What is a tower that tops the main part of a Hindu temple?


What is a tower that tops the main part of a Hindu temple? Hindu Temple Design Around the sanctuary and prayer hall is a covered space for worshipers to walk in a clockwise fashion. Above the inner sanctum is the main “sikhara”, or central tower. It is usually a dome- or pyramid-shaped tower that represents Mt. Meru.


What is the top of a Hindu temple called?

A Hindu temple has a Shikhara (Vimana or Spire) that rises symmetrically above the central core of the temple. These spires come in many designs and shapes, but they all have mathematical precision and geometric symbolism.


What does the tower in the Hindu place of worship represent?

A microcosm of the Hindu cosmological universe, the temple is the meeting point of the divine and the profane. Mountaintop residence of the gods. The temple's overall form — dominated by its large central tower (vimana) — symbolizes the mountain at the center of the universe, Mount Meru.


What are the important parts of a temple?

Three key forms of temple architecture
  • Garbhagriha or the sanctum where the main idol of the deity is housed.
  • Mandapa or the portico which leads to the garbhagriha, where the worshipers assemble.
  • Shikhara that is the spire above the sanctum.
  • Vaahan which is the mount or vehicle of the main deity of the temple.


What is a Hindu temple tower called?

Above the inner sanctum is the main “sikhara”, or central tower. It is usually a dome- or pyramid-shaped tower that represents Mt. Meru. Some temples have elaborately-decorated, often brightly-colored, gateways or gate towers known as “gapuras”.


What is the part of the temple above the columns?

An entablature (/?n'tæbl?t??r/; nativization of Italian intavolatura, from in in and tavola table) is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals.


What is the roof of a temple called?

The pediment was the crowning feature of the Greek temple front. The triangular wall surface of the pediment, called the tympanum, rested on an entablature (a composite band of horizontal moldings) carried over the columns.


What is the center of a temple called?

A cella (from Latin for small chamber) or naos (from the Greek ?a??, temple) is the inner chamber of an ancient Greek or Roman temple in classical antiquity.