These three schools have given rise to about forty-five basic varieties of

temples types. They too have their many variations ; and thus the styles
of temple architecture in India are quite diverse and virtually unlimited .

Among the many traditions inherited (parampara) in India, the tradition

of Vishwakarma is unique. The mode of transmission of knowledge of
this community is both oral and practical; and its theories construct a
holistic universe of thought and understanding. The rigor and discipline
required to create objects that defy time and persist beyond generations
of artists, has imbued this tradition with tremendous sense of purpose,
and zeal to maintain the purity and sensitivity of its traditions; and to
carry it forward . This has enabled them to protect the purity of the art
and skills without falling prey to the market and its dynamics.

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It is virtually impossible to state when the custom of building stylized
temples took hold in our country.

The Rig Veda is centered on home and worship at home.There is not

much emphasis on temple worship. The term employed in Grihya
sutras(Ashvalayana -1.12.1; and parashara -3.11.10) to denote a temple
was Chaithya , which literally means, piling up ; as piling up of the fire
alter , agni_chiti from bricks (as in agni-chayana).This perhaps
suggests that chaitya implied piling up bricks to form a shrine. This is
consistent with the view that the earliest temples were relatively simple
piled brick structures.

The use of the term Chaithya to denote a place of worship appears to

have been in vogue for quite a long period after the Vedic age . In
Mahabharata, the Rishi Lomaharsha mentions to Yudhistira that the
tirtha on the Archika hill is a place where there are chaithyas for the 33
gods (MBh 3.125).He also advises Pandavas to visit the Chaithyas on the
banks of the Narmada (MBh 3.121).

Mahabharata often refers to Chaithyas as being close to Yupas

(chaithyupa nikata bhumi); Yupa being the spot where a major yajna was
performed. It is possible that small shrines were erected on the Yupa
site to commemorate the Yajna.

Ramayana too mentions that Meghanada, the son of Ravana, tried to

perform a Yajna in a temple located in the Nikhumba grove.

Zarathustra demands from Ahur Mazda Tell me,] can I uproot the idol
from this assembly that set up by the angras and the karpanas? At
another time, the Emperor Xerxes, a follower of Zarathustra declares I
destroyed this temple of daevas.

The Buddhist and Jain texts mention of a certain chaithya of Devi Shasti,
consort of Kumara, at Vishala. Jain texts, in particular, mention the
chaithyas of Skanda in Savasthi; of Shulapani (Rudra) and of Yakshini
Purnabhadra.

Therefore by about six hundred BC, the chiathyas were quite common.
They were perhaps small -sized constructions (usually of brick)
surrounded by groves of ashvattha or audumbara trees.

The Maurya period described in the Artha-shastra, had chaithyas for a

number of Devis and Devas, such as Indra, kumara, Rudra, and Aparajita
etc. A description of the chaitya of goddess kaumari suggests that it had
multiple Avaranas, one enclosing the other and the outer Avarana
having a circular arch. By the time of the Mauryas, the chaithyas
appeared to have steadily gained importance, and become an integral
aspect of city life. However, there is nothing to suggest that they were
large structures like the classical Hindu temples that were to follow later.

By about first century BC , the Buddhist places of congregation either as

caves carved into rocks or as free standing structures , came to be
known as Chaithya_grihas. These were patterned after the shrines of
Vishnu, with the form of the fire altar being placed on the raised platform
in the apse of the chaithya hall. The term chaithya later came to
increasingly associated with the Buddhist stupas or places of worship.

It was perhaps during the period of the Imperial Guptas that a Hindu
temple came to be regularly addressed as Devalaya, the abode of Gods.
The oldest of the surviving structural shrines date back to the third or
even fourth century A.D .They are made of bricks.

Some of the them might perhaps been temporary structures, erected on

occasions of community-worship. The canonical concept of pavilion
(mantapa) suggests that they might have been pavilions to
accommodate those who gathered to participate in the worship ritual. It
is only later that structures tended to be permanent bigger.

The earliest temples in north and central India which have survived the
vagaries of time belong to the Gupta period, 320-650 A. D. ; such as the
temples at Sanchi, Tigawa (near Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh), Bhumara
(in Madhya Pradesh), Nachna (Rajasthan) and Deogarh (near Jhansi,
Uttar Pradesh).They consist of a square, dark sanctum with a small,
pillared porch in front, both covered with flat roofs. The brick temple at
Bhitargaon ; and the Vishnu temple at Deogarh, built entirely of stone ,
both , have a square sanctum, but instead of a flat roof there is a
pyramidal superstructure (sikhara).