Bhumija

Bhumija is a variety of north Indian temple architecture marked by how the rotating square-circle principle is applied to construct the shikhara (superstructure or spire) on top of the sanctum.

Invented about the 10th-century in the Malwa region of central India (west Madhya Pradesh and southeast Rajasthan) during the Paramara dynasty rule, it is found in Hindu and Jain temples.

The latter approach gives Bhumija sub-category of the Nagara architecture, and when integrated with the jagati (platform) or the pitha (ground), it makes the temple appear as if it is emerging out of the earth.

[3] In the 1980s after his travels in remote eastern parts of Madhya Pradesh, Donald Stadtner – a scholar of Buddhist and Hindu Art history, published examples of proto-Bhumija temples from the 7th to 8th-century CE.

[7] The earliest known example of the Bhumija style are the ruins of a Hindu temples group south of the Narmada river, at village Un between Segaon and Khargone.

[1] The 11th-century Nilakanthesvara (Udayesvara) temple in Udaypur, Madhya Pradesh (north of Bhopal) is the best preserved and finest illustration of the Bhumija style.

[3] Other examples: The Bhumija architecture was deployed by Hindu artisans and Jain financiers to build zinc smelting operations in Zawar (Jawar, Javar), Rajasthan.

However, these were not entirely secular structure because these pre-17th century zinc production operations integrated a Shiva (Bhairava) temple in the center, which were then surrounded by many condensation towers with bhumija architecture.

The wealth created by the zinc operations in Zawar helped Jains build Jaina and Vaishnava temples nearby, many with bhumija architecture.