Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

6-23Vishvanatha Temple (view looking north,left,and plan,above),

Khajuraho, India, ca. 1000.

The Vishvanatha Temple is a northern Hindu temple type. It has four

towers, each taller than the preceding one, symbolizing Shiva’s

mountain home. The largest tower is the beehive-shaped shikara.

N

mGreaandapat Mandapa^ Porch

Garbha

griha

Plinth

Doorway Stairs

Shikhara

T

he Hindu temple is the home of the gods on earth and the place

where they make themselves visible to humans. At the core of

all Hindu temples is the garbha griha,the “womb chamber,” which

houses images or symbols of the deity—for example, Shiva’s linga

(see “Hinduism,” page 168). Only the Brahmin priests can enter this

inner sanctuary to make offerings to the gods. The worshipers can

only stand at the threshold and behold the deity

as manifest by its image. In the elaborate multi-

roomed temples of later Hindu architecture, the

worshipers and priests progress through a series

of ever more sacred spaces, usually on an east-

west axis. Hindu priests and architects attached

great importance to each temple’s plan and

sought to make it conform to the sacred geo-

metric diagram (mandala) of the universe.

Architectural historians, following ancient

Indian texts, divide Hindu temples into two

major typological groups tied to geography. The

most important distinguishing feature of the

northernstyle of temple (FIG. 6-23) is its bee-

hivelike tower or shikhara(“mountain peak”),

capped by an amalaka,a ribbed cushionlike

form, derived from the shape of the amala fruit

(believed to have medicinal powers). Amalakas

appear on the corners of the lower levels of the

shikhara too. Northern temples also have smaller towerlike roofs

over the halls (mandapas) leading to the garbha griha.

Southerntemples (FIG. 6-22) can easily be recognized by the

flat roofs of their pillared mandapas and by their shorter towered

shrines, called vimanas,which lack the curved profile of their northern

counterparts and resemble multilevel pyramids.

Hindu Temples

ARCHITECTURAL BASICS

6-22Rajarajeshvara Temple, Thanjavur, India,
ca.1010.

The Rajarajeshvara Temple at Thanjavur is an
example of the southern type of Hindu temple.
Two flat-roofed mandapas lead to the garbha griha
in the base of its 210-foot-tall pyramidal vimana.

172 Chapter 6 SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA BEFORE 1200