Temple Architecture in India and the Importance of the Deogarh Temple

A student of temple architecture in India is often bewildered to understand that even as the origin of Indian civilisation dates back to almost 5000 years, the history of Hindu temples is perhaps not that ancient. Not much is still authoritatively known about temple building activities during the Indus-Sarasvati culture, though fire altars have been found in abundance at several sites probably indicating the presence of Vedic sacrifices in the civilisation.  Going through ancient scriptures, one also learns that temple building may not have been in vogue during the Vedic age and were gradually conceived as one does find references to Temples as Abode of Gods i.e. “devayatan” in the Mahabharat and subsequent literature. Still, it emerges that at the time when Greece and Rome had started building temples for their Gods,  the Buddhists in India had started with the erection of Stupas and other religious structures, while the majority of then Hindus of India were probably still either practising fire worship or worshipping in temples constructed out of wooden or mud-brick materials which have not survived. Idol worship in India was majorly introduced as a result of the Buddhist traditions of the Mahayana school which started making physical images of the Buddha to convey a sense of devotion in the mind of the worshipper.