Which were the three main traditional styles of temple architecture in India?

Two broad orders of temples in the country are known

• Nagara styles of temple architecture in North India.
• Dravida styles of temple architecture in South India.
• The Vesara style of temples as an independent style created through the selective mixing of the Nagara and Dravida orders is mentioned by some scholars.
• Hence Nagara, Vesara and Dravida is the correct answer.

Additional Information

• The basic form of the Hindu temple comprises the following:
• A cave-like sanctum (Garbhagriha literally ‘womb house), which, in the early temples, was a small cubicle with a single entrance and grew into a larger chamber in time.
• The Garbhagriha is made to house the main icon which is itself the focus of much ritual attention.
• The entrance to the temple may be a portico or colonnaded hall that incorporates space for a large number of worshippers and is known as a Mandapa.
• From the fifth century CE onwards, freestanding temples tend to have a mountainlike spire, which can take the shape of a curving Shikhar in North India, and a pyramidal tower, called a vimana, in South India.
• At the top of the temple, Kalasha or Sikhara has been placed.
• The Vahan, i.e., the mount or vehicle of the temple’s main deity along with a standard pillar or Ahvaz is placed axially before the sanctum.