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.
In the Sekhari mode the tower is composed of images of itself, climbing in ranks towards the summit. The idea is fractal before the word existed: each part is a smaller whole. At Khajuraho the Kandariya Mahadeva is traditionally said to carry eighty-four miniature spires.
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
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).
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.
Classify the temple by the shape of its crown: square is nāgara, octagonal drāviḍa, round (or apsidal) vesara.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “Towers clustered round the tower”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/urushringa-cluster. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.