GOPURA

also spelled Gopuram, in South Indian architecture, the entrance gateway to the Hindu temple enclosure. Relatively small in the earlier period, the gopuras grew in size from the mid-12th century until the colossal gateways came to dominate the temple complex, quite surpassing the main sanctum for architectural elaboration. Often a series of gopuras are to be found at a shrine, each providing entry through a new enclosure wall. Southern gopura of the Siva temple at Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India, c. AD 1248 The gopura is generally constructed with a stone base and a superstructure of brick and pilaster. It is rectangular in plan and topped by a barrel-vault roof. The exterior walls are covered with sculpture, which in the later periods is not of high quality. Among outstanding examples of gopuras are the Sundara Pandya gopura of the Jambukesvara temple at Tiruchchirappalli, Tamil Nadu state, and the successive gopuras of the Siva temple at Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu state (12th-13th century; see photograph).