Awesome Architecture

Awesome Architecture

The temples of Bhubaneswar, Konark, and Puri, built between the 7th and 15th centuries, bear elaborate and fascinating details; canonical texts governed their structural forms and proportions. The Orissan temple consists almost entirely of a spire that vaults upward among much-lower turrets. Supporting the tower is the cube-shape deul (shrine for the deity); next to the deul stands the jagamohan (porch), a meeting place for worshipers, usually square with a pyramidal roof. Sometimes one or two more halls—a natmandir (dancing hall) and a bhogmandir (hall of offerings)—are set in front of the porch. The architecture may seem heavy, but the sculptures on these temples are graceful, animated, often exuberantly erotic, and steeped in mythology. Most temples have a sacred tank in their yards in which worshippers bathe themselves for religious cleansing. Some temples are off-limits to non-Hindus.