● Two broad orders of temples in the country are known as Nagara in the north, and Dravida in the south,

, and the
Vesara style of temples is found as an independent style [selective mixing of the Nagara and Dravida orders]
● Basic features of Hindu temples-
● Garbhagriha or the sanctum where the main idol of the deity is housed
● Mandapa or the portico which leads to the garbhagriha, where the worshipers assemble
● Shikhara is the spire above the sanctum
● Vaahan which is the mount or vehicle of the main deity of the temple
● Sanctum (garbhagriha literally ‘womb-house’)
● small cubicle with a single entrance which grew into a larger chamber in time. It is made to house the main icon.
● Entrance to the temple-
● it may be a portico or collonaded hall that incorporates space for a large number of worshippers and is known as
a mandapa.
● A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure
over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls.
● Freestanding temples tend to have a mountain-like spire
● that can take the shape of a curving Shikhar in North India and a pyramidal tower, called a vimana, in South
India.
● The vahan-
● It was the mount or vehicle of the temple’s main deity along with a standard pillar or dhvaj placed axially before
the sanctum
● Many Hindu temples, feature Mithun (embracing couple) sculptures, considered auspicious.
● they are placed at the entrance of the temple or on an exterior wall or the walls between the mandapa and the
main shrine
● Dravidian/ temple style-
● enclosed within a compound wall. The front wall has an entrance gateway in its centre, known as a gopuram
● The shape of the main temple tower known as vimana in Tamil Nadu, is like a stepped pyramid that rises
geometrically rather than the curving shikhara of North India.
● It is common to find a large water reservoir, or a temple tank, enclosed within the complex.
● Subsidiary shrines are either incorporated within the main temple tower or located as distinct, separate small
shrines beside the main temple.
● Kanchipuram, Thanjavur Tanjore, Madurai, and Kumbakonam are the most famous temple towns of Tamil Nadu,
where, during the 8th-12th centuries, the role of the temple was not limited to religious matters alone.
● Temples became rich administrative centres, controlling vast areas of land.
● there are subdivisions of Dravida temples. These are five different shapes:
○ square/kuta/caturasra
○ rectangular/shala/ayatasra
○ elliptical/Gaja-prishta/elephant back/vrittayata, deriving from wagon vaulted shapes of apsidal chaityas with
a horseshoe-shaped entrance facade usually called a nasi
○ circular or vritta
○ octagonal or ashtasra.
● The Pallavas were one of the ancient South Indian dynasties. They spread their empire to various parts of the
subcontinent, at times reaching the borders of Odisha, and their links with Southeast Asia were also strong.
● Although they were mostly Shaivite, several Vaishnava shrines also survived their reign, and there is no doubt
that the long Buddhist history of the Deccan influenced them.
● Their early buildings, it is generally assumed, were rock cut, while the later ones were structural.
● The early buildings are generally attributed to the reign of Mahendravarman I, a contemporary of the Chalukyan
king, Pulakesin II of Karnataka.
● Narasimhavarman I, also known as Mamalla, inaugurated most of the building works at Mahabalipuram which
came to be known after him as Mamallapuram.
● The shore temple at Mahabalipuram was built later, probably in the reign of Narasimhavarman II, also known as
Rajasimha who reigned from 700 to 728 CE.
○ The temple houses three shrines, two to Shiva, one facing east and the other west, and a middle one to Vishnu.
○ In the compound, there is evidence of a water tank, an early example of a gopuram, and several other images.
○ Sculptures of the bull, Nandi, and Shiva’s mount, line the temple walls, and these, along with the carvings on the
temple’s lower walls have suffered severe disfiguration due to erosion by salt-water-laden air over the centuries.
○ The magnificent Shiva temple of Thanjavur, called the Rajarajeswara or Brahadeeshwarar temple, was
completed around 1009 by Rajaraja Chola, and is the largest and tallest of all Indian temples.
 ○
It is in this temple that one notices for the first time two large gopurams (gateway towers) with an elaborate
sculptural program which was conceived along with the temple
● Eastern temples-
● Eastern Indian temples include those found in the North East, Bengal, and Odisha.
● It appears that terracotta was the main medium of construction, and also for moulding plaques which depicted
Buddhist and Hindu deities in Bengal until the 7th century.
● Assam: An old sixth-century sculpted door frame from Dah Parvatia near Tezpur and another few stray
sculptures from Rangagora Tea Estate near Tinsukia in Assam bear witness to the import of the Gupta idiom in
that region.
● By the 12th-14th centuries, a distinct regional style developed in Assam.
○ The style that came with the migration of the Tais from Upper Burma mixed with the dominant Pala style of
Bengal and led to the creation of what was later known as the Ahom style in and around Guwahati.
