The canonical Silpa texts like Mayamata, Tantrasamuchchaya, Suprabhedagama refer to the Nagara, the Vesara, and the Dravida styles of temples. The classification is made according to the shape and the Nagara style is defined as being quadrangular all over, from the base to the shikhara.
As, however, a quadrangular ground plan is common to almost every type of building, it is difficult to regard this as the distinguishing feature of a particular style of temple. The same argument can be applied to the Dravida and the Vesara styles, stated to be of octagonal and circular ground plan respectively in the Silpa texts.
For this reason, the geographical distribution of styles given in the Silpa texts is used in defining the temples. According to the Silpasastras, the temples in North India are Nagara style while those situated between the Krishna river and Kanyakumari are Dravida.
The cruciform ground plan and the curvilinear sikhara are the identifying features of the Nagara style.
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From the seventh to the thirteenth century numerous temples were built in Orissa leading one scholar to remark that “there are more temples now in Orissa than in all the rest of Hindustan put together.” The temple city of Bhuvanesvar has hundreds of temples in various stages of preservation and can be regarded as forming the centre of this architectural activity covering almost the entire state.
As, however, the extant temples (even the early ones) show a developed form and a quite refined decorative scheme, the beginnings of Orissan architecture are not definitely known.
Three ancient temples at Bandh having sanctums, the cross-sectional plan of which is an eight pointed star, offer yet another example of Orissan temple architecture. It has been obtained by placing two squares diagonally, intersecting each other at an angle of 45 degrees.
Each angular face of the eight pointed star thus obtained is subdivided into three facets bringing into fore a beautiful arrangement of light and shade along and across the entire temple. The angles of the plan give the Gandi a corrugated look making it appear taller than it really is.
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All the temples are covered from the base to the top with elaborate carvings, the prominent motif being intricate tracery with deep shadows in the interstices thus enhancing still the effect of light and shade. A variation on this intersecting square plan is seen in a temple within the Nurpur fort where the angles of the intersections have been filled up resulting in an octagonal plan. Yet another example is the later Chalukyan and Hoysala monuments of the twelfth- thirteenth centuries which have full-fledged stellate plans describing almost a complete circle at the peripheries.
The Central Indian temple is composed of a number of elements, joined together in one axial length and resting on a substantial terrace or adhisthana. In the back is the garbhagriha or sanctum, the antarala (vestibule) connects it with the mandapa, which in turn is approached through the ardha Mandapa (frontal portico hall), the last having a tall flight of steps forming an impressive facade. The first has the shikhara, the second an ornamental pediment abutting on the shikhara, the third and the fourth have pyramidal roofs [pidha) of a slightly domical outline.
Rising in graduated heights, these structures look like the rising peaks of a mountain range converging on the highest {shikhara}. Such halls in Orissa are generally astylar, but here in Central India, pillars in the interior as well as the lateral ends support the roof.
Archirtraves of these pillars provide suitable backgrounds for elegant carvings and consequently these halls are richly ornamented as against the dull and bare interior of the Orissan halls. Furthermore, the halls in Orissa are closed, but here they are open on lateral sides with the openings between the pillars forming windows shaded by projecting eaves.
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There are seats [kakshasanas) along the sides with sloping balustrades. These charcteristics, evolving gradually, reached perfection in the temples of Khajuraho of which the Kandariya Mahadeva is the most elegant.
The source of the rivers Narmada, Mahanadi and Son, Amarkantak, is a sacred place since ancient times and contains many old temples of which three extant temples represent significant developments of the Nagara style.
The Nagara expression in Western India is seen in the temples of Rajasthan and Gujarat-Kathiawar. The development of the Nagara here is due to historical circumstances and temples in these areas display fundamental identities in conception and form. In line with Orissa and Central India, temple architecture here also started with a tri rath plan blossoming later into pancha ratha. In Gujarat Kathiawar, a unique feature appeared; a wooden ambulatory was provided around the sanctum cella.
It appears from the existing temples the Nagara conception have been known in the Himalayan regions in the north-west and in the Chotanagpur region and Bengal in the east, some rock-cut temples at Masrur (Kangra) belonging to the eighth century display Nagara characteristics.
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At Baijnath (Kangra) a group of structural temples of circa the ninth century are close to early Orissan Nagara in design, one of them having a rekha shikhara embedded at each of the four corners of the Mandapa like the Vaital Deul at Bhuvanesvara
A number of temples in Chamba are pancharatha in plan and the bigger of them have panchanga division of Bada and a shallow string course (a Rajput characteristic) around the amalaka-sila. Some Chamba temples have two superposed parasols, each resting on a frame of wood and covered by thin slabs of slate, one over the Gandi and the other over the Amalaka.
This is a necessary feature for draining off snow and is also seen in the shrines of Kedarnatha and Badrinatha. The Mahadeva temple at Bajaura in Kulu is famous for its rich decoration and the three side chapels, one on each of the three sides, projecting out of the body of the sanctum.