shikhara
शिखर shikharaThe tower over a temple sanctum; in Nagara (North Indian) style the whole curvilinear tower, in Dravida style only its domed crown.
Where this term appears
- Nagara, Dravida and Vesara: The Styles of the Hindu Temple Temples
…e sanctum, and over that sanctum rises a curvilinear spire called the shikhara (literally "mountain peak," the whole tower in northern usage).
- The Vastu-Purusha-Mandala: The Plan Behind the Temple Temples
Above it rises the shikhara , the temple's tower, whose name means "peak" or "mountain-summit." The tower stands for the cosmic mountain, Meru , the axis of the world.
- What is a Hindu Temple? Temples
In the Nagara style of the north, the shikhara is the whole curvilinear tower, the mountain of stone that climbs and curves toward a point.
- Anatomy of a Hindu Temple: Gopuram to Garbhagriha Temples
In the north, the tower over the sanctum is the shikhara , a word that means "peak".
- Kamakhya: The Temple of the Goddess Temples
The craftsmen first tried to raise a stone shikhara , the conventional tower of a North Indian temple, and the attempt failed.
- The Circle Open to the Sky Treatise
It has no towering shikhara , no dark inner sanctum you walk toward; instead you step through a low door into an open court, and around the inside of the circular wall, in a ring of niches facing inward, stand …