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) v2.c13.s2.18

v2.c13.s2.18

The Purāṇas generally deal with the subject of architecture in more detail than the classes of literature referred to above. Casual references like those given above from the preceding classes of literature are frequently met with in all the nineteen great Purāṇas.¹ Some nine Purāṇas have, however, treated the subject more systematically, and have materially contributed to the later Śilpa-śāstras themselves. The *Matsya-Purāṇa*, for instance, has eight comprehensive chapters dealing in great detail with architecture and sculpture.² In one of these chapters accounts are given of eighteen ancient architects.³ One chapter is devoted to the column which is the regulator of the whole composition of a building.⁴ Columns are divided into five classes, as in the western system, and their component parts into eight mouldings exactly like those of the Græco-Roman orders.⁵ Buildings are described in two chapters together with their architectural details, such as plans, measures, classifications, pavilions, halls, storeys, steeples, and cupolas.⁶ Some of the building materials are also discussed in a separate chapter.⁷ The remaining three chapters are devoted exclusively to sculpture.⁸ One of these deals with a very technical subject, namely, the *tālamāna* or proportionate measures of an image⁹; and in the other two the images of the Phallus and its Pedestal are described.