Shikhara

A shikhara over the garbhagriha chamber where the presiding deity is enshrined is the most prominent and visible part of a Hindu temple of North India.

In the south, shikhara is a term for the top stage of the vimana only, which is usually a dome capped with a finial;[3] this article is concerned with the northern form.

[11] Ernest Havell traced the origin of shikhara to Ancient Mesopotamia and referred to the royal fortress palaces of similar forms depicted in the stele of Naram-Sin.

[14] A plaque from Kumrahar dated 150-200 CE, based on its dated Kharoshthi inscriptions and combined finds of Huvishka coins, already shows the Mahabodhi Temple in its current shape with a stepped truncated pyramid and a stupa finial on top, together with devotional images of the Buddha and the elephant-crowned Pillar of Ashoka next to the entrance.

[11][16] By at least 600 CE in Odisha,[17] and perhaps somewhat later in the Deccan Plateau and West India,[18] the Latina form of the shikhara is well-established, with an amalaka disk-stone at the top, and then a kalasha urn.