Nagara style

Also called: Northern temple style · Topic: Early Indian Art and Architecture: Stupas, Rock-cut Caves, Temples · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

The Nagara style (the Northern temple style) is the way temples were built in north India. The main feature is a tall tower called a shikhara that curves inward as it rises over the shrine room. The tower is usually topped by an amalaka (a round, ribbed stone disc) and a kalasha (a pot-shaped finial, or decorative top piece). The whole temple usually stands on a raised platform and has no large boundary walls or big gateways.

It is one of the three main Indian temple styles. The other two are Dravida in the south and Vesara in the Deccan. UPSC often asks you to tell these three apart by their towers, walls and regions.

Explanation

Background: how the temple took shape

• The earliest temples date from about the 3rd century CE. They were built at the same time as the final form of the stupa at Sanchi. So temple and stupa grew side by side. One did not replace the other.
• Temples were built for bhakti (loving devotion to one chosen god), especially for Vishnu (Vaishnavism) and Shiva (Shaivism).

• The temple grew one step at a time: 1. First came a small, square garbhagriha (the "womb-house", the dark shrine room where the image or linga is kept) with a single doorway. 2. Next, a shikhara was raised over this room so that people could see the shrine from far away. 3. Then the outside walls were covered with sculpture. 4. Later still came halls, walls, gateways and water works such as tanks and wells.

• The Nagara style came out of steps 2 and 3. In north India the tower kept its curved shape and became the main mark of the style.

Main features

• Shikhara over the garbhagriha. The tallest tower stands directly above the shrine room. Its sides curve inward towards the top.
• Amalaka and kalasha. These sit on top of the shikhara.
• Raised platform (jagati). The whole temple is built on a high stone base, and steps lead up to it.
• No big enclosure. Usually there are no huge boundary walls and no tall gateways. This is the opposite of the Dravida style, where both are common.
• Plan from entrance to shrine. A porch or hall (mandapa, or the ardhamandapa, a half-porch) leads into the antarala (a small passage), which then leads to the garbhagriha.
• Images at the doorway. The river goddesses Ganga and Yamuna are often carved beside the entrance to the shrine.
• Sculpted walls. The walls show the avatars of Vishnu, forms of Shiva and other deities. Worshippers knew which god was which from the clues in each image: headdress, ornaments, ayudhas (the weapons or objects held in the hands) and posture.

Types of shikhara

• Latina (rekha-prasada). This is the simplest and most common type. The base is square, and the four walls curve inward to a point at the top.
• Phamsana. It is broader and shorter. The roof is made of stone slabs that rise in a straight slope, like a pyramid of steps. It is often used over the mandapa.
• Valabhi. The base is rectangular and the roof is barrel-vaulted (rounded like the top of a wagon).
• Later builders made the latina tower more complex. They added many small tower copies (mini-shikharas) around the main one, so the temple looks like a mountain range. In Hindu belief the temple stands for Mount Meru, the home of the gods.

How it changed over time

• Early stage (Gupta age). The temples were small, with a short shikhara. One example is the Dashavatara temple at Deogarh (Uttar Pradesh). It is one of the earliest temples that still has its shikhara [1].
• Mature stage (roughly 8th–13th century CE). Regional schools developed:
• Odisha school. The tower is called a deul. Examples are the Lingaraja temple at Bhubaneswar and the Sun temple at Konark.
• Khajuraho (Madhya Pradesh). These temples were built by the Chandelas. The Kandariya Mahadeva temple is a good example. It stands on a very high platform and has many rising mini-towers.

• Western India (Gujarat). These temples were built under the Solankis. An example is the Sun temple at Modhera.

