Manasara Series (I. A Dictionary of Hindu Architecture; II. Indian Architecture according to Manasara-Shilpashastra; III. Manasara on Architecture and Sculpture: Sanskrit Text; IV. Architecture of Manasara: Translation; V. Architecture of Manasara: Illustrations; VI. Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad; VII. An Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture) v1.c6.s17.192

v1.c6.s17.192

thoughts of the ancient architects. Experience, imitation and a sort of mechanical intuition seem to have been their guides. They appear to have preferred positive solidity to nice balance and the examples they have left are rather the result of art than of science. Vitruvius, who speaks of all the ingredients necessary to form a perfect architect (see under Sthapati), does not allude to the assistance which may be afforded in the construction of edifices by a knowledge of the resolution of forces nor of the aid that may be derived from the study of such a science as descriptive geometry, though of the latter it seems scarcely possible the ancients could have been ignorant, seeing how much it must have been (practically, at least) employed in the construction of such vast buildings as the Coliseum, and other similarly curved structures, as respects their plan.”