For the sake of convenience, it is usual to classify Hindu architecture according to geographical criteria but also by the type of covering built over the inner sanctum. Geographical division gives the nagara style which was generally developed in the north, the dravida style that developed in the south, and the vesoro style from the centre of the country, a fusion of the other two. The second type of categorisation gives temples with three types of covering, the curvilinear, the pyramidal or prismatic, and the cylindrical or barrel vault. Indian texts refer to square and rectangular coverings for the nagara style, hexagonal and octagonal coverings for the dravida style, and circular, oval and apsidal coverings for the vesara style. However, these divisions do not do justice to the great variety of styles that characterise Hindu architecture. Nothing remains of the first timber constructions but the use of wood influenced later styles of carved stone, clearly derived from carpentry techniques.
One of the oldest temples is Stupa 1 7 in Sanchi near Bhopal in the region of Madhya Pradesh. This temple was built in the 4th or 5th centuries during the era of the Gupta dynasty. The temple has an inner sanctum with a flat covering preceded by a porch with decorated columns over a stepped plinth. This typology was developed during the late Gupta period (5th-6th centuries) in which smaller temples were built in brick joined by pegs and given flat roofs made with stones with overhanging edges. The temples of Ahicchatra and Bhitargaon in Uttar Pradesh, Shiva in Bhumara, Parvati in Nachna Kuthara and Sirpurin Madhya Pradesh are significant examples.
It is however with the Vishnuite temple of the 5th century Dashavatara, at Deogarh in the province of jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, that the first attempt at a pyramidal covering, the shikhara, is seen.
The temple is a cubic structure built on a plinth with axial steps. It has three false doors decorated with splendid terracotta panels and the entrance is adorned with an elaborate frame.
During the 7th-8th centuries, this covering grew in height. The temple complexes at Bhubaneswar in Orissa (8th-13th centuries) and Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh (10th-13th centuries) are the perfect examples of the nagara style.
The noblest material for building a temple, and the one that bestows the greatest spiritual merit on the patron, is stone. The stone is extracted from quarries by boring holes and inserting wooden wedges; the wedges are soaked in water which then expand and crack the rock. This technique is still used to increase the size of caves and to create the shape and dimension of environment required. Construction of a temple is often based on the assembly of prepared pieces which are joined together with locking pins so that the use of mortar is avoided. Preferred design features were the architrave and the 'false' arch in which the stone or ashlar overhang at every layer of bricks in order to provide support for the one above. To give the effect of a vault, the architect used a series of smaller overhanging cornices and dosed the remaining space at the end with slabs. Although the Moslems brought the technique of the pointed arch to India in the 13th century, the Hindus continued to use the 'false' arch and the vault with successive overhangs.
The basic structures of the nagara temple are:
• The adhisthana, the plinth, a tall platform with one or more flights of steps leading up it.
• The ardhamandapa, a hypostyle entrance porch.
• The mandapa, a hypostyle room with pyramidal covering.
• The antarala, a hall, the space that joins the mandapa to the inner sanctum.
• The garbha-griha, the square inner sanctum that houses the murti of the divinity: this stands on the pitha, the pedestal which is placed on the spot where a jar is buried containing symbolic objects, for example nine jewels which refer to the planets. The jar symbolises the fertile womb of Prakriti, Nature, and the pedestal used for the murti refers to Mount Meru.
• The shikhara, the ogival structure that stands over the inner sanctum, is perhaps influenced by the ancient Vedic altar covering made from bamboo pointed at the top; it is achieved by cutting successive horizontal mouldings to create a dome effect. The shikhara evokes Mount Meru as well as the idea of a sacrificial flame rising towards heaven.
To smooth the angles of the shikhara and to counterbalance the horizontal dimension of the mouldings, the corners are accented with angashikharas or urushringas, miniature repetitions of the shikhara that have the precise function of emphasising the ogive and accentuating the vertical dimension. Consequently, the horizontal plane, which alludes to the various existential planes and forms, and the vertical plane, which evokes the essential ontological unity enclosing manifestation, are harmonised in a single, compact upward movement. The convergence of centrifugal and centripetal forces exercises strong tension on the surrounding space and transforms the building into a spiral of cosmic and divine energy.