• Result: the north Indian temple became a tall, richly carved building. It was raised high on its platform rather than spread out inside big walls.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: it began in the Gupta age (c. 5th–6th century CE). The style reached its full form in the early medieval period.
• Region: north India, roughly from the Himalayas to the Vindhyas. Its regional schools were in Odisha, central India and western India.
• Key early site: Deogarh, Uttar Pradesh
• The temple is called the Dashavatara temple because the ten incarnations of Vishnu are shown on it. A rock-cut well nearby is also linked to the name [1].
• Plan (according to the ASI): square, with an ardhamandapa, an antarala and a garbhagriha. The roof over the garbhagriha and ardhamandapa has collapsed [1].
• Three large relief panels: Vishnu lying on the serpent Shesha (Sheshashayi Vishnu), Gajendra-moksha (the rescue of the elephant) and the penance of Nara-Narayana [1].
• It stands on the bank of the Betwa river, which curves around it on three sides [1].
• Date: NCERT says the 5th century. ASI/IGNCA material says "the beginning of the 6th century" [1]. Both place it in the Gupta age. Use the NCERT date in the exam.

• Heritage status: the Gupta temples of north India, including Deogarh, are on UNESCO's Tentative List for World Heritage status [1].

• How we know: from the surviving buildings, ASI site records and the UNESCO Tentative List file. To understand the images, we use the Puranas. These texts were compiled by Brahmanas by about the mid-first millennium CE, and they tell the stories behind the carved panels.

Don't confuse with

• Dravida style. This is the south Indian style, seen at Mahabalipuram, the Pallava port where structural temples were built between the 6th and 9th centuries CE [3]. Its tower is a pyramid-shaped vimana that rises in storeys. Dravida temples usually have high boundary walls and gopurams (big gateways). The Nagara shikhara curves, and Nagara temples have no big enclosure.
• Vesara style. This is a mixed style of the Deccan, mainly under the Chalukyas. It combines Nagara and Dravida features. Aihole (Karnataka), with more than a hundred temples, is called the "cradle of Indian architecture" because builders tried out many plans there [2]. Do not call every Aihole temple Nagara.
• Lad Khan temple, Aihole. It is flat-roofed and has no shikhara at all [2]. It shows a stage before the tower. It is not a Nagara temple.
• Shikhara vs vimana. In north Indian usage, shikhara means the curved tower over the shrine. In the south, the whole tower over the shrine is called the vimana, and shikhara means only the small dome on its top. This is a common trap in MCQs.

Prelims Hooks

• Nagara = curvilinear shikhara + amalaka + kalasha + raised platform + no large boundary walls.
• Deogarh (Uttar Pradesh): the Dashavatara temple has one of the earliest surviving shikharas and stands on the Betwa river [1].
• Deogarh panels: Sheshashayi Vishnu, Gajendra-moksha and the penance of Nara-Narayana [1].
• The three types of Nagara shikhara: latina (rekha-prasada), phamsana and valabhi.
• Gupta temples of north India are on UNESCO's Tentative List, not the final World Heritage List [1]. Mahabalipuram, by contrast, is a full UNESCO World Heritage Site [3].
• Order of growth: flat roof (Lad Khan, Aihole) → early shikhara (Deogarh) → large regional Nagara temples (Khajuraho, Odisha) [1][2].

Mains Points

• The temple grew step by step, and the Nagara style is the north Indian result.
• It began as a plain square shrine room with one door (c. 3rd century CE).
• The shikhara then marked the shrine from far away. Deogarh is one of the earliest surviving examples [1].

• Builders kept adding height and carving instead of walls and gateways. So the north Indian temple rose upward, while the Dravida temple spread outward behind its walls.

• Nagara temples carried a religious and political message.

• Avatar panels such as Vishnu on Shesha and Gajendra-moksha at Deogarh show a god who saves the world from evil [1].
• Gupta patrons used this idea to link kingship with divine protection.

• The stories came from the Puranas, which were read aloud even to women and Shudras. This made the temple a place of worship open to all, not just a building for priests.

• Regional variety within one style. The Odisha, Khajuraho (Chandela) and western Indian (Solanki) schools all follow the same basic Nagara plan, but each adds its own local touches. This is a good example of unity in diversity in Indian heritage. The Deccan, with experiments like those at Aihole, mixed northern and southern forms into Vesara [2].

Related concepts

• Puranic Hinduism
• Vaishnavism
• Avatar
• Dashavatara
• Varaha
• Vasudeva-Krishna
• Shaivism
• Linga
• Garbhagriha
• Antarala

Read more

• Puranic Hinduism and the first temples