Torana

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Torana in front of the Great Stupa of Sanchi (1st century BC)

A Torana is a - mostly free-standing - gate in front of a Buddhist , Hindu or Jain shrine in India or other Asian countries. They originally marked the transition from the secular to the sacred world. In later times their religious implications were lost in many places and they became welcoming or honorary monuments in the urban fabric.

Origin and meaning

Although such things have not survived, it can be assumed that Torana arches decorated with flowers and evergreen foliage were made from knots or wood in ancient India and placed in front of the house at celebrations (birth, wedding, house inauguration). In some areas and on appropriate occasions, this still happens today - even in the cities of India. The festival guests had to go through this gate; in the process, evil thoughts and evil spirits were destroyed - a Torana thus originally had an ominous ( apotropaic ) meaning. Probably only at a later stage was such a goal primarily seen as a sign of welcome and good luck.

architecture

Toranas are usually free-standing and not attached to buildings (houses or walls) on the side. The classic Toranas rest on two supporting pillars that support multiple and richly decorated lintel beams. It was only later that complete arch forms became possible, but the combination of arch and architrave was retained in many cases.

In the later Hindu and Jain architecture of India, the Torana arches were integrated into the small entrance hall (mukha mandapa ) of a temple (e.g. Nagda , Khajuraho , Mount Abu ). In rarer cases the pillars inside the large vestibules (mahamandapas) were also connected with torana arches (e.g. Nagda ).

sculpture

Already in the 6./7. In the 18th century, Buddha or Tirthankara figures were placed inside toranas . In the heyday of Hindu temple construction (9th – 12th centuries), the initially quite simply modeled outer wall niches with their images of gods were designed as toranas and elevated with artistically and extremely detailed architraves or arches. Such sculptural ensembles present the respective gods within an archway and thus give them a worthy setting. In Tibet, under the name Gyab Yol , they form the back of a throne seat - formerly adorned with carrying elephants and sitting birds.

Asia

India was the country of origin for the further spread of the Toranas to other countries and cultures in South and East Asia, where they are known by other names:

Modern gate structures

The huge gopurams of South India (e.g. Minakshi Temple , Madurai ) show that gate structures were also of great importance in later Indian architecture . The gateway of India, called the Gateway of India , was built in Bombay in 1924 in memory of the visit of the British King George V in 1911 . The British architect Edwin Lutyens based the design of the 42 meter high memorial arch of the India Gate in New Delhi on the model of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

literature

  • Parul Pandya Dhar: The Torana in Indian and Southeast Asian Architecture. DK Printworld, New Delhi 2010, ISBN 978-81-246-0534-9 .
  • George Michell: The Hindu Temple. Architecture of a world religion. DuMont, Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-7701-2770-6

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