[3] Shikharbaddh mandirs serve not only as traditional places of worship, but also hold important functions in the social and cultural spheres of Hindu life in India.
George Michell, a scholar of Indian archaeology and architecture, has observed, “The temple is the most characteristic artistic expression of Hinduism, providing a focus for both the social and spiritual life of the community it serves.”[4] Traditional shikharbaddha mandirs have also been built outside the Indian subcontinent, and function as a means for members of the Hindu diaspora to connect with and celebrate their cultural and spiritual heritage.
[5] The Shilpa Shāstras, sacred Hindu texts that prescribe the canons of traditional architecture, narrate how the structure of a shikharbaddha mandir symbolically represents the body of Purusha, or Cosmic Man.
[7] From the foundations of the mandir to the flags (dvajā) waving atop the pinnacles (shikhar), each major external feature symbolizes parts of the form of the Purusha deity, and the enshrined murtis embody the soul of the structure.
[9] Scholar Raymond Williams describes the domes and spires as serving to “remind devotees that at the sacred place of the residence of the gods, the plane between the earthly and the divine is broken.
On a typical visit to the mandir, complex devotees perform pradakshina, circumambulating around one or more of the shrines while viewing the murtis in the sacred precincts.
Some devotees remain in the mandir to hear kathā, the reading of portions of the sacred scriptures and religious discourses given by an ascetic or learned householder.
[12] The landmark ritual for any shikharbaddha mandir is the prána pratishthá, the sacred ceremony in which the murtis are consecrated and the Deity is invoked into the images.
The Somnath mandir in Gujarat is considered to be one of the twelve jyotirlinga shrines of Lord Shiva, and has a history dating as far back as the beginning of the common area.
Then, as families needed to congregate, they built hari mandirs, typically simple buildings often converted from a warehouse or something similar, and which housed simplified rituals that did not require sadhus as pujaris.
Scholar Hanna Kim explains, "The carved stone mandir, in other words, reveals in the most concrete way, the devotional commitment of satsangis to Swaminarayan teachings and their determination to direct their resources towards its realization.
As satsangis recount, this devotionally prescribed posture of service and sacrifice, as exemplified by the Guru, prompts their commitment to sponsor and build shikharbaddha mandirs in record time, ranging between sixteen months to just over two years.
The BAPS temple in Amdavad constructed an eight-story dharmashala that houses a modern medical facility on the ground floor where pilgrims can obtain a complete physical examination.