The shared structural vocabulary of the Hindu temple and the features that distinguish the three regional styles, the northern Nagara, the southern Dravida, and the hybrid Vesara of the Deccan.
- Common parts: garbhagriha (sanctum holding the deity), mandapa (pillared hall), antarala (vestibule linking the two), and the pradakshina path (circumambulation).
- The superstructure differs by style: shikhara is the curvilinear tower over the sanctum in the Nagara style; vimana is the pyramidal storeyed tower in the Dravida style, topped by a dome-like shikhara (called the kalasha at the very top).
- Dravida temples sit inside a walled enclosure with monumental gateways called gopurams, often taller than the central vimana in later periods; tank and pillared mandapas are common.
- Nagara temples usually have no boundary wall or gateway and stand on a raised platform (jagati); sub-types include the rekha-prasada, the phamsana and the valabhi.
- Vesara: a mixed (hybrid) Deccan style combining a Nagara-like tower form with a Dravida ground plan, seen in Chalukya and Hoysala temples.
- Crowning members: amalaka (notched ribbed disc) and kalasha sit atop the Nagara shikhara.
Matching the term to the style (shikhara-Nagara, vimana and gopuram-Dravida, hybrid-Vesara) and identifying parts like garbhagriha, mandapa, amalaka and gopuram are standard art-history points.
Shikhara means different things by region: in the north it is the whole curving tower, but in the south the word shikhara refers only to the crowning element of the vimana; the gopuram is the gateway tower, not the sanctum tower.
Garbhagriha and mandapa are common; Nagara has a curving shikhara, Dravida a pyramidal vimana with gopuram gateways, Vesara is the Deccan hybrid.