Temple Architecture: Nagara, Dravida and Vesara Styles

The correct answer is D, Garbhagriha. The garbhagriha, the womb house, is the small square windowless cell that holds the image of the presiding deity. Every other part of a temple is added around it: the tower rises over it, the hall stands in front of it and the circumambulatory passage runs around it. A shrine can exist with nothing but a garbhagriha, which is why texts and examiners call it the nucleus of the temple.

Option A, the gopuram, is the gateway tower in the enclosure wall of a South Indian temple; it is often the tallest structure but it is an entrance, not the shrine. Option B, the mandapam, is the pillared hall where devotees assemble, and large temples have several of them. Option C, the pradakshina patha, is only the passage left for circumambulation around the sanctum. All three are important, yet none of them houses the deity.

The correct answer is D, Hampi. Hampi on the Tungabhadra in Karnataka was the capital of the Vijayanagara empire, and its Virupaksha, Vittala and Hazara Rama temples are Dravidian work of the most elaborate kind: walled enclosures, towering gopurams, pillared kalyana mandapas, the famous stone chariot and the musical pillars. UNESCO inscribed the Group of Monuments at Hampi as a World Heritage Site.

Option A, Konark in Odisha, is the Sun Temple of the Eastern Ganga ruler Narasimhadeva I and belongs to the Kalinga branch of the Nagara style, not to Dravida. Option B, Bodh Gaya in Bihar, is a Buddhist site with the Mahabodhi temple and the Bodhi tree, and its tall brick tower follows a north Indian shrine form. Option C, Akshardham in Delhi, is a modern temple completed in this century and cannot represent a historical style.

The correct answer is B. Elephanta, on Gharapuri island near Mumbai, is a Shaivite rock-cut group whose panels tell Shiva stories: the Trimurti Sadashiva, Ardhanarishvara, Gangadhara, the marriage of Shiva and Parvati and Shiva as Nataraja. The sculptors cut the figures deep into the rock so that the shifting light of the cave models them in shadow, which is why the site is remembered for sculptural depth rather than for painting or plan.

Option A is wrong because Elephanta has no stupa and is not Buddhist; the Buddhist rock-cut sites of the region are Kanheri, Bhaja, Karle and Ajanta. Option C is wrong because Jain and Vaishnavite images do not dominate here, unlike the Jain caves at Udayagiri or the Ellora group. Option D is wrong because Elephanta is a cave complex cut into a hillside, not a monolith, and it dates from about the sixth century CE, long after the Mauryas.

The correct answer is D, Odisha. The twin hills of Udayagiri and Khandagiri stand near Bhubaneswar and hold Jain rock-cut cells cut for monks in the first century BCE. The Hathigumpha or elephant cave on Udayagiri carries the inscription of the Chedi king Kharavela of Kalinga, the main source for his reign, and the Rani Gumpha is the largest and most decorated of the cells.

Option A, Uttarakhand, has the Kalsi rock edict and hill temples but no such cave group. Option B, Chhattisgarh, is associated with the Sitabenga and Jogimara caves of the Ramgarh hills, which are different sites. Option C, Tripura, is known for the rock carvings of Unakoti, again a separate site. Candidates often confuse Udayagiri in Odisha with the Udayagiri caves of Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, which are Gupta period Vaishnavite caves with the Varaha panel.

The correct answer is A, Maharashtra. The Kanheri caves are cut into a basalt hill inside the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai. They are a Buddhist group of more than a hundred cells, chaityas and viharas cut over several centuries from about the first century BCE, with rock-cut cisterns and a large chaitya hall with stupa and standing Buddha figures.

Option B, Odisha, has Buddhist sites at Ratnagiri, Udayagiri and Lalitgiri, but these are brick monasteries and stupas, not the Kanheri caves. Option C, Rajasthan, has no major Buddhist rock-cut group; its heritage is fort and temple architecture in stone. Option D, Delhi, has no ancient rock-cut caves at all. Maharashtra is the home of Indian rock-cut architecture and also holds Ajanta, Ellora, Bhaja, Karle, Bedsa and Elephanta.

The correct answer is B, Raja Raja Chola I. The Brihadeshwara or Rajarajeshwara temple at Thanjavur was completed about 1010 CE by Raja Raja I. Its vimana rises in shrinking storeys to over sixty metres and is crowned by a single huge capstone, the whole structure is of granite, and the courtyard holds one of the largest monolithic Nandi figures in India. UNESCO lists it with Gangaikonda Cholapuram and Darasuram as the Great Living Chola Temples.