The series of curved lines and succession of planes of the shikhara are joined and compose the pattika, the drum that connects the shikhara to the amalaka, the amalaka, a sort of segmented, cushion-like element copied from the fruit of the gooseberry bush. On the amalaka, we find the kalasha or kumbha, a vase-shaped element, also placed on the roof of the mandapa, which contains water used for consecration of the temple; the symbolism attaches to the primigenial fluid of chaos and to the cosmic waters, the womb of life and to which life eventually returns. Like rivers such as the Ganges, they hold the ashes of the dead. The symbol of divinity kept in the inner sanctum or the temple flag nearly always stands over the kumbha.
The indentations in the form of the walls suggests to the spectator performing the pradaksbina, the sacred circling of the temple, that the temple is actually breathing in its expansions and contractions.. This is the reproduction of the spanda, the primordial vibration of the One that determines the emanation and expansion of the universe, its synchronised, ceaseless and mysterious division and recomposition.
The alamkara (decoration) of the temple, is an integral part of its design, not just an additional feature. Its purpose is to attract the attention of the devotee with its beauty and to convey its underlying symbolism to the spiritually mature.
The decoration is arranged in accordance with precise criteria: makara (aquatic monsters, grotesque animals and elephants) are often shown along the plinth of the temple whose function it is to support the building; gods and mythical beings are depicted on the walls of the mandapa and the inner sanctum framed by plants swollen with the sap of life; anthropomorphic representations are rare on the sides of the shikhara and in general there are only vyalas (gryphons) or similar mythical creatures supporting the amalaka and looking out towards the four cardinal points. The prevalence of geometric decorations on the covering of the inner sanctum relates to the world of ethereal forms.
The Hindu architect does not face the problem of having to match the building to the natural environment as nature is included in the design of the temple: it pulses in the animal forms and tangle of tropical plants, leaves and flowers.
Another important feature is the white plasterwork used to cover statues and decorative elements whose features are then usually painted. White is the symbol of purification and spiritualisation and the colour associated with sattva, one of the three gunas or "qualities" that makes up the Prakriti, the eternal primordial substance. Sattva is the creator of what is stable, pure, luminous and joyous; rajas causes what is dynamic, passionate or sad; lamas is the root of what is inert, slow or dim. Their supremacy also determines the castes; the Brahmans are dominated by sattva, the warriors by rajas and the other two castes - traders and servants - by tamas.
The colours associated with the gunas are, respectively, white, red and black. The temple is, therefore, the divine made tangible on earth and a passage from the One to the multiple. The bindu, the point on the pinnacle over the kumbha, symbolises the seed of existence that contains all the pluralities of the manifestation. This evolves from slender forms represented by the shikhara with geometric, abstract decorations to larger shapes depicted on the walls of the mandapa and inner sanctum in which the bindu is manifested in the divine image, the murti.
The symbolism of the temple architecture can be read either from top to plinth or vice versa: the descent of the deity and genesis of the universe or, alternatively, the ascent of man and dissolution of the cosmos. The temple includes forms from the basest to the most sublime, the One and the multiple, the immanent and the transcendent: all originates with bindu and all returns there.
Besides vertical interpretation, there is also the horizontal; this view contrasts the external walls covered with statues and ornaments with the bareness of the inner sanctum. Once removed from the plane of phenomena with its kaleidoscopic and distracting images, the attention moves to within one's own being, to the silence of one's own heart for contemplation of the One as directed by the murti in the bare and dark inner sanctum. The outside of the temple is the form, the inside is the essence; the cell is the body and the murti is the spirit.
This contrast between what is external, illuminated, multiform and temporal with what is internal, dark, unitary and a temporal is the cipher that represents the path to which the mystical fruition of the Hindu temple leads.