Editing Hindu temple architecture (section)

===Classical period (4-6th century)===
{{multiple image|perrow=2/2|total_width=400|caption_align=center
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| header=Hindu temples of the Gupta period
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| image1   = Tigowa 1999 Kankali-Devi-Tempel.jpg
| caption1 = Kankali Devi temple in [[Tigawa]], 5th century
| image4   = Deogarh01.jpg
| caption4 = Dashavatara Temple, [[Deogarh, Uttar Pradesh|Deogarh]], early 6th century
| image3   = Gupt kalin mandir bhitargaon (detail).jpg
| caption3 = Hindu temple of [[Bhitargaon]], late 5th century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Harle |first1=James C. |title=The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent |date=January 1994 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-06217-5 |page=116 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LwcBVvdqyBkC&pg=PA116 |language=en}}</ref>
| image2   = Vishnu_temple_mandapa_at_Eran,_Madhya_Pradesh.jpg
| caption2 = Vishnu temple in [[Eran]], late 5th century.
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Though there are very few remains of stone Hindu temples before the [[Gupta dynasty]] in the 5th century CE, there may be earlier structures constructed from timber-based architecture. The [[Indian rock-cut architecture|rock-cut]] [[Udayagiri Caves]] (401 CE) are among the most important early sites, built with royal sponsorship, recorded by inscriptions, and with impressive sculpture.<ref>Harle (1994), 87-100; Michell (1988), 18</ref> The earliest preserved Hindu temples are simple cell-like stone temples, some rock-cut and others structural, as at Temple 17 at [[Sanchi]].<ref name=meister254>{{cite journal |last=Meister |first=Michael W. |date=1988–1989 |title=Prāsāda as Palace: Kūṭina Origins of the Nāgara Temple |journal=Artibus Asiae |volume=49 |issue=3–4 |pages=254–256 |doi=10.2307/3250039 |jstor=3250039}}</ref> By the 6th or 7th century, these evolved into high shikhara stone superstructures. However, there is inscriptional evidence such as the ancient Gangadhara inscription from about 424 CE, states Meister, that towering temples existed before this time and these were possibly made from more perishable material. These temples have not survived.<ref name=meister254/><ref name=meister370/>

Examples of early major North Indian temples that have survived after the [[Udayagiri Caves]] in [[Madhya Pradesh]] include those at [[Tigawa]],<ref>Michell (1990), 192</ref> [[Vishnu Temple, Deogarh|Deogarh]], [[Nachna Hindu temples|Parvati Temple, Nachna]] (465),<ref name=meister370>Michael Meister (1987), Hindu Temple, in ''The Encyclopedia of Religion'', editor: Mircea Eliade, Volume 14, Macmillan, {{ISBN|0-02-909850-5}}, page 370</ref> [[Bhitargaon]], the largest Gupta brick temple to survive,<ref>Michell (1990), 157; Michell (1988), 96</ref> <!-- [[Lalitpur District, India|Lalitpur District]] (c. 525), where exactly???  --> [[Sirpur Group of Monuments#Hindu monuments|Lakshman Brick Temple, Sirpur]] (600-625 CE); [[Rajim#Rajiv Lochan Vishnu Mandir|Rajiv Lochan temple]], [[Rajim]] (7th-century).<ref name=meister280>{{cite journal |last=Meister |first=Michael W. |date=1988–1989 |title=Prāsāda as Palace: Kūṭina Origins of the Nāgara Temple |journal=Artibus Asiae |volume=49 |issue=3–4 |pages=254–280 |doi=10.2307/3250039 |jstor=3250039}}</ref>  [[Gop Temple]] in [[Gujarat]] (c. 550 or later) is an oddity, with no surviving close comparator.<ref>Harle, 136-138; Michell (1988), 90, 96-98</ref>

No pre-7th century CE South Indian free-standing stone temples have survived. Examples of early major South Indian temples that have survived, some in ruins, include the diverse styles [[Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram|at Mahabalipuram]], from the 7th and 8th centuries. According to Meister, the Mahabalipuram temples are "monolithic models of a variety of formal structures all of which already can be said to typify a developed "Dravida" (South Indian) order". They suggest a tradition and a knowledge base existed in South India by the time of the early Chalukya and Pallava era when these were built.  In the [[Deccan]], Cave 3 of the [[Badami]] cave temples was cut out in 578 CE, and Cave 1 is probably slightly earlier.<ref>Michell (1990), 349</ref> Other examples are found in [[Aihole]] and [[Pattadakal]].<ref name=meister280/><ref>Michael W. Meister and M.A. Dhaky (1983), ''South India: Lower Dravidadesa'', Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture, Vol. I, Part I, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|978-0691784021}}, pages 30-53</ref>