Gop Temple

[2][3] The original temple had a square plan, a mandapa and covered circumambulation passage which are lost, and a pyramidal masonry roof which is ruined but whose partial remains have survived.

The roof of the tower is decorated with arch-like gavaksha window shapes below an amalaka cogged wheel-shaped crown.

[4] Sankalia states that the temple belongs to the 5th century but not earlier than Uparkot caves of Junagadh based on the Kahu-Jo-Darro stupa of Mirpurkhas.

The temple has a square plan to which were added bricked double courtyards centuries later.

The temple was bigger and included a mandapa and a roofed pradakshina-patha (circumambulation passage), but most of it was damaged and has fallen away leaving a peculiar looking skeletal structure.

The walls are plain without any ornamentation and perpendicular to height till 17 feet and over it survives the pyramidal shikhara.

[4][10] The shikhara (spire) is formed by six or seven courses having beveled edges followed by square faces and at last the apex covered by single slab.

The Ram figure has high square Mukuta or head-dress while Lakshamana has low crown, long ear-rings, ringlets and holds spear in right hand.

The site also shows iconography of Shivaism, with evidence that Hindu monks lived here.

It also have similarities with temples of Kashmir in the arrangement of roof and the trefoil niches on the outside wall of the inner courtyard.

But the plinth is much higher and is made of heavy blocks of stone which is characteristic local form.

[13] The temple has chaitya-windows similar to Uparkot caves of Junagadh but they had lost their use as vedika so they must have evolved later.

The small, 23 feet tall Gop temple has a square plan.
Sketch of ruined roof (north side). The arch shaped motifs include reliefs.
Inscription on the left jamb of the door