Prasat Banteay Srie 6, Siem Reap, Central Shrine

In the central of innermost sanctuary stand the three towers of temple, central shrine, northern and the southern shrine.

Figure A

Central shrine:

The 10-meter high central shrine is the only tower which has a mandapa leading to main shrine inside and has doors on the north and west as well.

A golden Shiva Linga was enshrined at the entrance giving the temple its earlier name, Tribhuwaneshwar (Lord of the three worlds)

central shrine with mandapa in front

Figure B

Entrance to Central Shrine:
Entrance to shrine (#1 in Figure B above) is through a 1 meter high door flanked by guardians in kneeling position on both sides.

entrance to mandapa

Indra, the god of rain on his white elephant, Airavat, facing east on the tympanum

Garuda top on the tower

temple guardians

central shrine with mandapa and temple guardians on north

central shrine with mandapa and temple guardians on south

North door of mandapa (#2):

The entrance to mandapa from this side has lion faced guardians.

guardians at north door to mandapa

a white mark on pediment obstructed the illustration.  Moreover, the distance was too much for my

mobile camera to take a good picture.

South door of mandapa (#3):
South entrance is guarded by monkey face guardians.

south door of mandapa

The pediment on southern door of mandapa has Rahu with head missing devouring an elephant or is it Shiva devouring Kaal.

West facade of central shrine(#4):

I couldn't avoid the lens flare :(

Only the west false door of this shrine has guardians outside. The other towers have guardians only in the east direction.

Pediment has Varuna on geese, the lintel which is too small depicts a scene from Ramayana where Sita is being abducted by Ravana.
My pictures were too bad to be put so I have taken it from two sites.

Pediment has Varuna on a lotus. The lintel which is too small depicts a scene from Ramayana where Sita is being abducted by Ravana.

Varuna 

The picture above illustrates a scene from Ramayana where Ravana, the King of Lanka abducts Sita, the wife of Rama which later leads to a battle between Rama and Ravana.

There are two shrines on both sides of central shrine. In my next post, I shall write about the two adjacent shrines.