A symbol of purity metaphorically rising out of the muddy water of life and blossoming in liberation—that is how the lotus flower has been perceived though eons of cultural and religious evolution in India. The understanding of this is what drove architect Fariborz Sabha to conceive the house of worship for the Baha’i faith in Delhi as an iconographic abstraction of this symbol of faith.
It seems paradoxically apt that the Lotus Temple, or Baha’i Mashriq al-Adhkār, sits in the middle of one of the densest urban, mixed-use settlements in southern Delhi. With a backdrop of random land usage and the chaos of coexisting medieval and modern transportation networks, this temple is almost a sigh of relief, evocative of less worldly concerns in its grandeur and elegant simplicity. Conceived as a nine-sided lotus with 27 petals, it sits in a sprawling landscape of 26 acres (10 ha), with a nine-sided pool forming a base, which gives the illusion of the hall floating independent of any foundation. Each of the petals is constructed in concrete with white Greek marble cladding. Because of the varying curvatures of the petals, each piece of marble was individually dressed as per location and orientation and then assembled on site.
Another remarkable feature of this 111-foot-high (34 m) hall of worship, which was completed in 1986, is that the superstructure is entirely designed to act as a light well. The core petals form a bud, which allows light to filter through, and every subsequent layer of petals reinforces the bud.
The Lotus Temple, a retreat for followers of all religions to meditate in, sits peacefully within its urban bedlam, exuding an aura of divinity. It is indeed a successful icon of the translation of an ancient motif into a construct of contemporary belief. “I cannot believe it: it is God’s work,” exclaimed jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie on seeing it. (Bidisha Sinha)
