Answer» Correct Answer - Option 3 : Nagara, Vesara and Dravida
The correct answer is Nagara, Vesara and Dravida. - Two broad orders of temples in the country are known:-
- Nagara styles of temple architecture in North India.
- Dravida styles of temple architecture in South India.
- The Vesara style of temples as an independent style created through the selective mixing of the Nagara and Dravida orders is mentioned by some scholars.
- Hence Nagara, Vesara and Dravida is the correct answer.
- The basic form of the Hindu temple comprises the following:
- A cave-like sanctum (Garbhagriha literally ‘womb house), which, in the early temples, was a small cubicle with a single entrance and grew into a larger chamber in time.
- The Garbhagriha is made to house the main icon which is itself the focus of much ritual attention.
- The entrance to the temple may be a portico or colonnaded hall that incorporates space for a large number of worshippers and is known as a Mandapa.
- From the fifth century CE onwards, freestanding temples tend to have a mountainlike spire, which can take the shape of a curving Shikhar in North India, and a pyramidal tower, called a vimana, in South India.
- At the top of the temple, Kalasha or Sikhara has been placed.
- The Vahan, i.e., the mount or vehicle of the temple’s main deity along with a standard pillar or Ahvaz is placed axially before the sanctum.
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