Chapter 4 - Prāsāda styles (B): Drāviḍa

As the Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra belongs to the Viśvakarmā school of Vāstu-vidyā as handed down from Brahmā, the Creator of Universe, and as the style which originates in this school is the Nāgara style—the standard style and the perfect style of universal value and recognition and having its sway not only all over the North but also in the South, a detailed discussion was necessary in this study of the Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra, but as regards the Drāviḍa, the paucity of space forbids me to go beyond a few pages. Temples, characteristic of this style have been treated in two chapters in the Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra (vide Chapters 61 and 62). The main topic of both these chapters (sec Summary also) are the five-fold Pīṭhas and the same number of the Talacchandas characteristic of the evolution of the Drāviḍa temples by this time of the Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra, together with the twelve classes of Drāviḍa Prāsādas having one to twelve storeys.

We have already taken notice of the criterion of the shape as the distinguishing feature of the three styles—Nāgara, Drāviḍa and Vesara (vide Dr. Acharya, Ency. H.A.). From the perusal of the contents of the S.S (already referred to) and other Śilpa texts mostly those belonging to the South Indian group, however, it follows, that if one were to verify the texts with reference to the existing monuments, the Dravidian temples are not hexagonal or octagonal in ground plan. This supports our contention made before and Mr. Sarswati (Indian Culture VIII. 188) also views it in the same way. The descriptions of the Drāviḍa temples according to him are “too meagre altogether to fit the facts”.

Thus if we evaluate the Dravidian temples in the following account, it would not be going far from the truth. The main characteristics of the Dravidian temples are the square temples surmounted by a Śikhara which arc divided into compartments like storeys, on the top of which are two kinds of crowning pieces, one like that on the ‘Shore’ temple at Mamallapura [Mamallapuram], and the other like the one in Gaṇeśa Ratha of that place. All the manuals on Vāstu-śāstra especially those belonging to the Maya school or Drāviḍa school, describe temple divisions on the basis of the storeys in the Śikharas which might be twelve in number or upto seventeen (cf. Śilparatna), The crowning piece is called the ‘Stūpī’ with the Kalaśa. And one of the most representative Northern texts, the Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra, knew these real characteristics of the Southern or Dravidian temples. As stated above, this work most curiously, at the very outset, says that the Dravidian temples may consist of storeys upto 12 in number and then these temples are classified according to their number of storeys. The Samarāṅgaṇa in this respect exactly follows the tradition of the Southern texts.

Another point to be noted in relation to these Dravidiān temples is that all the Northern texts describe the crowning piece of the temples as an Āmalaka or Āmalasāra. The South Indian texts with the exception of Kāmikāgama and perhaps also Mayamata [Mayamatam] never refer to the Āmalaka but always to the ‘Stūpī’. These are the two quite distinctive features of the Northern and the Southern styles or orders of the Indian temples.