Structure of Temple
Temples are the finest example of architecture If you feel anxiety or tension there are no better place than temple, 'Angkorwat'world largest temple is in Combodia.
India is the most popular country for it's mysterious temple basically there are three style of temple
I. Dravida Style
II. Nagara Style
III. Vesara or Mixed Style
Dravida Style Of Temples-
South temples are the finest example of Indian extraordinary workers who put life in stone.
The basic form of the Hindu temple comprises the following:
Sanctum (garbhagriha literally ‘womb-house’)
It was a small cubicle with a single entrance which grew into a larger chamber in time.
The garbhagriha is made to house the main icon.
Entrance to the temple
It may be a portico or colonnaded hall that incorporates space for a large number of worshippers and is known as a mandapa.
Freestanding temples tend to have a mountain-like spire
It 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 mount or vehicle of the temple’s main deity along with a standard pillar or dhvaj is placed axially before the sanctum.
Many Hindu temples, feature mithun (embracing couple) sculptures, considered auspicious.
Usually, they are placed at the entrance of the temple or on an exterior wall or they may also be placed on the walls between the mandapa and the main shrine.
Nagara or North Indian Temple Style
In North India it is common for an entire temple to be built on a stone platform with steps leading up to it.
Further, unlike in South India it 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 India; 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 shikara.
The second major type of architectural form in the nagara order is the phamsana, which tends to be broader and shorter than 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.
The temples in the north-western parts of India including Gujarat and Rajasthan, and in western Madhya Pradesh are large in numbers.
The temples in the north-western parts of India including Gujarat and Rajasthan, and in western Madhya Pradesh are large in numbers.
The stone used to build the temples ranges in colour and type.
While sandstone is the commonest, a 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.
Eastern Indian 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 during the period 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.
The 9th century Siddheshvara Mahadeva Temple in Barakar in Burdwan District, for example, shows a tall curving shikhara crowned by a large amalaka and is an example of the early Pala style.
