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) v6.c37.30

v6.c37.30

The segment-shaped porch, a prototype of the site, coming out of the front portion of an eight-sided tower, is supported by a single main pillar (*grihastambha*) erected after the *Mānasāra* design, on the axis of the house. This tower, fifty feet high, supplies the grand stair hall to answer for the reception room (*rodana-griha*) on the ground floor; the semi-circular gallery at the level of the porch-roof and first floor; and the segment-shaped tower hall at the roof-level of the first floor which serves the purpose of the family chapel internally, and, externally, an octagonal dome with two slightly rounded sides. The chapel has a colonnaded balcony in the straight front side, wherefrom the Ganges waters are visible when the river is full. At the back of it is a hexagonal boudoir, with one convex side, which serves as the shed over the grand staircase, and its doors at right and left open out to the roofs of the family bedrooms and of the slightly lowered back balconies. These roofs serve as terraces to the chapel and the boudoir. The boudoir has a corresponding hexagonal parlour on the ground floor. Both these rooms jointly form five sides of the octagonal tower, which has one flat side in front and two round sides on right and left. The tower has two wings on right and left, the single-pillared porch in the shape of the site in front, the hexagonal inner courtyard¹ at the back, the single-storeyed kitchen block and guest-rooms on the two back