The two principal styles of Hindu temple architecture in India, the Nagara style of the north and the Dravidian style of the south, with a third intermediate Vesara style in the Deccan, all crystallising from the Gupta period onward.
- Nagara (northern) style: marked by a curvilinear tower (shikhara) over the sanctum, usually no boundary walls or large gateways; examples include the Khajuraho temples (Chandellas), the Sun Temple at Konark and the Lingaraja temple (Odisha or Kalinga sub-style), and Dilwara (Jain).
- Dravidian (southern) style: marked by a stepped pyramidal tower (vimana) over the sanctum and elaborate gateway towers (gopurams), enclosed within walls; examples include the Brihadeshwara temple at Thanjavur (Cholas), Mahabalipuram (Pallavas), and Madurai (Nayakas).
- Vesara (mixed) style: a Deccan blend of Nagara and Dravidian features, associated with the Chalukyas and Hoysalas (such as Belur, Halebid, and Pattadakal).
- In Dravidian temples the dome-like crowning element is the shikhara, while the whole tower is the vimana, the reverse of how the term shikhara is used in the north.
- The Pallavas (Mahabalipuram rathas and shore temple) pioneered the southern style in stone, which the Cholas later monumentalised.
The Nagara (shikhara, north) versus Dravidian (vimana and gopuram, south) versus Vesara (Deccan) distinction, and the temple-to-dynasty matching (Khajuraho-Chandellas, Thanjavur-Cholas, Mahabalipuram-Pallavas) are standard architecture facts.
In the north the tower is the shikhara; in the south the tower is the vimana and the gateway tower is the gopuram, the term shikhara meaning a different element. Khajuraho is Nagara, not Dravidian.
Nagara (shikhara, north), Dravidian (vimana and gopuram, south), Vesara (Deccan mix); Khajuraho, Thanjavur, and Mahabalipuram are the type examples.