Famous Temples in India

Architecture

The original temple appears to have been built in the panchayatana style, which features a main shrine surrounded by four subsidiary shrines. Only parts of the main shrine, and the bottom of an open mandapa with columns survive now, and they have been ruined and modified over several centuries, with roof-domes added. Much of the platform survives, and carved stones from the original structure lie around it. The entrance to the temple faces east, towards the rising sun. The temple complex is built on two broad stepped terraces (jagati), which originally included a circumambulatory path, and are now partially ruined. The boundary of the lower terrace has a relatively plain set of foundation and base moldings (vedibandha), which have decorative patterns at the top. The ruins of two small shrines flank the entrance stairway. The upper terrace is far more decorated, but is largely destroyed, the only image that remains intact is of Narasimha flanked by warriors. The four subsidiary shrines may have been located on the upper terrace. The main idol of the temple was always that of Durga, that the four subsidiary shrines were located to Surya (north-west corner), Ganesha (north-east corner), Karttikeya (south-east corner) and Lakshmi-Narayana or Uma-Maheshvara (south-west).