With reference to the ancient architectural development in the hills of North Indian States, consider the following statements : 1. The temple 'Garbhagriha' and 'Shikhara' were made in a Rekhaprasada or Latina style. 2. The Pandrethan Temple in Kashmir is built on a plinth in the middle of a tank. 3. The Jageshwar Temple is located in Garhwal region. 4. The Lakshana Devi Mandir shows the influence of the post-Gupta tradition. How many statements given above are correct?

Correct — C, 3. Three of the four are taken almost word for word from the standard account of hill temples. The garbhagriha and shikhara built in the rekha-prasada or latina manner, with the mandapa surviving in the older wooden form, is the defining hybrid of the region, so statement 1 stands. The Pandrethan temple in Kashmir, of the eighth or ninth century, is indeed raised on a plinth set in the middle of a tank, keeping the tradition of a water body attached to the shrine, so statement 2 stands. The Lakshana Devi Mandir at Bharmaur in Chamba, associated with the ruler Meruvarman, shows the post-Gupta idiom carried into the hills, so statement 4 stands. Statement 3 is the false one: Jageshwar lies near Almora, which is Kumaon, not Garhwal.

• (a)1 — Far too few. The Pandrethan tank and the post-Gupta character of the Lakshana Devi shrine are both standard descriptions of these buildings.
• (b)2 — The natural answer for a candidate who rejects Jageshwar and one other statement. Only Jageshwar is wrong here; the latina shikhara, the Pandrethan tank and the post-Gupta influence at Bharmaur are each accurate.
• (d)4 — Accepts Jageshwar as a Garhwal temple. Almora district, where Jageshwar stands, belongs to the Kumaon division of Uttarakhand; Garhwal is the western division, with Badrinath and Kedarnath.

Temple building in the western Himalaya blends two traditions. The stone sanctum and its curving latina spire come from the Nagara architecture of the plains, while the hall in front often keeps the pitched wooden roof of the local carpentry tradition, so a single building can look Gupta at the back and vernacular at the front. Kashmir adds its own elements — a peaked roof, trefoil arches and, at Pandrethan, water standing around the plinth.

Uttarakhand's two divisions are the whole question. Garhwal in the west holds Badrinath and Kedarnath; Kumaon in the east holds Almora, Nainital and Pithoragarh, and with them the temple clusters at Jageshwar and Champawat. Candidates who know Jageshwar as a famous Uttarakhand temple site without knowing which half of the state it sits in will accept statement 3 and answer four. The rest of the item is quotation, so the counting turns on that one geographical fact.

• Rekha-prasada, or latina, is the single curved spire form of the Nagara shikhara, and it is the type used for hill sanctums.
• The Pandrethan temple in Kashmir, eighth to ninth century, stands on a plinth in the middle of a tank.
• Jageshwar is near Almora in the Kumaon division of Uttarakhand; Champawat near Pithoragarh is the other well-known Kumaon temple site.
• The Lakshana Devi Mandir is at Bharmaur in Chamba, Himachal Pradesh, and is linked to the ruler Meruvarman.
• Hill temples frequently pair a stone sanctum with a mandapa roofed in the older wooden manner.

• Placing Jageshwar in Garhwal because Uttarakhand's most famous shrines are Garhwal ones.
• Assuming a hill temple must be wholly vernacular when the sanctum usually follows the plains model.
• Reading 'plinth in the middle of a tank' as an exaggeration; Pandrethan is built that way.

A how-many-statements item on temple architecture where the false statement is a district-level geography error, not an architectural one.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Jageshwar group of temples is located in which division of Uttarakhand?

  • (a)Garhwal
  • (b)Kumaon
  • (c)Bhabar
  • (d)Terai

  Answer(b) Kumaon — the temples stand near Almora.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Pandrethan temple, built on a plinth in the middle of a tank, is located in

  • (a)Himachal Pradesh
  • (b)Kashmir
  • (c)Kumaon
  • (d)Ladakh

  Answer(b) Kashmir — it dates from about the eighth to ninth century.