logo

Video encyclopedia

Hindu temple architecture

2:11

Evolution of Hindu temple architecture | Parlour Talkies

3:54

Ancient Aliens: The Vittala Temple's Puzzling Pillars (Season 12, Episode 8) | History

0:11

hindu temple architecture

0:09

hindu temple architecture

3:32

Abu Dhabi's Hindu temple: behind the scenes of the architectural marvel rising in the desert

Hindu temple architecture has many varieties of style, though the basic nature of the Hindu temple remains the same, with the essential feature an inner sanctum, the garbha griha or womb-chamber, where the primary Murti or the image of a deity is housed in a simple bare cell. Around this chamber there are often other structures and buildings, in the largest cases covering several acres. On the exterior, the garbhagriha is crowned by a tower-like shikhara, also called the vimana in the south. The shrine building often includes an ambulatory for parikrama (circumambulation), a mandapa congregation hall, and sometimes an antarala antechamber and porch between garbhagriha and mandapa. There may further mandapas or other buildings, connected or detached, in large temples, together with other small temples in the compound.