Nagara architecture is a Hindu temple building tradition of northern, central, western and eastern India, one of the two principal styles of Indian temple architecture alongside the Dravidian tradition of the south. It emerged in simple form in the fifth century AD with the earliest use of a curved shikhara, or spire, above the temple, and developed into what is classified as the mainstream Nagara style by the seventh century. A Nagara temple is built on a stone platform with its garbhagriha, or inner sanctum, positioned directly beneath the tallest spire, and unlike Dravidian temples it is built without an enclosing boundary wall. The tradition produced three regional schools, the Chandela school of central India known for its intricate sandstone carving, the Solanki school of the northwest with its plainer walls and interlinked interior spaces, and the Odisha or Kalinga school of the east, and its temples at Khajuraho and the Konark Sun Temple are inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Notable Examples
The 13th-century Odisha sun temple, built as a colossal stone chariot, follows the Kalinga branch of the Nagara school of North Indian temple architecture.
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