Hindu temple architecture
Hindu temple architecture India's Hindu temple architecture is developed from the creativity of Sthapathis and Shilpis, both of whom belong to the larger community of craftsmen and artisans called Vishwakarma. A small Hindu temple consists of an inner sanctum, the garbha graha or womb-chamber, in which the idol or deity is housed, often called circumambulation, a congregation hall, and sometimes an antechamber and porch. The garbhagriha is crowned by a tower-like shikara. All the Hindu temples in India follows the architecture defined in Shilpa Shastras. However, there are artistic variations in terms of construction of shikara depending on regional culture. The temple is a as the microcosm (the representation of the macrocosm as well inner space). The Magadha empire rose with the Shishunaga dynasty in around 650 BCE. The Ashtadhyayi of Panini, the great grammarian of the 5th century BCE speaks of images that were used in Hindu temple worship. The ordinary images were called pr...