Structural Temples of Gujarat

SR No.: 006728
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kantilal F Sompura
Publisher: Gujarat University Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 868
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 31 MB

Page 92

The Component Parts of the Full-Fledged Temple
37
The Nagara style has exhibited distinct varieties and remifications in different localities conditioned not only by local factors but also by the different lines of evolution and elaboration that each locality choose for itself. But inspite of elaborations and modifications in different localities, the two distinct prominent features i. e. cruciform plan and curvilinear tower have been maintained thoroughly.
Apart from the two distinct features of the Nagara temple, other various features which give the elaboration to it are multifarious; and so in the Nagara School of architecture along with the shapes of ground plans and elevations of structures these other features are also taken into account as differentiating features, giving rise to many fold divisions or classification of temples. These are the measures of height of their basements (Pithodayamāna), the measurements of doorways (Dvāramāna ), the ornamentations and other constructive specialities in the nature of Sikhara and their Rekha, mouldings ( Kanṭakas) etc.
According to writers of the Southern school i. e. the Dravinian school of Architecture, the quadrangularity of the ground plan is the determinant of the Nagara style while hexagonality is that of the Dravida school, But this restriction to the form of the ground plan is not accepted by writers of the Northern i. e. Indo Aryan or Nagara school, for facility of construction, however, all the forms of the ground plan are reduced to five shapes only, viz., Vairajya. (Square), Puspaka (rectangular), Kailasa (Circular) Manika (ellipsoidal) and Triviṣṭapa (octagonal). The Dravidian structures have the same five fold forms of the ground plan.15
So it is clear that it is not the general ground plan of the temples and their forms alone that determine these styles. There are many other factors which differentiate the one style from the other. These factors, according to Aparajitapṛacchā, a 15. APPR. Int. p. XL