Rules · Façades · Roofs · Ornament
Raise the vimana in receding storeys (talas), and edge each with a parapet (hara) of miniature shrines: square domed kutas at the corners, oblong barrel-roofed shalas in the middle, and small panjaras between.
Thanjavur: 13 talas; vimana ≈ 66 m
The southern tower is a pyramid of buildings. Each storey repeats, in miniature, the architecture of the temple itself, so that the whole reads as a stack of palaces for the gods. At the Brihadeeswarar in Thanjavur, built by the Chola king Rajaraja I, thirteen storeys rise straight-sided to an octagonal crowning dome some 66 metres above the ground, the tallest temple of its time in India.
Break each face of the square sanctum into projections (rathas), three, five, seven or more, that step forward towards the central one, and carry them up unbroken through the wall and the tower.
tri-ratha 3 · pancha-ratha 5 · sapta-ratha 7 projections per face
Build the shrine in six parts from the ground up: base (adhiṣṭhāna), wall or pillars (pāda), entablature (prastara), neck (grīva), crowning roof (śikhara) and finial (stūpi).
Classify the temple by the shape of its crown: square is nāgara, octagonal drāviḍa, round (or apsidal) vesara.
In the later temple towns of the south, raise ever taller gateways (gopurams) in the successive enclosure walls, until the outer gates dwarf the shrine at the centre.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “Storeys of miniature shrines”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/dravida-talas. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.