About Matri Mandir Prepared by Megha Tyagi

1. MATRIMANDIR
soul of the city
AUROVILLE
SUBMITTED BY:-
MEGHA TYAGI
RAMANPREET KAUR
MOHD.FAHEEM

2. CONTENTS:
1. About the architect.
2. Introduction.
3. Location.
4. Construction phases.
5. Internal details.
6. History.
7.Planning.
8. Structural details.
9. Technical details.

3. ARCHITECT:-Mirra Alfassa
Mirra Alfassa (21 February 1878 – 17
November 1973), also known as The Mother,
was the spiritual collaborator of sri
Aurobindo. Her full name at birth was
Blanche Rachel Miriam Alfassa. The name
"Mirra" (or "Mira") was a nickname she
preferred to her birthname "Miriam."In the
1960s, it was Mother's dream to create a place
where humanity could seek the Divine
without having to dredge for food and
shelter.She named this
place Auroville or City of Dawn. The "Soul of
Auroville" is the Matrimandir. It is
constructed as a futuristic-looking sphere
that houses in its center a Chamber, all white
with a transculent globe at the centre lit by
single ray of sunlight.

4. MATRIMANDIR
The Matrimandir (Temple of The Mother) is an edifice of
spiritual significance for practitioners of Integral yoga,
situated at the center of Auroville initiated by The Mother
of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. It is called soul of the city
and is situated in a large open space called Peace from
where the future township will radiate outwards.
Matrimandir, does not belong to any particular religion
or sect. 'Mother' concept stands for the great evolutionary,
conscious and intelligent principle of Life, the Universal
Mother, - which seeks to help humanity move beyond its
present limitations into the next step of its evolutionary
adventure, the supramental consciousness.

5. LOCATION
At the centre of Aurovill e.
CONSTRUCTION PHASES
1. 1970-1971
2. 1992
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 ,amphitheatre,banyan
tree ,inner park and the future lake .

6. BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MATRI MANDIR ‘S
CONCEPTION:
In June 1965, the Mother, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, started
speaking of her intention to build, north of Pondicherry, a
“universal town where men and women of all countries are able to
live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics
and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realise human
unity.”
From the outset she explained that, at the centre of her town, there
would be a “Park of Unity” and that, in this park, there would be
something she called at first a “Pavilion of Truth”, or “Pavilion of
[Divine] Love”, or “Pavilion of the Mother”. Eventually she named
this Pavilion “Matrimandir”, which she translated in English as
“The Mother’s Shrine”. She added that 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.

7. PLAN OF THE MATRI MANDIR

8. 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.

9. INNER PILLARS
Name Symbolism
Maheshwari (south pillar)
"...her personality of calm wideness and comprehending wisdom
and tranquil benignity and inexhaustible compassion and
sovereign and surpassing majesty and all-ruling greatness".
Mahakali (north pillar)
"...her power of splendid strength and irresistible passion, her
warrior mood, her overwhelming will, her impetuous swiftness and
world-shaking force".
Mahalakshmi (east pillar)
"...vivid and sweet and wonderful with her deep secret of beauty
and harmony and fine rhythm, her intricate and subtle opulence,
her compelling attraction and captivating grace".
Mahasaraswati (west
pillar)
"...equipped with her close and profound capacity of intimate
knowledge and careful flawless work and quiet and exact
perfection in all things".

10. THE MOTHER‘S SYMBOL AND PETALS
The meditation rooms inside the twelve stone-clad 'petals'
surrounding the Matrimandir carry the names and colours
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

11. Meaning of colours
In March 1934, Sri Aurobindo indicated through the (above
placed) colour chart of the twelve petals pertaining to the
symbol:
Center and four powers, white;
The twelve all different colors
in three groups:
• top group red, passing to orange towards yellow;
• next group, yellow passing through green towards blue;
• and third group, blue passing through violet towards red.
• If white is not convenient, the center may be gold (powder).

12. 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 .

13. STRUCTURAL DETAILS :
The principal load carrying members of
superstructure are the four pair of sickle –
shaped,38m high reinforced concrete piers. Every
other component is supported by these piers. Each
pair of piers is 2.1m .Their thickness is 40m above
ground level and various from 40cm to 70cm below.

14. The construction crane, erected in 1980, was
required to lift the prefabricated concrete beams
into place, each weighting half a ton. The ‘nodes’
which join six beams together were cast in situ
using lost ferrocement shuttering . The outer shell
consist of ferrocement triangles, which were
prefabricated in a workshop, liftrd in place and
then grouted.

15. TECHNICAL DETAILS
The columns
The columns arrived at
Matrimandir in the beginning
of January 1990.They were 24-
inch diameter, galvanised,
seamless steel pipes, 8.65 mtr
long, weighing 830 kg each.
There are an average of 15 coats
of paint on each column with
finer and finer sanding
between coats after which the
final polishing was done.

16. The gold discs
Disc frame: - Stainless steel tubes
Disc material: - stainless steel sheet
Gold leaf: - 28 gm of gold per 1000 leaves
Leaf size: - 85 x 85 mm
Total number of discs: - 1415
Small convex discs: - 954
Large concave discs: - 461
Average diam. (large
discs):
- 2.3 meter
Average diam. (small
discs):
- 1.5 meter

17. The crystal globe
The crystal for the Matrimandir arrived in
Auroville on 26-4-91 at 10.15 p.m. It was
moved into the Matrimandir's Inner
Chamber the very next day at 09.45 a.m.
The size of 70 cm diameter was marked
on the original plan that Mother had
drawn for the central object in the
Chamber.These firms proposed the type of
crystal - optically perfect glass - with the
name of Bohr Kron 7.
The casting at Schott's in Mainz lasted
15 hours, and was done in a special form
of refractory stone, held together by seven
metal bands, which was placed on top of a
platform built of iron and steel. During
the casting process the glass in the form
was kept at a constant temperature.

18. The heliostat and lens
The heliostat is controlled by a computer
program, which moves a mirror across the
sun's path every day. This mirror projects
sunlight into a lens, that projects the single
sun ray down on the crystal. To make sure
that the ray strikes the crystal exactly in the
centre, a photo sensor is installed in the path of
the ray itself and relays the data on the ray's
position to the computer, which in turn will
adjust the ray to the correct position if
necessary.
Focal length, first
lens:
- 30 m, diam, 45 cm
Focal length, second
lens:
- 5 m, diam. 25 cm
Diameter of sun-spot
on the globe:
- 180 mm