purusha is universal essence at the core of Hindu tradition, while Vastu means the dwelling structure. Vastupurushamandala is a yantra. The design lays out a Hindu temple in a symmetrical, self-repeating structure derived from central beliefs, myths, cardinality and mathematical principles.

The four cardinal directions help create the axis of a Hindu temple, around which is formed a perfect square in the space available. The circle of mandala circumscribes the square. The square is considered divine for its perfection and as a symbolic product of knowledge and human thought, while circle is considered earthly, human and observed in everyday life (moon, sun, horizon, water drop, rainbow). Each supports the other. The square is divided into perfect square grids. In large temples, this is often a 8x8 or 64 grid structure. In ceremonial temple superstructures, this is an 81 sub-square grid. The squares are called ‘‘padas’’. The square is symbolic and has Vedic origins from fire altar, Agni. The alignment along cardinal direction, similarly is an extension of Vedic rituals of three fires. This symbolism is also found among Greek and other ancient civilizations, through the gnomon. In Hindu temple manuals, design plans are described with 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81 up to 1024 squares; 1 pada is considered the simplest plan, as a seat for a hermit or devotee to sit and meditate on, do yoga, or make offerings with Vedic fire in front. The second design of 4 padas has a symbolic central core at the diagonal intersection, and is also a meditative layout. The 9 pada design has a sacred surrounded center, and is the template for the smallest temple. Older Hindu temple vastumandalas may use the 9 through 49 pada series, but 64 is considered the most sacred geometric grid in Hindu temples. It is also called Manduka, Bhekapada or Ajira in various ancient Sanskrit texts. Each pada is conceptually assigned to a symbolic element, sometimes in the form of a deity or to a spirit or apasara. The central square(s) of the 64 is dedicated to the Brahman (not to be confused with Brahmin), and are called Brahma padas.

In a Hindu temple’s structure of symmetry and concentric squares, each concentric layer has significance. The outermost layer, Paisachika padas, signify aspects of Asuras and evil; the next inner concentric layer is Manusha padas signifying human life; while Devika padas signify aspects of Devas and good. The Manusha padas typically houses the ambulatory. The devotees, as they walk around in clockwise fashion through this ambulatory to complete Parikrama (or Pradakshina), walk between good on inner side and evil on the outer side. In smaller temples, the Paisachika pada is not part of the temple superstructure, but may be on the boundary of the temple or just symbolically represented.

The Paisachika padas, Manusha padas and Devika padas surround Brahma padas, which signifies creative energy and serves as the location for temple’s primary idol for darsana. Finally at the very center of Brahma padas is Garbhagruha(Garbha- Centre, gruha- house; literally the center of the house) (Purusa Space), signifying Universal Principle present in everything and everyone. The spire of a Hindu temple, called Shikhara in north India and Vimana in south India, is perfectly aligned above the Brahma pada(s).

Beneath the mandala's central square(s) is the space for the formless shapeless all pervasive all connecting Universal Spirit, the Purusha. This space is sometimes referred to as garbha-griya (literally womb house) - a small, perfect square, windowless, enclosed space without ornamentation that represents universal essence. In or near this space is typically a murti. This is the main deity image, and this varies with each temple. Often it is this idol that gives it a local name, such as Vishnu temple, Krishna temple, Rama temple, Narayana temple, Siva temple, Lakshmi temple, Ganesha temple, Durga temple, Hanuman temple, Surya temple, and others. It is this garbha-griya which devotees seek for ‘‘darsana’’ (literally, a sight of knowledge, or vision).

Above the vastu-purusha-mandala is a high superstructure called the shikhara in north India, and vimana in south India, that stretches towards the sky. Sometimes, in makeshift temples, the superstructure may be replaced with symbolic bamboo with few leaves at the top. The vertical dimension's cupola or dome is designed as a pyramid, conical or other mountain-like shape, once again using principle of concentric circles and squares (see below). Scholars such as Lewandowski state that this shape is inspired by cosmic mountain of Mount Meru or Himalayan Kailasa, the abode of gods according to its ancient mythology.:69–72

In larger temples, the outer three padas are visually decorated with carvings, paintings or images meant to inspire the devotee. In some temples, these images or wall reliefs may be stories from Hindu Epics, in others they may be Vedic tales about right and wrong or virtues and vice, in some they may be idols of minor or regional deities. The pillars, walls and ceilings typically also have highly ornate carvings or images of the four just and necessary pursuits of life - kama, artha, dharma and moksa. This walk around is called pradakshina.