Option A, Rajendra Chola I, was his son and built the temple at Gangaikonda Cholapuram, the second of the three. Option C, Narasimhavarman II Rajasimha, was a Pallava and built the Shore Temple at Mahabalipuram and the Kailasanatha temple at Kanchipuram. Option D, Krishnadeva Raya, was a Vijayanagara ruler of the sixteenth century and added gopurams and mandapas at Hampi and Tirupati, far later than the Cholas.

The correct answer is B, Shikhara. In the Nagara style of north India the tower over the garbhagriha is the shikhara. Its outline curves inward as it rises, it is topped by a ribbed disc called the amalaka and a pot shaped kalasha, and its commonest form, the square based curvilinear tower, is called latina or rekha-prasada. Phamsana and valabhi are the other Nagara tower forms.

Option A, vimana, is the word used in the south for the tower over the sanctum, and it is a pyramid of receding storeys rather than a curve. Option C, gopuram, is the gateway tower in the enclosure wall of a South Indian temple and stands away from the shrine. Option D, antarala, is not a tower at all but the small vestibule that links the mandapa to the sanctum. Distinguishing shikhara from vimana is the most frequently tested pair in this topic.

The correct answer is A, Rashtrakuta. Cave 16 at Ellora, the Kailasa temple, was cut for the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I in the eighth century. It is a complete temple with gateway, Nandi shrine, mandapa, sanctum and vimana, but instead of being built up it was carved downward and inward out of a single basalt hillside, so the whole complex is one rock. Ellora, with its Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves side by side, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Option B, the Chalukyas of Badami, worked at Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal and are associated with the early Vesara experiments, not with Ellora. Option C, the Satavahanas, are linked to the earlier Buddhist chaityas at Karle and Bhaja and to Amaravati. Option D, the Yadavas of Devagiri, ruled the Deccan much later and are associated with the Hemadpanti temple style, not with rock-cut excavation on this scale.

The correct answer is C. Pattadakal on the Malaprabha was a coronation city of the Chalukyas of Badami, and its temples stand side by side in both idioms: the Papanatha and Galaganatha temples carry curving Nagara towers, while the Virupaksha temple, built by queen Lokamahadevi to mark Vikramaditya II's victory over the Pallavas, and the Sangameshwara temple carry Dravida vimanas. This deliberate mixing is what writers call the Vesara style, and UNESCO inscribed the group for exactly this reason.

Option A is wrong because the Dravida temples there are as important as the Nagara ones. Option B is wrong for the same reason in reverse. Option D is wrong because circular and apsidal shrines with tiered copper roofs belong to Kerala, at temples such as Vadakkunnathan in Thrissur, and not to Pattadakal. Aihole nearby is called the cradle of Indian temple architecture for the same experiments.

The correct answer is A, Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty. The Konark Sun Temple in Odisha was raised in the thirteenth century by Narasimhadeva I. The plan is the chariot of Surya: a high platform carrying twelve pairs of carved stone wheels drawn by seven horses. The great deul has fallen, but the jagamohana survives, and European sailors called the dark mass the Black Pagoda. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Option B, Anantavarman Chodaganga, was an earlier Eastern Ganga ruler who began the Jagannath temple at Puri. Option C, Mihira Bhoja, was a Gurjara-Pratihara king of Kannauj with no connection to Konark. Option D, Bhima I of the Solanki dynasty, built the Sun Temple at Modhera in Gujarat, which is the other famous sun temple and therefore the standard distractor in this question.

The correct answer is B, Hoysala. The Hoysalas ruled southern Karnataka from Belur and Dwarasamudra, today's Halebidu, and their temples are unmistakable: a raised star shaped platform called the jagati, shrines on a stellate plan, soft chloritic schist or soapstone that allowed jewellery and hair to be carved in minute detail, lathe turned pillars, and bands of friezes showing elephants, horses and scenes from the epics. Somnathpur is the third temple of the group.

Option A, Pallava, refers to the earlier rock-cut rathas and structural temples at Mahabalipuram and Kanchipuram. Option C, Chandela, is the school of Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh, built in sandstone on a panchayatana plan. Option D, Kalinga, is the Odisha school of Lingaraja, Jagannath and Konark. Telling Hoysala from Chandela by the star plan and the soapstone is the usual trap.