Architecture

Hindu temple architecture in India has
developed over time into several distinct, mature styles. The earliest phases
are based on early Buddhist architectural forms, such as the rock-cut cave temple (chaitya) or enclosed courtyard
(vihara). Some of these early Hindu
rock-cut temples include those at Ellora
and Elephanta; others are free-standing
but based on this form, as at Aihole.
Later Hindu architecture has three
basic styles: Nagara, Dravida, and
Veshara, of which the first two are the
most important. Each of these styles is
found in a certain area of India: the
Nagara in the north and east, the Dravida
in the south, and the Veshara in the west
and in Deccan. The basic differences
between them can be simplified to the
different styles of the temple towers.
The Nagara style emphasizes verticality, with the whole temple building
culminating in a single highest point.
Different emphases in the ways of
treating the tower led to different
substyles: In the temples at Khajuraho,
the entire structure gradually leads up
to the central tower, whereas the
Orissa style stresses a single enormous
tower surrounded by much smaller
subsidiary parts.
In the Dravida style, the towers tend
to be composed of horizontal tiers, with
the visual emphasis on horizontal rather
than vertical. In the later Dravida
temples, the tallest structures are the
gopurams, the central gateways in
the walls enclosing the temples. A
Dravida-style temple may have a fairly
modest tower over the central shrine, but
the area covered by the temple is often
enormous, and many of them are cities in
their own right.
The Veshara style has a barrel roof
over the sanctuary, an architectural
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Architecture
feature with roots in the Buddhist
chaityas (rock-cut cave temples). This
architectural style is midway between the
Nagara towers and the Dravida tiers.