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.s20.178

v1.c6.s20.178

Nāgara is the name of a script also, mostly prevailing in Northern India. There lives a powerful tribe called Nāgara, in the mountainous tract of Kabul in Afghanistan. Nāgara is the designation of a sect of Brahmins also who, it is held, came over from some part in Northern India and settled down in Gujrat at a place known as Nāgarānandapura. From these Nāgara Brāhmans, it is said, came the use of the Nāgarī alphabet. A portion (part VI) of the Skanda-Purāṇa bears the name Nāgara-khaṇḍa. From this instance, it would appear that the expression Nāgara is at least as old as the Nāgara-khaṇḍa incorporated into the Skanda-Purāṇa which was, according to a general concensus, composed in honour of, or, at least, named after Skandagupta (455-480 A. D.), the seventh Emperor of the early Gupta dynasty.