Indian and Southeast Asian temples and monuments
exhibit a fractal structure:
a tower surrounded by smaller towers, surrounded by still smaller towers, and so
on, for eight or more levels. Quoting
William Jackson, |
"The ideal form gracefully artificed suggests the infinite rising
levels of existence and consciousness, expanding sizes rising toward transcendence above,
and at the same time housing the sacred deep within." |
In these cases the proliferation of towers represents various aspects
of the Hindu pantheon. Click on each picture to enlarge in a new window. |
|
Jackson goes on to assert that the whole religious vision of
Hinduism has a fractal character: |
"This universe is like a ripe fruit appearing from the activity
of the cit [consciousness]. There is a branch of a tree bearing innumerable
such fruit. There is a tree having thousands of such branches. There is a forest
with thousands of such trees. There is a mountainous territory having thousands of
such forests. There is a territory containing thousands of such territories. There
is a solar system containing thousands of such territories. There is a universe
containing thousands of such solar systems. And there are many such universes
contained within what is like an atom within an atom. This is what is known as
cit or the subtle sun which illumines everything in the world. All the things
of the world take their rise in it. Amidst all this incessant activity, the
cit is ever in undisturbed repose." |
So perhaps the fractal aspects of Hindu architecture reflects
the fractal nature of Hindu cosmology. |