The Hindu Temple v1.c8.s6.4

v1.c8.s6.4

There is no equivalent term in Western architecture to fit the high shape of the Hindu temple, its superstructure. This superstructure has the height of a spire, and fulfils the function of a roof. Its verticality is unobstructed by any horizontal roof line. If halls (maṇḍapa) are added to the Prāsāda, their high roofs ascend in relatively lower peaks, graded in height and isolated the one from the next.⁷⁹ The steep ascent of the superstructure from the walls of the Prāsāda then appears integrated in a slower approach, along a sky line rising with triangular indentations, towards the main Śikhara (Pl. I.). The towering superstructure, the Śikhara, moreover forms one monumental unit with the perpendicular walls which support it and from where it rises to the high point of its finial. A series of mouldings and recesses of the pedestal and socle (upapīṭha and adhiṣṭhāna) of the Prāsāda lead in stepped and curved, slanting profiles to its wall rich in corresponding mouldings (vedikā or ‘pābhāga’ and the crowning mouldings) whence spring the ascending curves (rekhā) of the Śikhara (Pl. XLIII); the complete Prāsāda has the form of an unbroken ascent from the base to the finial.⁸⁰ Within it and below the superstructure⁸¹ is the Garbhagṛha, the ‘womb of the house’ a small chamber, square, in the majority of preserved temples, and dark as a cave in a mountain. It is the innermost sanctuary of the Vimāna, and the entire temple.