The Hindu Temple v2.c13.s1.70

v2.c13.s1.70

The Maṇḍapa originally was a separate structure, of which twenty-seven varieties are known to the ‘Viśvakarmaprakāśa’ (VI. 124-37) and the M. P. The Maṇḍapas have from 12 to 64 pillars, the plan of the Maṇḍapas is three sided, 8 or 16 sided or circular. By a slow process, Prāsāda and Maṇḍapa became united in the temples whose axial plan is bilaterally symmetrical (pp. 255-57). The central symmetry of several Maṇḍapas grouped around a Prāsāda or a cluster of Prāsādas had acquired several shapes which seem to represent the flower on the ancestral tree of the temples of the ‘Viṣṇudharmottara’.