The next phase in the history of Indian temple architecture is connected with the development of distinctive styles of which three are recognised in the canonical shilpa texts.
They are the Nagara, the Vesara and the Dravida. The temple style prevalent in the region between the Himalayas and the Vindhyas has been described as the Nagara in the available Shilpa texts.
With reference to the Nagara, the texts unanimously describe it as being quadrangular all over i.e. from the base to the stupi (top). This, however, has been rejected as a distinctive feature. The octagonal and circular shapes, prescribed respectively for the Dravida and Vesara styles, are also considered as inadequate distinguishing marks.
A study of the extant temples belonging to the Nagara style reveals two distinctive features, one in planning and the other in elevation. In respect of the first, a north Indian temple always shows a square ground plan with a number of graduated projections in the middle of each side thus leading to the shape of a cruciform on the exterior with a number of projecting and re-entrant angles.
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In elevation, it has as a superstructure a tower (shikhara), which gradually inclines inwards in a convex curve and is capped by a flat spheroid slab with ribs round the edge (amalaka-shila). A prominent feature of such a temple is supplied by the vigorous and unbroken linear ascent of the tower on account of which it is also known in some regions as the rekha shikhara.
The projections on each face of the square plan, leaves out a small portion at either end or a number of projecting angles (asras) and vertical planes are thus formed. The latter are known as the rathakas in Sanskrit and as rathas in the Orissan shilpa texts. The Kamikagama and the Mayamata describe a Nagara temple both as chaturasra (quadrangular) and ayatasra (angle-protected).
The cruciform ground plan and the curvilinear shikhara thus constitute the fundamental characteristics of a Nagara temple, of which the simplest arch-type may be recognised in a group of shrines of the 6th century AD, namely Dashavatara temple at Deogarh and the brick temple at Bhitargaon. With its origins and antecedents in the Gupta period, the Nagara temple style emerged in its typical form and characteristics by the seventh-eighth century AD.