What is the main tower of a Drāviḍa-style temple known as?

Correct — D. In a Drāviḍa temple, the main tower over the sanctum is the vimana.

NCERT's An Introduction to Indian Art describes the vimana in Tamil Nadu as a stepped pyramid that rises up geometrically, rather than the curving shikhara of North India.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Shikhara — Shikhara is the curving main tower of a North Indian Nagara temple. In a South Indian temple, NCERT says, the word means only the crowning element at the top.
• (b)
  Vihāra — A vihāra is a Buddhist monastery, a residence for monks, not part of a Hindu temple. NCERT calls Nalanda a mahavihara.
• (c)
  Gopuram — The gopuram is the gateway tower in the compound wall. Each new enclosure got loftier gopurams, which is why a gopuram can look like the main tower.

NCERT names two broad temple orders: Nagara in the north and Dravida in the south.

A Nagara temple rises in a curving shikhara. A Dravida temple sits inside a compound wall entered through a gopuram, and its main tower over the sanctum is the pyramidal vimana.

The word shikhara changes meaning between them: the whole tower in the north, only the capstone, a small stupika or octagonal cupola, in the south.

Key facts

• Vimana: the pyramidal main tower over the sanctum of a Dravida temple.
• Gopuram: the gateway tower in a Dravida temple's enclosure wall.
• Shikhara: the curving main tower of a Nagara temple, but only the crowning element of a Dravida one.
• The Rajarajeswara (Brihadeshwara) temple at Thanjavur was completed around 1009 by Rajaraja Chola.

Common traps

• Picking gopuram because the famous towers of temples like Madurai's Meenakshi are gateways. They mark the entrance, not the sanctum.
• Carrying the North Indian meaning of shikhara into a Dravida question.

No directly related past PYQ was found.