Large temples also have pillared halls called mandapa. One on the east side, serves as the waiting room for pilgrims and devotees. The mandapa may be a separate structure in older temples, but in newer temples this space is integrated into the temple superstructure. Mega temple sites have a main temple surrounded by smaller temples and shrines, but these are still arranged by principles of symmetry, grids and mathematical precision. An important principle found in the layout of Hindu temples is mirroring and repeating fractal-like design structure, each unique yet also repeating the central common principle, one which Susan Lewandowski refers to as “an organism of repeating cells”.

Predominant number of Hindu temples exhibit the perfect square grid principle. However, there are some exceptions. For example, the Teli ka Mandir in Gwalior, built in the 8th century CE is not a square but is a rectangle consisting of stacked squares. Further, the temple explores a number of structures and shrines in 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 2:5, 3:5 and 4:5 ratios. These ratios are exact, suggesting the architect intended to use these harmonic ratios, and the rectangle pattern was not a mistake, nor an arbitrary approximation. Other examples of non-square harmonic ratios are found at Naresar temple site of Madhya Pradesh and Nakti-Mata temple near Jaipur, Rajasthan. Michael Meister states that these exceptions mean the ancient Sanskrit manuals for temple building were guidelines, and Hinduism permitted its artisans flexibility in expression and aesthetic independence.

The Hindu text Sthapatya Veda describes many plans and styles of temples of which the following are found in other derivative literature: Chaturasra (square), Ashtasra (octagonal), Vritta (circular), Ayatasra (rectangular), Ayata Ashtasra (rectangular-octogonal fusion), Ayata Vritta (elliptical), Hasti Prishta (apsidal), Dwayasra Vrita (rectangular-circular fusion); in Tamil literature, the Prana Vikara (shaped like a Tamil Om sign, Tamil Om.svg) is also found. Methods of combining squares and circles to produce all of these plans are described in the Hindu texts.

Decoration and ornamentation
After the fall of the Gupta Empire , initially simple geometric decorations gradually became more complicated, sculptures and life paintings appeared on the walls of the churches. In the prayers' field of vision, reliefs on the outside of the churches, on the pedestals and in the columned halls, were gilded with delicate and very elaborate reliefs. As the believer moves to the sanctuary, he finds fewer carvings, or even paintings, indicating that the purity and nobility of the souls of the believer must be ruled by his sensual joys. The interior walls of the inner sanctuary are almost bare.

Statues and reliefs depict deities, mythological creatures, or members of the royal family in the pillars of the pillars, embedded in wall slides. This is why smaller sculpture groups located in vertical bands (pessaries) formed in multilayered roofs.

Many of the Western art historians who are often seen on the outer walls of the churches, which are openly depicting comic-book scenes, are interpreted as the pictorial representation of mystical tantrism , that is, it can be seen as the formative formation of a kind of human-union association, which is the theology of certain Hindu sects. With the flowering of the tantric sects and the growth of the bhakti cult, necklaces and cabbages grew into more and more open forms of erotic sculpture.  Individual sculptures are relatively rare, and are particularly characteristic of medieval ornamental patterns. Portbrushing did not exist, even the works representing significant rulers were evenly schematic, the persons depicted could be identified on the basis of at most some characteristic object. The proportions of the body are to the same extent determined by ancient texts as other features of the church.

Already in the initial hard-granite works, the technique was used to fine-tune the shapes with thin stucco plastered stuccos and then paint them in color as if they were woodcuts.  Especially in the wickedly-styled churches, the area of Dekkán is characterized by relief relief, which, from the basement, crosses the building in every area of the church, giving the reliefs depicting the gods with a busy background.

In the 8th century , especially in the surroundings of the northern temples, the mass production of small bronze sculptures of the goddesses, which were lined up during the holidays along the trajectory ( trajectory or pradaksina ), however, can not be considered as a stand-alone work, virtually reproduced on the same models them. Later, the various art schools started to develop independently, distinctly according to their geographical position and their views in Hinduism.

When it comes to mining, soft, then gradually hardening clitoris,  or hard granite and basalt machining combines sophisticated taste with extraordinary formidability and indicates the presence and continuous development of different stone carving schools throughout the Indian subcontinent. From the 14th century, the reliefs and sculptural groups, which were considered independent works, were gradually ornamented and lost their unique character,  the decoration became self-made. The overwhelming figures were united in an almost unobtrusive set, sculptures were reduced to a few basic types that overlooked the architectural elements of the building. This is especially true of the enormous gopuram of the southern temple towns where the constructed structure disappears in the mass of sculpted statues.

In the construction of temples, up to the modern times, they used almost the same stone-cutting tools as were found in the excavation of a cave built around 650 , at the time when a large number of remarkable churches were excavated from the granite in Mahabalipuram . The church-building guilds had passed their knowledge of father to son. The principal, the brahmin-builder, was more important than the artist himself, who specializes in a certain form or shape, even the masters of outstanding works rarely have their name.

