The Hindu Temple v2.c11.s8.6

v2.c11.s8.6

The Nāgara temple is the most widely represented shape of the Hindu temple, in time and place. The Āmalaka is the crown above the Śikhara; it is at the same time a ring around the emerged part of the internal and invisible pillar of the temple, a capital of the ‘Veṇu’ of which the truncated body of the Śikhara is a sheath (veṇu-kośa).¹⁶⁵ It is the highest part of the Śikhara; separated from its truncated body, it is the base on which rises the finial. Its function and meaning are two-fold; it is the crown of the superstructure, the sheath, and a cogged ring around the internal pillar of the temple. As crown it is the loadstone which locks together the pile of the Śikhara; as ringstone or capital it rises above it and is the final clasp of the neck of the pillar itself invisible and having for its sheath the truncated body of the Śikhara.¹⁶⁶