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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

With the help of representative examples, delineate the main differences between the Nagara and Dravida styles of temple architecture.

  • UPSC 2022
  • Themes in Early Indian Cultural History

Once the freestanding Hindu temple emerged in the Gupta period, its subsequent elaboration split along regional lines into two principal idioms formalized in later shilpa-shastra texts: the Nagara style of North and Central India and the Dravida style of the Tamil south, with a hybrid Vesara tradition developing in the Deccan between them. The two…

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What the full answer covers

  • Superstructure: Curvilinear Shikhara versus Stepped Pyramidal Vimana
  • Sanctum and Assembly Hall Arrangement
  • Gateway Convention: The Gopuram
  • Enclosure, Water Tanks, and Overall Complex Layout
  • Ornamentation, Iconographic Convention, and Material
  • Representative Examples Set Side by Side

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