page_title: Hindu architecture
section_title: Temples (mandirs)
hierarchical_section_title: Hindu architecture / Temples (mandirs)
caption_attribution_description: {{mld English: Detail view on the gopuram (tower) at the entrance of the Sri Mariamman Temple (Singapore) Español: Detalle de la gopura en la entrada del Templo de Sri Mariamman (Singapur). Français&#160;: Détail de la gopura du temple Sri Mariamman à Singapour. Magyar: A szingapúri Sri Mariamman buddhista templom gopuramjának (torony) részlete. Italiano: Dettaglio del gopuram (torre) all'ingresso del tempio di Sri Mariamman (Singapore) 日本語: スリ・マリアマン寺院（シンガポール）のゴプラム（塔門）の一部 한국어: 싱가포르의 스리마리아만 사원 입구에 있는 고푸람(탑)의 자세한 모습 Nederlands: Close-up van de gopuram bij de ingang van de Sri Mariammantempel, Singapore. Română: Detaliu de pe gopuramul (turn) de la intrarea în Templul Sri Mariamman (Singapore). Русский: Деталь входной башни индуистского храма Шри Мариамман, Сингапур Українська: Деталь ґопури (вежі над вхідними воротами) індуїстського Храму богині Маріамман, Сінгапур. |en=Detailed view of the gopuram (tower) at the entrance of the Sri Mariamman Temple, Singapore. |fr=Détail de la gopura du temple Sri Mariamman à Singapour. }}
context_page_description: Hindu architecture is a traditional Hindu system of temple architecture, monasteries, mausoleums and other architectural religious buildings of Hinduism. The science of Hindu architecture in India is described in Hindu texts — Vastu shastra, and Shilpa Shastras deal with forming statues, icons, stone murals, painting and others.
  By far the most important, characteristic and numerous examples of Hindu architecture are Hindu temples, with an architectural tradition that has left surviving examples in stone, brick, and rock-cut architecture dating back to the Gupta Empire. These drew on earlier Buddhist religious architecture, but Hindu temples were shaped by their rather different religious requirements, which in essence have remained unchanged since the earliest period.
  There is far less secular architecture that can really be called "Hindu" rather than "Indian". Very little early palace architecture survives, and the great majority of surviving palaces show clear influence from Indo-Islamic architecture, especially Mughal architecture, later joined by European architecture.
context_section_description: Hindu temple architecture has many varieties of style, though the basic nature of the Hindu temple ("mandir") remains the same, with the essential feature an inner sanctum, the garbha griha or womb-chamber, where the primary murti or the image of a deity is housed in a simple bare cell. Around this chamber there are often other structures and buildings, in the largest cases covering several acres.  On the exterior, the garbhagriha is crowned by a tower-like 
  shikhara, also called the vimana in the south. The shrine building often includes an ambulatory for parikrama (circumambulation), a mandapa congregation hall, and sometimes an antarala antechamber and porch between garbhagriha and mandapa. There may further mandapas or other buildings, connected or detached, in large temples, together with other small temples in the compound. There are examples of special dance pavilions (Nata Mandir), like in the Konark Sun Temple. The pool, temple tank (Kunda) is also part of the temple for ablutions.
caption: Part of Gopuram at Sri Mariamman Temple, Singapore.
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