● Kamakhya temple, a Shakti Peeth, is dedicated to Goddess Kamakhya and was built in the 17th century in Assam.
● Bengal: The style of the sculptures between the ninth and eleventh centuries in Bengal (including Bangladesh)
and Bihar is known as the Pala style, named after the ruling dynasty at the time.
● While the style of those of the mid-eleventh to mid-thirteenth centuries is named after the Sena kings.
● While the Palas are celebrated as patrons of many Buddhist monastic sites, the temples from that region are
known to express the local Vanga style.
● For example, the 9th century Siddheshvara Mahadeva Temple in Barakar in Burdwan District shows a tall
curving shikhara crowned by a large amalaka and is an example of the early Pala style.
● The black-to-grey basalt and chlorite stone pillars and arched niches of Purlia temples heavily influenced the
earliest Bengal sultanate buildings at Gaur and Pandua.
● In the Mughal period and later, scores of terracotta brick temples were built across Bengal and Bangladesh in a
unique style that had elements of local building techniques seen in bamboo huts.

● Odisha: The main architectural features of Odisha temples are classified into three orders, i.e., rekhapida,
pidhadeul, and khakra.
● Most of the main temple sites are located in ancient Kalinga—modern Puri District, including Bhubaneswar or
ancient Tribhuvanesvara, Puri and Konark.
● In general, the shikhara, called deul in Odisha, is vertical almost until the top when it suddenly curves sharply
inwards.
● Deuls are preceded, as usual, by mandapas called jagamohana in Odisha.
● Odisha temples usually have boundary walls.
● The ground plan of the main temple is almost always square, which, in the upper reaches of its superstructure
becomes circular in the crowning mastaka.
● Compartments and niches are generally square, the exterior of the temples are lavishly carved, and their interiors
are generally quite bare.
● At Konark, on the shores of the Bay of Bengal, lie the ruins of the Surya or Sun temple built in stone around 1240.
● The Sun temple is set on a high base, its walls covered in extensive, detailed ornamental carving
● These include twelve pairs of enormous wheels sculpted with spokes and hubs, representing the chariot wheels
of the Sun god who, in mythology, rides a chariot driven by seven horses, sculpted here at the entrance staircase.
● Western temple-
● The temples in the north-western parts of India including Gujarat and Rajasthan, and western MP are large in
numbers.
● The stone used to build the temples ranges in colour and type. While sandstone is the commonest, grey to black
basalt can be seen in some of the 10th to 12th-century temple sculptures.
● The most exuberant and famed is the manipulatable soft white marble which is also seen in some of the 10th-12th
century Jain temples in Mount Abu and the 15th century temple at Ranakpur.
● Among the most important art-historical sites in the region is Samlaji in Gujarat.
● The Sun temple at Modhera dates back to the early 11th century and was built by Raja Bhimdev I of the Solanki
Dynasty in 1026.
○ There is a massive rectangular stepped tank called the surya kund in front of it, perhaps the grandest temple
tank in India.
○ Every year, at the time of the equinoxes, the sun shines directly into this central shrine of the temple.
● Hill temples-
● A unique form of architecture developed in the hills of Kumaon, Garhwal, Himachal and Kashmir.

● Kashmir’s proximity to prominent Gandhara sites (such as Taxila, Peshawar and the northwest frontier) lent the
region a strong Gandhara influence by the 5th century CE.
● This began to mix with the Gupta and post-Gupta traditions that were brought to it from Sarnath, Mathura, and
even centres in Gujarat and Bengal.
● Brahmin pundits and Buddhist monks frequently travelled between Kashmir, Garhwal, and Kumaon and
religious centres in the plains like Banaras, Nalanda, and even as far south as Kanchipuram.
● As a result, both Buddhist and Hindu traditions began to intermingle and spread in the hills.
● The hills also had their tradition of wooden buildings with pitched roofs. At several places in the hills, while the
main garbhagriha and shikhara are made in a rekha-prasada or Latina style, the mandapa is of older wooden
architecture.
● Sometimes, the temple itself takes on a pagoda shape. The Karkota period of Kashmir is the most significant in
terms of architecture.
● One of the most important temples is Pandrethan, built during the 8th and 9th centuries this temple is built on
a plinth built in the middle of a tank.
● Like the findings at Samlaji, the sculptures at Chamba also show an amalgamation of local traditions with a
post-Gupta style.
● The images of Mahishasuramardini and Narasimha at the Laksna-Devi Mandir are evidence of the influence of
the post-Gupta tradition.
● Of the temples in Kumaon, the ones at Jageshwar near Almora, and Champavat near Pithoragarh, are classic
examples of Nagara architecture in the region.
