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=== Varahamihira's Brihat Samhita (वराहमिहिरस्य बृहत संहिता ) ===

=== Varahamihira's Brihat Samhita (वराहमिहिरस्य बृहत संहिता ) ===

Varahamihira 's Brihat Samhita is the oldest available text which includes details about the construction of temples in its fifty-sixth adhyaya titled Prasadalakshanadhyayah. and is approximately dated to the 5th-6th centuries CE.  Varahamihira states in the opening shloka of this adhyaya that after one constructs water tanks (salila) and lays out gardens (arama) one must undertake the task of building a temple to augment one 's own glory and religious merit.  (Brihat Samhita 56.1). A person who aspires to attain the lokas through Ishta and Purta Dharmas must engage himself in the erection of temples so that he may procure the merits of both (Brihat Samhita 56.2). Varahamihira lays down that the site of the proposed temple must be divided into sixty-four squares and its middle door must be located in one of the cardinal quarters (Brihat Samhita 56.10). Succeeding shlokas of the text furnish details about the various constituent parts of the temple. {{StubArticle}}

Varahamihira 's Brihat Samhita is the oldest available text which includes details about the construction of temples in its fifty-sixth adhyaya titled Prasadalakshanadhyayah. and is approximately dated to the 5th-6th centuries CE.  Varahamihira states in the opening shloka of this adhyaya that after one constructs water tanks (salila) and lays out gardens (arama) one must undertake the task of building a temple to augment one 's own glory and religious merit.  (Brihat Samhita 56.1). A person who aspires to attain the lokas through Ishta and Purta Dharmas must engage himself in the erection of temples so that he may procure the merits of both (Brihat Samhita 56.2). Varahamihira lays down that the site of the proposed temple must be divided into sixty-four squares and its middle door must be located in one of the cardinal quarters (Brihat Samhita 56.10). Succeeding shlokas of the text furnish details about the dimensions of the various constituent parts of the temple and their relative proportions. The text also recommends that temple doors must have three, five, seven and nine frames and these numbers confer auspiciousness. The text further lays down that two door keepers must be carved near the door and their size must be 1/4th of the door post.The remaining space must be adorned with auspicious birds, Bilva trees, Svastikas, pitchers, couples, leaves, creepers and flowers and Bhagavan Shiva 's ganas. Many of these motifs are clearly visible in temples from the Gupta Period onward. These motifs can also be seen in rock-cut cave temples dating to the same period (the Gupta Period falls approximately between the 4th c. CE to the 6th c. CE) (Brihat Samhita 56.11-16). The Brihat Samhita presents an inventory of twenty different kinds of temple structures. These twenty types of temples differ from each other in regard to dimensions, arrangements and plan. Their classification is based on number of storeys  and shikharas, divergent dimensions and plan and position of doors etc.   {{StubArticle}}