LITERATURE

STUDY - 2
MATRI MANDIR,AUROVILLE
 INTRODUCTION
 BUILDING TYPE – Meditation center
 BUILDING USE – Public building PONDICHERRY

 ARCHITECT – Mirra Alfassa

 LOCATION – Auroville, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu
 YEAR OF CONSTRUCTION - 1971

• At the very center of Auroville, one finds the ‘soul of the city’, the matrimandir, situated in a large
open area called ‘peace’, from which the future township will radiate outside.
• The spacious inner chamber is the upper hemisphere of the structure is completely white, with
white marble walls and white carpeting.
• In the center a pure crystal glass globe, suffuses a ray of electronically guided sunlight which falls
on it through an opening at the apex of the sphere.
• “The most important thing is this : the play of the sun on the center. Because that becomes the
symbol, the symbol of future realizations.”
• There are no images, no organized meditations, no flowers, no incense, no religion and no religious
forms.
• The mother named the four pairs of pillars which support the matrimandir after her four aspects of
personalities. They are maheshwari, mahakali, mahalakshmi and mahasaraswati.
SITE PLAN OF MATRI MANDIR
PLAN OF MATRI MANDIR

MATRI MANDIR DIVIDED

INTO TWO PARTS-
1. Inner chamber
2.Outer chamber

Inner chamber has 12

meditation rooms and the
main hall of Matri Mandir.
Outer chamber has 12
gardens, amphitheater,
banyan tree, inner park and
the future lake .
THE MOTHER‘S SYMBOL AND PETALS

The meditation rooms inside the twelve stone-clad 'petals' surrounding the Matri Mandir carry
the names and colors of the 'petals' in the Mother's symbol:

Sincerity- light blue

Peace - deep blue
Equality - blue violet
Generosity - pure violet
Goodness - reddish violet
Courage - red
Progress - orange red
Receptivity - orange
Aspiration - orange yellow
Perseverance - pale yellow
Gratitude - pale green
Humility - deep green
 INNER CHAMBER

The spacious Inner Chamber in the upper hemisphere of the structure is

completely white, with white marble walls and white carpeting. In the
centre a pure crystal-glass globe suffuses a ray of electronically guided
sunlight which falls on it through an opening at the apex of the sphere.
"The most important thing is this: the play of the sun on the centre.
Because that becomes the symbol, the symbol of future realisations."
There are no images, no organised meditations, no flowers, no incense, no
religion or religious forms.
•It has a 12m radius. The floor is covered with a white woolen carpet.
•The wall is 8.65m high. It has 12 facets which represent the 12 months of
the year and are clad with white marble.
•Its white ceiling also has 12 facets each one resting on one of the wall’s
facets at 30 degrees angle upwards towards the center.
•Two double doors of thick white marble slabs. When closed the doors are
more or less invisible.
•It has 12 large steel cylindrical columns of 60cm diameter covered with
white lacquer which stand halfway between the center of the room and
each one of its 12 corners.
It had no windows and is fully air-conditioned. This is done to attain
complete silence inside the chamber.
The only light is that comes from a vertical beam of light which is slightly
golden.
This is normally the ray of the sun which is reflected down into the
chamber by a heliostat which computerized tracking system keeps it
precise.
Electrical spot lights create a similar effect at night and on cloudy days.
 OUTER CHAMBER

The “Park of Unity” would consist of twelve gardens representing the

“twelve attributes of the Mother” and that eventually the Matrimandir and
its Park of Unity would be surrounded by a Lake. A lone Banyan tree is the
geographical centre of the town. In 1968 Auroville’s inauguration
ceremony took place around a white Urn, shaped like a lotus bud, which
now stands at the focus of a large amphitheatre.