● Central Indian temples-
● Ancient temples of UP, MP [structural temples from the Gupta Period ] and Rajasthan share many traits. The
most visible is that they are made of sandstone.
● The crowning elements- Amalek and Kalash, are to be found on all Nagara temples of the Gupta period.
● These are relatively modest-looking shrines each having four pillars that support a small mandapa which looks
like a simple square porch-like extension before an equally small room that served as the garbhagriha.
● Udaigiri, which is on the outskirts of Vidisha is part of a larger Hindu complex of cave shrines, while the other
one is at Sanchi, near the stupa.
● Deogarh (in Lalitpur District, UP) was built in the early sixth century CE and is an example of a late Gupta Period
type of temple.
○ This temple is in the panchayatana style of architecture where the main shrine is built on a rectangular plinth
with four smaller subsidiary shrines at the four corners (making it a total number of five shrines, hence the
name, panchayatana).
○ The presence of this curving latina or Rekha-prasada type of shikhara also makes it clear that this is an early
example of a classic Nagara temple style.
○ The temple depicts Vishnu in various forms, due to which it was assumed that the four subsidiary shrines must
also have housed Vishnu’s avatars and the temple was mistaken for a dashavatara temple.
 ● Predating the 10th century, Chausath Yogini temple is a temple of small, square shrines of roughly-hewn granite
blocks, each dedicated to goddesses associated with the rise of Tantric worship after the seventh century. Built
between the 7th and 10th centuries, several such temples were dedicated to the cult of the yoginis across Madhya
Pradesh, Odisha, and even as far south as Tamil Nadu.
● There are many temples at Khajuraho, most of them devoted to Hindu gods. There are some Jain temples as well.
○ Khajuraho’s temples are also known for their extensive erotic sculptures; the erotic expression is given equal
importance in human experience as a spiritual pursuit, and it is seen as part of a larger cosmic whole.
● The Lakshmana temple of Khajuraho, dedicated to Vishnu, was built in 954 by the Chandela king, Dhanga. It is a
nagara temple placed on a high platform accessed by stairs.
● Deccan architecture-
● Many different styles of temple architecture influenced by both North and South Indian temples were used in
regions like Karnataka.
● By the late 7th or early 8th century, the ambitious projects at Ellora became even grander.
● By about 750 CE, the early western Chalukya control of the Deccan was taken by the Rashtrakutas.
● Their greatest achievement in architecture is the Kailashnath temple at Ellora, a culmination of at least a
millennium-long tradition in rock-cut architecture in India.
○ It is a complete Dravida building with a Nandi shrine—since the temple is dedicated to Shiva—a gopuram-like
gateway, surrounding cloisters, subsidiary shrines, staircases, and an imposing tower or vimana rising to thirty
meters.
○ Importantly, all of this is carved out of living rock. One portion of the monolithic hill was carved patiently to build
the Kailashnath temple.
● In the southern part of the Deccan, i.e., in the region of Karnataka some of the most experimental hybrid styles of
Vesara architecture are to be found.
● Pulakesin I established the western Chalukya kingdom when he secured the land around Badami in 543.
● Early Chalukyan activity also takes the form of rock-cut caves while later activity is of structural temples.
● The earliest is the Ravana Phadi cave at Aihole which is known for its distinctive sculptural style.
○ One of the most important sculptures at the site is of Nataraja, surrounded by larger-than-life-size depictions of
the saptamatrikas: three to Shiva’s left and four to his right.
● The most elaborate of all Chalukyan temples at Pattadakal made in the reign of Vikramaditya II (733-44) by his
chief queen Loka Mahadevi is Virupaksha temple.
○ Another important temple from this site is Papnath temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva.
● Lad Khan temple at Aihole in Karnataka seems to be inspired by the wooden-roofed temples of the hills, except
that it is constructed out of stone.
● The Hoysaleswara temple (Lord of the Hoysalas) at Halebid in Karnataka was built in dark schist stone by the
Hoysala king in 1150.
○ Dedicated to Shiva as Nataraja, the Halebid temple is a double building with a large hall for the mandapa to
facilitate music and dance.
● Founded in 1336, Vijayanagara, literally the ‘city of victory’, attracted several international travellers such as the
Italian, Niccolo di Conti, the Portuguese Domingo Paes, etc. who have left vivid accounts of the city.
● In addition, various Sanskrit and Telugu works document the vibrant literary tradition of this kingdom.
● Architecturally, Vijayanagara synthesises the centuries-old Dravidian temple architecture with Islamic styles
demonstrated by the neighbouring sultanates.
