NDA (II) 2017 General Ability Test · Question 134 of 150

Correct — A, statement 1 only. Nagara is the northern of the three classical temple styles, and the belt in which it developed is exactly the one the first statement names — the plains and plateaus lying between the Himalayas in the north and the Vindhyas in the south, from Gujarat and Rajasthan across central India to Odisha and Bengal. The second statement gives the wrong tower. A Nagara temple is recognised by a curvilinear shikhara: a tall spire whose profile curves inward as it rises and is capped by the ribbed cushion-shaped amalaka and a kalasha. The pyramidal, stepped superstructure of receding storeys belongs to the Dravida style of the south, where it is called a vimana. Since one statement holds and the other does not, the answer is (a).

• (b)2 only — This keeps the wrong half. The pyramid of diminishing tiers is the Dravida vimana; putting it on a Nagara temple swaps north for south.
• (c)Both 1 and 2 — Statement 1 is sound, but statement 2 cannot be rescued — the defining Nagara tower curves, it does not step.
• (d)Neither 1 nor 2 — This throws away a correct statement. The Himalaya-to-Vindhya belt is the standard textbook definition of the Nagara region.

Indian temple architecture is classified into three styles. Nagara is northern, built on a raised plinth, generally without a boundary wall or gateway, and crowned by a curvilinear shikhara over the sanctum. Dravida is southern, enclosed by high compound walls with towering gopurams at the entrances, and its superstructure over the sanctum is a stepped pyramid of shrinking storeys called a vimana. Vesara is the hybrid of the Deccan, combining features of both, seen in Chalukya and Hoysala work.

The commonest way of setting a Nagara question is to attach the wrong tower to the right style, because the two words shikhara and vimana are easy to blur. A reliable anchor is a building. Picture the Kandariya Mahadeva temple at Khajuraho or the Lingaraja at Bhubaneswar — clusters of curving spires rising to a peak — and set that against the Brihadeshwara temple at Thanjavur, whose sanctum tower climbs in clean receding steps. One curves, the other steps. The Nagara style also has well-known regional sub-types, among them the Latina, Phamsana and Valabhi forms of the shikhara and the Odishan rekha deula.

• Nagara is the temple style of northern India, the belt between the Himalayas and the Vindhyas.
• Its defining feature is a curvilinear shikhara, topped by the amalaka and a kalasha.
• The Dravida style of the south uses a pyramidal, stepped vimana over the sanctum and gopurams on the enclosure walls.
• Vesara is the hybrid style of the Deccan, drawing on both.
• Khajuraho, Bhubaneswar, Konark and Modhera are standard Nagara examples; Thanjavur and Mamallapuram are Dravida.

• Swapping shikhara and vimana, or giving the Nagara temple the southern pyramid.
• Assuming every temple south of the Vindhyas is Dravida; the Deccan has the hybrid Vesara style.
• Thinking gopurams are a Nagara feature — the towering gateway belongs to the southern enclosure.

Temple architecture appears as a statement-pair on style features, as a term-definition item, or as a site-to-style matching question.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The stepped pyramidal superstructure raised over the sanctum of a South Indian temple is called

  • (a)shikhara
  • (b)vimana
  • (c)amalaka
  • (d)mandapa

  Answer(b) vimana — the northern equivalent, the curvilinear shikhara, is the Nagara feature.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following temples is built in the Nagara style?

  • (a)Brihadeshwara temple, Thanjavur
  • (b)Shore temple, Mamallapuram
  • (c)Lingaraja temple, Bhubaneswar
  • (d)Meenakshi temple, Madurai

  Answer(c) Lingaraja temple, Bhubaneswar — an Odishan rekha deula with a curvilinear shikhara; the other three are southern.