Michael Meister’s review of my book The Temple Architecture of India brings to the fore two basic and interrelated questions about medieval Indian temples. How should one name and classify their various forms? And how were these forms conceived and designed? The review focuses largely on typology and terminology. Meister implies one general criticism: that I do not adequately follow the names suggested for shrine forms by inscriptions and texts. Here the distinction needs to be made between deciphering the intended meaning of architectural categories used in texts with no illustrations, and categorizing, through illustrations as well as words, what architecture actually shows. It is the second of these tasks that I am attempting in the book. I accept, nevertheless, that to use “authentic” names is desirable; but while this might be achievable when dealing with the architecture of a given place and time, when the discussion is more general, choices must be made. Even if the terminological “shifts and slips” could be ironed out from the texts, and the meanings of temple names be securely ascertained, textual terms should not be followed slavishly if the aim is to explain forms, because the textual categories are not always formal. Meister’s...