Pancharatha

A Hindu temple is a pancharatha when there are five ratha (on plan) or paga (on elevation) on the tower of the temple (generally a shikhara).[1] The rathas are vertical offset projection or facets. The name comes from the sanskrit Pancha (=five) and Ratha (=chariot), but the link with the concept of chariot is not clear.

Drawing of a pancharatha building

There are also temples with three rathas (triratha), seven rathas (saptaratha) and nine rathas (navaratha).[1]

Triratha, Pancharatha and Saptaratha

Examples of pancharatha temples

Notes

  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-10-13. Retrieved 2012-10-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.