page_title: Ambika Mata Temple
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Ambika Mata Temple / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: This roof sculpture portrays a celestial palace in the mountains, with deities and attendants. The architecture of the mountain palace, as the heavenly abode of the gods, echoes the temple which is their earthly residence. The palace tower is decorated with intricate horseshoe-shaped gavaksha arch-motifs, and is surrounded by small model shikhara towers that represent the surrounding mountain peaks. A well-carved elephant, "walking the plank" at the corner, supplies compositional balance and interest, as well as associations with clouds (as Indra's vehicle) and royalty. In Indian temples, the form of the temple is developed fractally, by repeating its elements at different scales on the building's exterior. The palace/temple in this photo is but one of several parts that repeat the whole, and it is posssible to imagine that on its small towers are placed tiny palace/temples with even smaller towers, and so on, continuing indefinitely.
context_page_description: Ambika Mata Mandir is a Hindu temple located in the village of Jagat, about 50 km southeast of Udaipur in the state of Rajasthan, India. Ambika Devi, a form of Goddess Durga is the presiding deity of the temple. The temple, located in a cleft of rock possesses a number of inscriptions. The earliest one, dated 961 AD, refers to a repair made to it. Today, the temple is preserved by the State Department of Archaeology and Museum, Rajasthan.
  The temple is an early, transitional, example of the style known as Māru-Gurjara architecture.
  This is a little-known temple, dating back to the tenth century with images of Durga and many other female divinities. Ambika, a form of the Hindu Goddess Durga, is the principal image in the shrine and worshipped as Shakti, a primeval source of energy. She is associated with Durga through her lion mount and is connected to the Jains through a vision advising Vimala about building his Adinath temple at Mount Abu.
context_section_description: The temple is also known as the Khajuraho of Mewar. There are many fine sculptures in the temple which have been excellently preserved. This pentagonal temple, enclosed by a massive rampart wall, has 17 turrets and a pagoda-like gabled roof. Exquisite details appear high on the exterior walls of the temple, above larger sculptures of gods or goddesses, with musicians, dancers, and singers of the heavenly court, as well as countless beautiful women. The richness and arrangement of the carving often has a curling vegetal motif. The theme is of a mountain palace, a heavenly abode of the gods. The tower is covered with intricate motifs, including clouds, and is surrounded by small shikhara towers which echo the surrounding mountain peaks. The architecture of the mountain palace, as the heavenly abode of the gods, echoes the temple which is their earthly residence.
caption: Roof model
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