● Many different styles of temple architecture influenced by both North and South Indian temples were used in
regions like Karnataka.
● By the late 7th or early 8th century, the ambitious projects at Ellora became even grander.
● By about 750 CE, the early western Chalukya control of the Deccan was taken by the Rashtrakutas.
● Their greatest achievement in architecture is the Kailashnath temple at Ellora, a culmination of at least a
millennium-long tradition in rock-cut architecture in India.
○ It is a complete Dravida building with a Nandi shrine—since the temple is dedicated to Shiva—a gopuram-like
gateway, surrounding cloisters, subsidiary shrines, staircases, and an imposing tower or vimana rising to thirty
meters.
○ Importantly, all of this is carved out of living rock. One portion of the monolithic hill was carved patiently to build
the Kailashnath temple.
● In the southern part of the Deccan, i.e., in the region of Karnataka some of the most experimental hybrid styles of
Vesara architecture are to be found.
● Pulakesin I established the western Chalukya kingdom when he secured the land around Badami in 543.
 ● Early Chalukyan activity also takes the form of rock-cut caves while later activity is of structural temples.
● The earliest is the Ravana Phadi cave at Aihole which is known for its distinctive sculptural style.
○ One of the most important sculptures at the site is of Nataraja, surrounded by larger-than-life-size depictions of
the saptamatrikas: three to Shiva’s left and four to his right.
● The most elaborate of all Chalukyan temples at Pattadakal made in the reign of Vikramaditya II (733-44) by his
chief queen Loka Mahadevi is Virupaksha temple.
○ Another important temple from this site is Papnath temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva.
● Lad Khan temple at Aihole in Karnataka seems to be inspired by the wooden-roofed temples of the hills, except
that it is constructed out of stone.
● The Hoysaleswara temple (Lord of the Hoysalas) at Halebid in Karnataka was built in dark schist stone by the
Hoysala king in 1150.
○ Dedicated to Shiva as Nataraja, the Halebid temple is a double building with a large hall for the mandapa to
facilitate music and dance.
● Founded in 1336, Vijayanagara, literally the ‘city of victory’, attracted several international travellers such as the
Italian, Niccolo di Conti, the Portuguese Domingo Paes, etc, who have left vivid accounts of the city.
● In addition, various Sanskrit and Telugu works document the vibrant literary tradition of this kingdom.
● Architecturally, Vijayanagara synthesises the centuries-old Dravidian temple architecture with Islamic styles
demonstrated by the neighbouring sultanates.
● Nagra temple style-
● The garbhagriha is a perfect square whereas the whole temple plan could be oblong. It houses the image or idol of
the main deity. The pathway leading to the garbhagriha is the mandapa where the worshipers accumulate to have
darśana.
● In the early stage of temple construction, the roofs were flat. In the next stage of temple construction, the roof
became pyramidal. This was the shikhara, a tall spire that tapered at the top. In the later stages, more additions
were made to the temple complex.
● More mandapas were added and the garbhagriha was surrounded by a Pradakshinapatha or a circumambulatory
path. In some cases, gavaksa (windows) were added to allow cross-ventilation for air and light.
● A Nāgara temple generally rests on a high platform- jagati over which is constructed a small platform called pitha.
Rising above this is a smaller platform- adhisthana, which forms the base for the construction of the
superstructure of the temple. Among the other components of a Nāgara temple are – bhadra, sirsa, amalaka,
bijapuraka, rathika.
● When it comes to decorating the temples, the Nāgara temples are intricately ornamented by carvings and
sculptures. The entrance to the temple is highly decorated with images of gods and goddesses, and floral and
geometric designs.
● The bottom of the door frame depicts either dvarapalas or Ganga and Yamuna. On the walls and pillars of the
temple, the sculptures and carvings depict devakanyas, apsaras, yaksas, yaksis, amalakas and floral garlands.
● does not usually have elaborate boundary walls or gateways.
● While the earliest temples had just one tower or shikhara, later temples had several.
● The garbhagriha is always located directly under the tallest tower.
● There are many subdivisions of Nagara temples depending on the shape of the shikhara.
● There are different names for the various parts of the temple in different parts of, however, the most common
name for the simple shikhara which is square at the base and whose walls curve or slope inward to a point on top
is called the 'Latina' or the rekha-prasada type of shikhara.
● The second major type of architectural form in the Nagara order is the phamsana, which tends to be broader and
shorter than the Latina ones.
● Their roofs are composed of several slabs that gently rise to a single point over the centre of the building, unlike
the Latina ones which look like sharply rising tall towers.
● The third main sub-type of the Nagara building is generally called the valabhi type.
● These are rectangular buildings with a roof that rises into a vaulted chamber