Introduction

Much has been written on Hindu Temples. Fergusson, Havell Kramrish, Brown and a host of noted savants have contributed to this theme in their standard works on Indian architecture and sculpture. ‘Hindu Temple’ by Kramrisch is a remarkable exposition of a specialised undertaking. The present writer therefore is bound to be benefited, very much from these ‘Pūrva-sūris’. As he is primarily a student of the canons of Hindu architecture, sculpture (iconography) and painting, what are termed as Vāstu-śāstra, Śilpa-śāstra and Citra-śāstra, naturally his angle therefore must be coloured more by manuals than monuments. Accordingly in the previous chapters, an attempt has been made to study the canons of Temple Architecture, and the same theme may be continued in a pronounced way in relation to the monuments, the representative illustrations of the different types of temples that are described in these treatises on Vāstu-śāstra. Hence the presentation of this dissertation is bound to be different from those that are found in the text books of the subject by contemporary writers.