Rules · Façades · Roofs · Proportion
Raise over the sanctum a tower whose faces curve inward towards the top (rekha), divided into storeys (bhumis) that are marked on the corners by small ribbed discs (bhumi-amalakas).
The Nagara tower is an image of a mountain (the abode of the gods), and its storeys recall, in compressed form, the tiers of a many-storeyed building. The curve is drawn so that the lower part rises almost vertically and the upper part closes in quickly, which gives the silhouette its tension. The bhumi-amalakas at the corners count the storeys; five is common, but more are found on larger towers.
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
Crown the shikhara with a great ribbed stone disc, the amalaka, on a short neck, and set over it the kalasha, a water-pot finial.
Lay the halls along the east–west axis in front of the sanctum (porch, hall, great hall, vestibule), each larger and more lofty than the one before, so that the roofs rise in a continuous range to the shikhara.
Multiply the shikhara: attach smaller spires (urushringas) against its faces, and smaller ones again against those, so that the tower becomes a cluster of peaks.
Classify the temple by the shape of its crown: square is nāgara, octagonal drāviḍa, round (or apsidal) vesara.
Give each house a breadth according to the rank of its owner, the largest for the king and for each varṇa less than the one above: thirty-two cubits for a Brahmin, then twenty-eight, twenty-four and twenty.
breadth = 32 − 4 k cubits (k = 0 … 3)
Cite this page Chris Paton, “The curvilinear shikhara in storeys”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/shikhara-bhumis. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.