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.c16.315

v2.c16.315

When was there such an empire existing in India embracing the Nāgara, the Drāviḍa, and the Vesara portions all within itself? It is true perhaps that even in the time of Manu tracts of the country south of Vindhyas were known to the Aryans, and truer still that in the time of king Aśoka, who partially conquered a portion of what we are now describing as Vesara and Drāviḍa, there was a friendly intercourse subsisting between the north and the south. But the south was south still, and did not come to be considered as forming, along with the north, part of one and the same whole. The idea of such an empire as would include whole India from the Himalayas to the cape Comorin, from Gujarat to Bengal, had not yet grown up. It was still to come, and arrived much later when all the different parts came to be united under one hand. This leads us to consider next the course of development of such an empire, the story of which as a matter of fact is the story of the gradual spread of the Aryan influence and power from Aryāvarta or Northern India southwards.