Vimana (architectural feature)

Vimana is the structure over the garbhagriha or inner sanctum in the Hindu temples of South India and Odisha in East India. In typical temples of Odisha using the Kalinga style of architecture, the vimana is the tallest structure of the temple, as it is in the shikhara towers of temples in West and North India. By contrast, in large South Indian temples, it is typically smaller than the great gatehouses or gopuram, which are the most immediately striking architectural elements in a temple complex. A vimana is usually shaped as a pyramid, consisting of several stories or tala. Vimana are divided in two groups: jati vimanas that have up to four tala and mukhya vimana that have five tala and more.^[1][2]

In North Indian temple architecture texts, the superstructure over the garbhagriha is called a shikhara. However, in South Indian Hindu architecture texts, the term shikhara means a dome-shaped crowning cap above the vimana.^[3]