Shikhara

Also called: Sikhara · Topic: Early Indian Art and Architecture: Stupas, Rock-cut Caves, Temples · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 4 "Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings"

Meaning

A shikhara (also spelt sikhara) is the tall tower built over the garbhagriha of a Hindu temple. The garbhagriha is the small shrine room that holds the god's image or linga. The tower marks the holy room so people can see it from far away.

The shikhara shows how the temple grew from a plain shrine room into a large building. The Gupta-age Dashavatara temple at Deogarh is one of the earliest temples that still has its shikhara [2].

Explanation

Background: why temples were built

• The bhakti idea spread inside Vaishnavism (Vishnu as chief god) and Shaivism (Shiva as chief god). Bhakti is a bond of love and devotion between a devotee and the god they choose.
• Devotees needed a home for the god's image (for Vishnu) or the linga (for Shiva), so temples began to be built.
• The Puranas gave the stories behind each image. Brahmanas compiled them in simple Sanskrit verse by about the mid-first millennium CE. These stories also gave sculptors themes for the temple walls.
• The earliest temples date from about the 3rd century CE. This was the same time as Sanchi's final form, so stupas and temples were being built at the same time.

Where the shikhara fits in the temple plan

Temples grew one step at a time:

1. Garbhagriha: a small square room with a single doorway. The devotee went in, worshipped and came out. At first there was no tower.
2. Shikhara: a tall tower was then raised over this room.
3. Sculpted walls: carved panels were added on the outside.
4. Later additions: assembly halls, huge walls, gateways and water works such as tanks, wells and drains. - So the shikhara was not part of the first temples. It was added at the second stage.

What the shikhara did

• It marked the holy room. The tower stood straight above the god's room. Its height told everyone where the god was.
• It made the temple visible from far away. A small, plain shrine became a landmark in the landscape.
• It drew the eye upward. The tall shape lifted the low shrine into the most important part of the building.

How it developed over time

• Before the shikhara (flat roofs). The Lad Khan temple at Aihole (Karnataka) is among the oldest flat-roofed temples there. It has no shikhara at all, which shows an early stage [3].
• An early surviving shikhara (Gupta age). The Dashavatara temple at Deogarh (Uttar Pradesh) is one of the earliest temples that still has its shikhara [2].
• Trying out new plans. Aihole has more than a hundred temples of the Early Chalukyas, from about the 6th to the 8th century CE. Builders tested many plans there, so Aihole is called "the cradle of Indian architecture" [3].
• Result. By adding the shikhara, then halls, walls and gateways, the temple became a large and complex building.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: temple building began in about the 3rd century CE. Early shikharas belong to the Gupta age.
• Deogarh, Uttar Pradesh: the key site
• The Dashavatara temple is named after the ten incarnations (avatars) of Vishnu shown on it and a rock-cut well nearby [2].
• Date: NCERT places it in the 5th century. ASI/IGNCA material says "the beginning of the 6th century" [2]. Use the NCERT date (5th century) in the exam. Both dates point to the Gupta age.
• Plan (according to ASI): a square plan with an ardhamandapa (half-porch), an antarala (a small passage between the porch and the shrine) and the garbhagriha. The roof over the garbhagriha and the ardhamandapa has collapsed, so both are now open to the sky [2].
• Relief panels: three large panels survive. They show Vishnu lying on the serpent Shesha (Sheshashayi Vishnu), the rescue of the elephant (Gajendra-moksha) and the penance of Nara-Narayana [2].
• Setting: it stands on the bank of the Betwa river, which curves around it on three sides [2].

• Heritage status: the Gupta temples of north India, Deogarh included, are on UNESCO's Tentative List for World Heritage status [2].

• Aihole, Karnataka: for comparison

• Lad Khan temple: flat roof, no shikhara [3].

• Durga temple: an apsidal plan, meaning rounded at one end like a horseshoe. An inscription of Vikramaditya II (733–46 CE) supports an 8th-century date [3].

• How we know: from the surviving buildings themselves, from ASI and UNESCO records [2][3], and from the NCERT account of how temples grew step by step.

Don't confuse with

• Garbhagriha: this is the shrine room itself, where the image or linga stands. The shikhara is the tower above it.
• Ardhamandapa / antarala: these are the porch and the passage in front of the shrine, at ground level [2]. They are not the tower.
• Stupa dome: a Buddhist stupa is a solid mound over relics, and nobody goes inside. A shikhara rises over a hollow room that devotees enter to worship. Note that early stupas and temples were built at the same time.
• Flat-roofed temple (Lad Khan, Aihole): an early temple without a shikhara [3]. Do not pick it as an example of an early shikhara. Deogarh is the correct example [2].

Prelims Hooks

• Shikhara = the tall tower over the garbhagriha (the square shrine room with a single doorway).
• In the order of temple growth: garbhagriha → shikhara → sculpted walls → halls, walls, gateways and water works.
• Deogarh (UP), Dashavatara temple: one of the earliest temples that still has its shikhara; on the Betwa river [2].
• Dating trap: NCERT says Deogarh is from the 5th century. ASI/IGNCA says the beginning of the 6th century [2].
• Lad Khan temple, Aihole (Karnataka): flat roof, no shikhara [3].
• Earliest Indian temples date from about the 3rd century CE, the same time as Sanchi's final form.

Mains Points

• The shikhara shows that temples grew by adding parts.
• Temples began as a plain square room with one door.
• A tower came next, then carved walls, and later halls, gateways and water works.

• Each stage can still be seen on the ground: the flat-roofed Lad Khan at Aihole, then the shikhara at Deogarh [2][3].

• Aihole was a place for experiments. With more than a hundred Early Chalukya temples, flat roofs, an apsidal plan and other designs stand side by side. That is why Aihole is called the cradle of Indian architecture [3]. The shikhara was one answer among several before it became the standard form.

• The tower carried a religious and royal message.
• Bhakti made the god's home the centre of worship. The shikhara made that home visible from far away.
• At Deogarh, Vishnu panels sit on the walls below the tower. They tie the building to the idea of a god who saves the world from evil, an idea that Gupta-age patrons supported [2].

Related concepts

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

Read more

• Puranic Hinduism and the first temples