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Mandala Painting, India A mandala is conceived as a sacred design that is at once a "receptacle of essence" and a "microcosmic mirror of the universe." By uniting the micro- and the macrocosmic worlds, the mandala's "sacred centre" forms (a) a median axis of transcommunication and (b) a centrifugal force-field of power and protection. More practically speaking, a mandala is a circular consecrated area or construct (or drawing vis-à-vis yantra) set apart from its surroundings and purified for liturgical use. Temples in ancient India and Cambodia have always been based such mandalic considerations. Writes Mircea Eliade, "[T]he symbolism of royal cities, temples, towns, and, by extension, every human habitation was based upon such a valorisation of the sacred place as the centre of the world and hence the site of communication with heaven and hell." |
