The Pancha (five) Rathas (chariots) named after the heroes of the Mahabharata, though
possibly not the original names are all carved from a single stone. This is the first
step in the evolution of the temple, with the artists shaping a huge rock into shrines
and chariots by chiseling a huge rock, and working from a top down process.
The first Ratha is named after Draupadi (the common wife of the five Pandav brothers,
the heroes of the Mahabharata). The square shrine has a simple peaked roof, similar to
a thatched hut, with decorated corners. This roof design was never used again in southern
Indian architecture. The next shrine is the small elegant Arjuna Rath, which, like the
Dhamaraja Rath, is a square building with distinct horizontal levels on its pyramidal roof.
This form of tower was to serve as the prototype for all later southern Indian temples.
The central shrine of this group is named Bhima Ratha and has a huge rock-cut barrel-vaulted
roof like a large thatched hut. This experiment was not accepted in subsequent centuries as
the appropriate model for the tower above the sanctum, but was used instead for the crown of
all the tall gopurams or gateways leading into the walled enclosure of the temples of southern
India.
The rathas also feature some bearutiful carvings, including one of the famous 'Ardhanariswara',
or the half man, half woman form. Also one can see huge carvings of the elephant, the lion
of Durga and Nandi, Shiva's bull.

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