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Home > Temples of Kerala > Namaskaara Mandapa Namaskaara MandapaBesides the sreekovil, another important structure in the akatthe-balivattam is the namaskaara-mandapa which is a detached pillared hall in front of the sreekovil and built in prathi-yoni of the garbha-grha. It can be seen only in those temples where the vigraha is installed in an elevated position than the mandapa. The namaskaara-mandapa, smaller in size than the sreekovil, is either built at a distance of one kole from the paadukappuram (adhishtaana) or from the uttharappuram. The centre of the mandapa is equi-distant from the outer side of utthara of sreekovil and inner side of utthara of the valiambalam. The adhishtaana of this mandapa also has
the components like paaduka, jagathi, kumuda, gala etc of the adhishtaana of the garbha-grha. In some cases manchaka type adhishtaana is seen, where the kumuda is absent. Decorations are also seen on the adhishtaana in exceptional cases. The namaskaara-mandapa is generally square in shape with either one set of utthara with 4 pillars or 2 sets of uttharas with 16 pillars. (ie. aarudotthara in 4 pillars and vaarotthara in 12 pillars). There are temples without any inner row of pillars, but only with a platform. Namaskaara-mandapa has pyramidal superstructure with thaazhikakkutam and decorations on the pillars and also on the ceiling. The decoration of the ceiling deserves special mention as in most cases it contains exquisite wood carvings of nava-grahas with Soorya (Sun) in the coffer or ashta-dik-paalakas with Brahma in the coffer. The details66 of the motifs of nava-grahas and ashta-dik-paalakas on the ceilings of namaskara-mandapa are as follows: In carving them the number of hands, weapons and vaahanaas are generally based on the sankalpa.
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