Amalaka

An amalaka, is a segmented or notched stone disk, usually with ridges on the rim, that sits on the top of a Hindu temple’s shikhara or main tower. According to one interpretation, the amalaka represents a lotus, and thus the symbolic seat for the deity below. Another interpretation is that it symbolizes the sun, and is thus the gateway to the heavenly world.

According other sources the shape of the amalaka has been inspired by the fruit of Phyllanthus emblica (or Mirobalanus embilica), the Indian gooseberry, or myrobolan fig tree. This is called āmalaki in Sanscrit, and the fruit has a slightly segmented shape, though this is much less marked than in the architectural shape.

The amalaka itself is crowned with a kalasam or finial, from which a temple banner is often hung.

History
The shape first appears (or survives) as an element in the capitals of columns around the time of Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE, recurring in some capitals of the 1st century CE. In some of these, as at the Great Chaitya at the Karla Caves, and the verandahs to Caves 3, 10 and 17 at the Pandavleni Caves, the amalaka is “boxed” with a rectangular framework cage.

Amalakas appear to have been common at the top of shikhara by the Gupta period, though no originals remain in place. They were to remain standard in most of India, in the Nagara and Kalinga architecture styles of the west and east respectively, but not in the Dravidian architecture of South India. Some early temples in the Deccan, such as the 7th-century Lakshamana temple in brick at Sirpur, have amalakas at the corners of some level of the shikhara (but not, as it survives, at the top in the usual way).

Symbolism
Like other parts of Hindu temple architecture, there is a large body of symbolic and mystical interpretation around the amalanka. It is seen as a ring gripping and embracing a notional pillar that rises from the main cult image of the deity below it in the sanctum, and reaches up to heaven through the top of the temple.

Distribution

Capitals and pillars
According to previous knowledge originate the earliest (preserved) amalakas Buddhist cave temples, where they sometimes appear above a bell-shaped lotus capitals (eg Bedsa, entrance hall). Also on Buddhist reliefs they are to be found as a pillar or pillar decor. They also appear on Hindu column monuments of the 4th and 5th centuries (eg Iron Column, Delhi). The Buddhist as well as the early Hindu-Jain stone architecture know amalakas – sometimes in conjunction with kalashas – on pillars, but not as essays on the originally flat roofed temple roofs.

temple roofs
Only after the advent of Shikhara towers in the 7./8. Century (such as Naresar or Amrol) form amalaka ring stones crowning it. In the high medieval north Indian temple architecture (Nagara style) you will find these ribbed ring stones everywhere; some larger shikharas with smaller towers (urushringas) have several amalakas (eg Lakshmana Temple, Kandariya Mahadeva Temple, the latter counted 84). The largest amalakas crown the Shikara towers in the temple districts of Khajuraho and Bhubaneshwar or Puri; They have a diameter of five to eight meters and are – like most smaller amalakas – composed of several parts. In the Middle Indian Vesara style and in the South Indian Dravida style, however, they are unknown.

club-heads
The mace (gada), which is assigned as an attribute to the Hindu god Vishnu, regularly ends in the representations that have appeared since the 6th century in a head that is formed as a ribbed and multi-graduated amalaka.

Origin and meaning
The ring-shaped structure of the amalakas may suggest older models made of wood or straw, holding together the reeds and grass roofs of round huts at the top – but such things have not been preserved. Another theory is that such rings as a pedestal should protect the seated kalasha pitchers from tipping over.

Stone amalacas are somewhat similar to the slightly scored fruits of the Indian gooseberry (Amlea tree, Phyllanthus emblica or Emblica officinalis) whose Indian name (Sanskrit: amalaka or amlaki) suggests a name parallels or similarities with the amalaka. The long traditional use as a medicinal plant in folk and Ayurvedic medicine is reflected in the suffix officinalis. Perhaps it was the healing effect attributed to the fruit, some of which has been proven, that should be passed on to the architectural Amalakas as a kind of protection or happiness promise.

The older research also sees in them a lotus or sun symbol. Stella Kramrich and Adrian Snodgrass name a variety of other possible origins and levels of meaning. In any case, one can assume that this architectural element has an anti-apathetic (apotropaic) or even auspicious meaning.

Amalaka on Islamic buildings
Although Islam largely repressed Hindu (ie, ‘pagan’) architectural motifs, amalacas – usually in connection with the vase essay (kalasha), which is closely linked to the desire for immortality – can also be found on some of the domed tombs of Delhi’s Indo-Islamic architecture. B. in the mausoleum for Ghiyas -ud-din Tughluq Shah I. († 1325) in Tughlaqabad, the dome tomb mentioned in Lal Gumbaz (1397) in Jahanpanah, on Sheesh-Gumbad (around 1500) in the Lodi Gardens and on the – Also located in Jahanpanah – Mughal Tomb of Sheikh Alauddin (1541/2). The domes of Dholka’s Khan Masjid (around 1400), the three main domes of the Ahmedabad Friday Mosque (1424) or the numerous domes of the Champaner Friday’s mosque (around 1520) – all in Gujarat – were also overflowed with amalakas and kalashas.

Many Muslims were quite superstitious – at least it is hard to imagine that such elements were simply put on the grave monuments and mosques without the express wish and knowledge of the clients of Hindu stonemasons. However, it could also be that the symbolic meaning of the amalakas and kalashas had already been wholly or partially lost at that time and they were understood primarily as non-figurative-abstract and therefore allowed ornamental elements.

Source From Wikipedia