Vimana

Topic: Early Indian Art and Architecture: Stupas, Rock-cut Caves, Temples · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

A vimana is the tower over the sanctum (the shrine room) of a Dravida (south Indian) temple. It rises like a stepped pyramid, one storey above another, and ends in a small dome at the top. In south Indian usage the word can also mean the whole shrine block: the sanctum together with its tower.

It matters because the vimana is the easiest way to tell a south Indian temple from a north Indian one, and that comparison is asked often. The Brihadeshvara temple at Thanjavur has one of the tallest vimanas in India.

Explanation

Background: why temples needed a tower

• The first temples, from about the 3rd century CE, were very simple. Each had a small square garbhagriha (the "womb-house", the dark shrine room where the image or linga stands) with a single doorway.
• Next, builders added a tall tower over the shrine room so that people could see from far away where the god lived.
• In north India this tower became the curved shikhara. Deogarh's Dashavatara temple (Uttar Pradesh) is one of the earliest temples that still has its shikhara [1].
• In south India the tower took a different shape: a pyramid of flat, stepped storeys. This is the vimana.
• The note's main point applies here too. The temple grew by addition: small and plain first, then a tower, then halls, walls and gateways.

Main parts of a vimana

• Base: a raised platform on which the sanctum stands.
• Walls of the sanctum: often carved with images and pilasters (flat pillars set into the wall).
• Stepped storeys (tiers): each storey is smaller than the one below it. Together they form a pyramid, not a curve.

• Each storey carries rows of miniature shrines along its edge.

• Crowning element: a small dome at the very top, usually octagonal (eight-sided) or square.

• Exam trap: in the south, only this small crowning dome is called the shikhara. In the north, the whole tower is called the shikhara.

• Finial (kalasha): a pot-shaped top piece sitting on the crowning dome.

How the vimana grew over time

• Rock-cut experiments (7th century): at Mahabalipuram, the Pallavas carved temples out of rock. The note lists rock-cut cave temples, monolithic temples, bas-reliefs and structural temples, made between the 6th and 9th centuries CE [3].

• The monolithic shrines, each cut from a single rock and popularly called rathas, show early small vimanas in stone.

• Structural temples (c. 8th century): the Pallavas then built vimanas block by block. Examples are the Shore Temple at Mahabalipuram and the Kailasanatha temple at Kanchipuram.

• Deccan experiments: under the Early Chalukyas, Aihole became a testing ground. It has more than a hundred temples and is called "the cradle of Indian architecture" [2]. Builders there tried many plans, from the flat-roofed Lad Khan temple (no tower at all) to the apsidal Durga temple [2].
• The peak under the Cholas (c. 11th century): Rajaraja I built the Brihadeshvara temple at Thanjavur, finished around 1010 CE. Its vimana is about 66 metres high, among the tallest in India.
• Later change: under the later Cholas and especially the Vijayanagara and Nayaka rulers, the gopurams (gateway towers) became taller than the vimana. The tallest tower was no longer over the god's room.

Results

• The vimana gave south India its own clear temple style, the Dravida style.
• A tall vimana showed the king's power and wealth as well as the god's presence. The note says the same about kings at Mahabalipuram: art linked kingship with the god who saves the world [3].
• It became the model for many later temples across south India.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: first steps c. 7th century CE. Peak c. 11th century CE.
• Region: mainly Tamil Nadu, with experiments in Karnataka.
• Dynasties and sites:
• Pallavas: Mahabalipuram, a Pallava port on the Coromandel Coast [3], and Kanchipuram.
• Early Chalukyas: Aihole, 6th–8th century CE [2].

• Cholas: Brihadeshvara temple, Thanjavur, built by Rajaraja I.

• Evidence:

• The standing monuments themselves.
• Temple inscriptions, for example the Chola inscriptions on the Brihadeshvara walls.

• At Aihole, an inscription of Chalukya Vikramaditya II (733–46 CE) helps date the Durga temple [2].

• Heritage status:

• The Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram is a UNESCO World Heritage Site [3].
• The Brihadeshvara temple is part of the Great Living Chola Temples, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Don't confuse with

• Shikhara (Nagara style): in the north, the whole curved tower over the sanctum is the shikhara. In the south, "shikhara" means only the small dome at the top of the vimana.
• Gopuram: a gopuram is a tower over the gateway in the outer wall. A vimana stands over the sanctum. In later south Indian temples the gopuram is often the taller of the two.
• Garbhagriha: this is the shrine room itself, where the image or linga stands. The vimana is the tower built above it.
• Mandapa: a pillared hall where devotees gather, placed in front of the sanctum. It has no vimana over it.

Prelims Hooks

• Vimana: a pyramidal, stepped tower over the sanctum. It belongs to the Dravida style, not the Nagara style.
• Brihadeshvara temple, Thanjavur: built by Rajaraja I (Chola), completed c. 1010 CE. Its vimana is about 66 m high.
• Trap: in Dravida temples "shikhara" means only the crowning dome of the vimana, not the whole tower.
• Mahabalipuram (Tamil Nadu): a Pallava port. It has rock-cut, monolithic and structural temples from the 6th–9th centuries CE. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site [3].
• Aihole (Karnataka): "cradle of Indian architecture", with over 100 Early Chalukya temples. The Lad Khan temple is flat-roofed, with no tower at all [2].
• Order of evolution: flat roof (Lad Khan, Aihole) → early tower (Deogarh shikhara) → giant vimana (Thanjavur) [1][2].

Mains Points

• The temple grew by addition, and the vimana shows this clearly.
• It started as a plain square shrine with one door (c. 3rd century CE).
• A tower came next. Aihole's experiments led to Pallava rock-cut and structural vimanas [2][3].

• The Chola vimana at Thanjavur was the high point. Later, gopurams took over as the tallest towers.

• Two regional answers to one need. North and south both wanted to mark the god's room from far away. The north chose the curved shikhara and the south chose the stepped vimana. This shows that Indian culture was one tradition with strong regional styles.

• The vimana was also a political statement.
• A huge vimana like Thanjavur's showed the reach and wealth of the Chola state.
• Earlier Pallava temples at Mahabalipuram had linked the king with the saviour god [3].
• Kings, temples and religious devotion supported each other.

Related concepts

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

Read more

• Puranic Hinduism and the first temples