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.c16.165

v2.c16.165

The ground plans are treated under twenty-four schemes in the *Mānasāra*. Of these, descriptions in detail are given of the eighth and the ninth schemes which consist respectively of sixty-four and eighty-one squares. In the *Mānasāra* it is stated, by way of explanation, that these two plans were much in use. Varāhamihira also has described only these two plans. In the *Brihat-saṁhitā* there is not the slightest reference to the other twenty-two schemes. As is usual with him, Varāhamihira has changed the names or location of the squares here and there. Another striking point of similarity is that only the square plans are described in both the treatises, although in the *Mānasāra* five shapes or forms are given to the buildings. Varāhamihira also has referred to the round type of buildings. Corresponding to these shapes there should be the ground plans also. But these are unexpectedly missing in the *Mānasāra* and also in the *Brihat-saṁhitā*. But the details of round or circular plans and also of triangular plans, both consisting of eighty-one squares, have been quoted from a mythical Bharata-muni by Bhaṭṭotpala, a commentator of the *Brihat-saṁhitā*. So in matter of such a striking omission also Varāhamihira seems to have faithfully followed the *Mānasāra*, *Garga*, or whatever else his sources might have been.