Thread by @History_Mystery

Masrur Temples, are an early 8th-century complex of rock-cut Hindu temples in the Kangra Valley, Himachal Pradesh. The temples face northeast, towards the Dhauladhar range of the Himalayas.

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#MasrurTemples were carved out of monolithic rock with a shikhara & provided with a sacred pool of water as recommended by Hindu texts on temple architecture. The temple has three entrances on its northeast, southeast and northwest side, two of which are incomplete.

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The entire complex is symmetrically laid out on a square grid, where the main temple is surrounded by smaller temples in a mandala pattern. The main sanctum of the temples complex has a square plan, as do other shrines and the mandapa.

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The #MasrurTemple complex was carved out of natural sandstone rock. In some places, the rock is naturally very hard, which would have been difficult to carve, but is also the reason why the intricate carvings on it have preserved for over 1,000 years.

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The ceiling of various mandapa and the sanctum inside the temple are fully carved, predominantly with open lotus. However, the inside walls remained incomplete.

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All spires in the #MasrurTemples are of Nagara style, an architecture that was developed and refined in central India in the centuries before the 8th-century. More specifically, these are what Indian texts called the latina sub-style, from lata.

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📷: One of the spires with lintel carvings.

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