Question

2. What is a shikhara?
3. What is pietra-dura?​

Answer 1

Answer:

Shikhara, (Sanskrit: “mountain peak”) also spelled shikara, also called shikar, in North Indian temple architecture, the superstructure, tower, or spire above the sanctuary and also above the pillared mandapas (porches or halls); it is the most dominant and characteristic feature of the Hindu temple in the north.

2. Pietra dura, (Italian: “hard stone”), in mosaic, any of several kinds of hard stone used in commesso mosaic work, an art that flourished in Florence particularly in the late 16th and 17th centuries and involved the fashioning of highly illusionistic pictures out of cut-to-shape pieces of coloured stone.

Answer 2

2.Shikhara, (Sanskrit: “mountain peak”) also spelled shikara, also called shikar, in North Indian temple architecture, the superstructure, tower, or spire above the sanctuary and also above the pillared mandapas (porches or halls); it is the most dominant and characteristic feature of the Hindu temple in the north.

3. Pietra dura is the coloured hard stones placed in depressions carved into marble or sandstone, creating the beautiful ornate patterns.