Architectural style
The earliest remnants of Hindu sanctuaries were carved rocks in Udaigiri, near the Archanes , which still clearly show the influence of Buddhist architecture. The 17th church was built in the early 5th century in Sáncsi, in fact it is a square shrine, with a columned porch in front of it. This two-chamber form spread almost every subsequent architectural style. With the development of the technical knowledge of the stone carvers and builders, the formal, symbolic elements whose designs were those mountains that were over the shrine (cave) became more and more elaborate and more abstract.

The cave structures that represent a particular form of architecture in Elora , where, like the Buddhist caves of Adzsanta , the building of the buildings was done in a strange way with the dismantling of the base, the monolithic blocks thus created were refined inside, while the sanctuary and the the forms of its halls. This is an outstanding representative of this form of sculpture, built by the Rastrakuta dynasty , the Kailásza church complex set up in the 8th century.

The monoliths of granite blocks were also excavated at Mahabalipuram on the beach by the so-called "seven pagoda" rats (basically stone-worn chariots, which, during their festivals on wooden models, surround the image of God). These include the main stylistic elements of Dravida's church architecture. The Rathas are in fact shrines, the sacred places of the pagoda brothers of the Mahabharata , each ratha bearing the name of a pandavate brother.  Interestingly, their sanctuary is extremely small, or some have no.

In the beginning, wooden bamboo building materials were used to create high-rise sanctuaries, but when constructed from bricks and stone from these bricks, the structure designed for light and flexible wood was oversized and robust.  Latter-day Hindu temples became increasingly taller as the builders recognized and exploited the sculptural potential of the stone and gradually became the basic architectural styles. The rise of massive masses imitated entire mountain ranges. The Bhitargaon brick-built Visnu church (first half of the 5th century) is an early example of the exceptionally tall superstructure raised above the shrine. The extremely thick walls required to maintain the high roof reinforced the inner-sanctuary's womb-like imagery. With the increasingly complex structure of the exterior, it was difficult to understand the complexity of the masonry, and how richly decorated, the original function remained, the essence of which was the square-floor interior, over which there was a high- swing Sikhara roof, axial layout with a columned porch space. These elements still determine the built structure of the Hindu temple with a unique form. Pyramid-shaped roofs were raised over the smaller halls, repeating in a smaller scale the shape of the great Sikhara over the garbhagriha.

Hindu temples can be considered as architectural monuments of various Indian dynasties, especially in Central and Northern India. In the 6th century, the style of temple architecture was similar in both the north and the south. After that date, architecture has developed into different directions. The two areas where church architecture was most advanced, the Dekkán and Orisza , here are North and South-style churches alongside each other. The vimaña, with its Sikhara over the shrine, was particularly important in Orissa, and had a functionally far more meaningful meaning than the South Indian gopuram, where the barrel-shaped tower does not crown the sanctuary or garbhagrih, but only serves to signal the entrance. The orisian architect wanted to give more emphasis to the temple than to other buildings in the area, he thought he was in the garbhagrih, where he lived.

In terms of their style, Hindu temples are usually divided into three categories, taking into account their geographic location and their particular features. These

the spouse , or the city;
the southern or dravida ;
the destruction of the two, or the Deccan architecture.

The main difference between these architectural features is the architectural concept of the inner sanctuary, the towers above the garbhagriha .

The mix of Southern and North stylistic features in some areas gives interes

Monument protection
Most of the archaeological sites of ancient temple in India are controlled by the Indian Archeological Survey of India  . In India, theoretically, temples are governed by their own independent self-government, responsible for the economy, leadership and events of the churches. From the donations and from the income of his possessions, he generates the necessary costs for running, but few churches are capable of making more and more efforts to bring about the basic financial means, so the status of the churches is gradually deteriorating.

Within the Heritage Office, a separate section, the Architectural Temple Survey Project (NR), founded in 1955, deals with the preservation and reconstruction of churches, which is attentive throughout India, and financially helps communities to preserve the ruined buildings.

Since the proclamation of independence (since 1947), the autonomy of individual Hindu religious denominations to govern the affairs of churches belonging to their own denominations has been greatly overwhelmed. Governments increased their influence in India, mainly in the southern state, and control over the Hindu temples. Some, mainly South-Indian organs report inappropriate use and embezzlement of funds intended for the preservation of temples (most of which come from foreign donations).  For decades, various laws have been passed, with more or less success in the Supreme Court of India, and now politicians of the leading parties dominate all the administration and operation aspects of churches.

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