File:10th-century shikhara, half plan section, Nilakantha Mahadeva Hindu temple, Sunak Gujarat India.jpg

English: Sunak (also called Sonak) is a village about 8 kilometers west of Unjha town in Gujarat, and close to State Highway 130. It is southwest of Siddhapur. Sunak has a 10th-century Nilkantha Mahadeva temple, which though ruined and mutilated, preserves the original Hindu Nagara temple structural and architectural elements.

• The Sunak Mahadeva temple architecture shows many of the key architectural elements of Hindu northern style architecture.
• The word shikhara means "mountain peak" in Sanskrit. It is also the term for the superstructure spire above the sanctum in North Indian temple architecture. Shkhara are also built above major mandapa and smaller shrines at temple complexes. They are like landmarks and distant markers, visible from far to pilgrims walking towards it.
• Several inscriptions are found at the Nilkantha Mahadeva temple, but these are all from centuries after the 15th-century. This temple and its location near water tank is mentioned in an inscription found at another Hindu temple about 20 kilometers away from Sunak, thereby helping it date to the 10th-century or before. Additionally, a copper plate inscription of 11th-century also mentions this temple confirming its significance to the regional Hindu community. However, given the architectural features, it is likely from the 10th-century or about 100 years before the Modhera Sun temple of Gujarat.
• The temple consists of an entrance porch, an open hall or mandapa and it faces the east. *The roof of the mandapa is supported by 16 columns with 12 forming a square, remaining flanking the north and south sides. The mandapa pillars are spaciously arranged as to let devotees gather and sit for religious ceremonies.
• The temple's dome is intricately carved with dedicated space for twelve devatas, of which only six mutilated Shaiva devatas art-work survive: Kali in the north, Nataraja in west, Bhairava in south being the major ones.
• The above half plan drawing shows the symmetry cherished by 10th-century architects and artisans in Hindu temple design. The square and circle principle of Hindu architecture repeats like fractals.
• Location: 23°48'10.6" N, 72°19'06.4" E

Sunak area has many historic temples, all of them in mutilated and ruined form, some due to natural erosion and mostly from destruction during religious wars and vandalism after the 13th-century.

The Nilakantha Mahadeva temple is one of the nationally protected monuments of India, managed by Archaeological Survey of India (N-GJ-165).

This artwork is based on the photographs and sectional drawings of Henry Cousens published in 2D form in 1885 and 1903 (See e.g. The Architectural Antiquities of Northern Gujarat, Jas Burgess and Henry Cousens (1903), Archaeological Survey of Western India Volume IX, Plates LXXXI to LXXXVI). Thus wikimedia commons PD-Art guidelines apply. Any rights I have as a photographer and creative artist, I herewith donate to the public domain through wikimedia commons (the free CC0 license).