Shikhara (Sanskrit: शिखर, IAST: Śikhara) is a Sanskrit word that literally translates to "mountain peak". In Hindu temple architecture of North India, it refers to the rising tower that crowns the temple, and the term is also frequently applied to towers on Jain temples. The shikhara rising above the garbhagriha, the sanctum chamber in which the presiding deity is enshrined, is generally the most prominent and visible part of a North Indian Hindu temple.
In South India, the equivalent structure is termed the vimana. Unlike the shikhara, the vimana refers to the whole building, including the sanctum beneath. In the southern tradition, the word shikhara is reserved for the topmost stage of the vimana alone, which is typically a dome capped with a finial. The southern vimana should not be confused with the gopuram, the elaborate gateway-tower of south Indian temples, which is often taller and more visually prominent than the vimana itself in large temple complexes.
The shikhara is thus a defining stylistic feature distinguishing the Nagara temple architecture of the north from the Dravida tradition of the south. It has also been suggested that stylistic aspects of Buddhist architecture, such as elements seen on the stupa, may have been influenced by the shikhara form, a stylistic element which in some regions is held to have evolved into the pagoda.