What is the Nagara style, in which Ayodhya’s Ram temple is being built

Subject: History

Section: Art and Culture

Context:

The Ram temple in Ayodhya which is to be inaugurated on January 22, has been designed in the Nagara style of temple architecture.

More on news:

Meru, Mandara and Kailasa are the first three names amongst the twenty types of temples described in the early texts as the names of the Mountain, which is the axis of the world.
One of Ayodhya’s Ram temple’s ‘hybrid’ features is that although no elaborate gopuram has been built in the temple , a 732m long wall runs around the temple compound.

About Nagara Style of temple architecture:

The Nagara style of temple architecture emerged sometime in the fifth century CE, during the late Gupta period, in northern India.
The Dravidian style of southern India also emerged in the same period.
Nagara and Dravida which are called ‘styles’ are also called “the two great classical languages of Indian temple architecture”.

Distinguished by a towering shikhara

Nagara temples are built on a raised plinth with the garbhagriha also known as “sanctum sanctorum” where the idol of the deity rests.
It is considered as the most sacred part of the temple.
Towering over the garbhagriha is the shikhara, referred to as ‘mountain peak’ and is considered as the most distinguishable aspect of Nagara style temples.
Shikharas are human-made representations of the natural and cosmological order, as imagined in Hindu tradition.
A typical Nagara style temple also comprises a circumambulatory passage around the garbhagriha meant for parikrama.
It has one or more mandapas (halls) on the same axis.
Elaborate murals and reliefs often adorn its walls.

Five modes of Nagara architecture

There are five modes of Nagara temple architecture —
- Valabhi,
- Phamsana,
- Latina,
- Shekhari, and
- Bhumija.
The first two i.e Valabhi and Phamsana are associated with what scholars have classified as Early Nagara Style.
The Valabhi begins as a masonry rendering of the barrel-roofed wooden structure, simple or with aisles, familiar through chaitya halls.
A formalization of multi-eave towers leads to the Phamsana style.
From these modes emerged the Latina where a shikhara is a single, slightly curved tower with four sides of equal length.
This mode emerged in the Gupta period and was complete with curvature by the early seventh century.
The tenth century onwards composite Latinas began to emerge and gave rise to Shekhari and Bhumija styles.
The Shekhari shape has attached sub-spires or spirelets echoing the main shape.
These may run up most of the face of the shikhara.
The Bhumija has miniature spires which are in horizontal and vertical rows and run all the way to the top, creating a grid-like effect on each face.
The actual shikhara often approaches a pyramidal shape, with the curve of the Latina less visible.
Temples can even contain multiple kinds of shikaras on top of a simple structure, with the tallest always being on top of the garbha griha.

Dravidian temple Architecture:

Basic features of the Dravida Style of temple architecture are as follows:

The tower in Dravida Style is known as ‘Vimana’ and is a pyramidal structure with sliding sides.
‘Vimana’ is not only created on the ‘Garbhagriha’ but also on the ‘Gopurams’.
‘Gopurams’ is an entrance gateway.
Boundary wall is a necessary feature.
Presence of water tank within the premise which is meant for religious ablutions.
They like the ‘Nagara’ style, also follow the ‘Panchayatan’ style and crucified ground plan.
At the entrance of ‘Garbhagriha’ images of ‘Dwarapala’ are placed to guard the temple.
In some temples images of embracing couples (mithun) are placed.
The ‘Garbhagriha’ is connected through a very small passage known as ‘Antaral’ to the ‘Mandapa’.

Comparison to Dravida style

The Dravida counterpart to the shikhara is the vimana.
In the Dravida style temples, vimanas are typically smaller than the great gatehouses or gopurams.
Gopurams are the most striking architectural elements in a temple complex.
Shikhar as mentioned in southern Indian architectural sources, refers only to the dome-shaped crowning cap atop the vimana.
The existence of gopurams also points to another unique feature of the Dravida style i.e. the presence of a boundary wall.
Few Nagara style temple complexes are lined with distinctive boundary walls that are a part of the temple’s design.