Book excerpt: While travelling in India, one invariably comes across a number of temples of varied antiquity, size and religious importance. No matter which city you visit, a prominent temple will always be part of your visit. In some places it is the temples that have brought the cities to prominence. The Indian subcontinent is dotted with pilgrim destinations associated with all the major religions of the world. No wonder, the country has always been known as 'harmashetra', or the sacred land. The construction of places of worship has been an eternal quest of the humanity. India is perhaps the only place in the world, where the evolution of the temple is documented in a span as wide as two thousand years.