The Hindu temple tower is a fractal built in stone. Each tier contains smaller versions of the whole tower. Each ornament is itself a small temple. Heaven and earth made one structure.
The Hindu temple tower — the Shikara in North Indian tradition, the Vimana in South Indian — is a cosmological diagram. The tower represents Mount Meru, the mythical mountain at the centre of the Hindu cosmos. To enter a Hindu temple is to enter the cosmos.
What makes the Shikara a fractal is its self-similar structure. The full tower is composed of tiers. Each tier is a smaller version of the full tower. The ornamental carvings are tiny shikaras — complete temple forms reduced to the scale of a hand.
The Shikara's fractal geometry is governed by the taper ratio — the factor by which each successive tier reduces in width. In the great temples of Khajuraho, this ratio approaches the golden proportion. But the tower does not taper to a point. It ends in the griva, a straight neck, crowned by the amalaka — a ribbed disc marking the boundary between temple and sky — and finally the kalasha, the pot-shaped finial that completes the mountain.
A unique Shikara generated now. Increase levels to build taller towers. Adjust ratha projection to control how far the ribs push out from the tower's silhouette. Zoom in to see miniature temples within each tier — the fractal reveals itself.
Your Shikara was generated at this moment from a unique seed. Download the image and share it wherever you like.
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