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.c39.176

v6.c39.176

From this list it is clear that under some headings more than one subject is discussed, that some subjects should better be discussed under one heading, and that the order is not logical. In fact, the number of arts as sixty-four is a fictitious one. Neither Vātsyāyana, nor all the commentators of the *Kāma-sūtra*, nor those of the *Śrīmad-bhāga-vata*, nor the author of the *Lalita-vistara* have been able to make up the number. Some of the commentators admit this.⁶ In the *Uttarādhyana-sūtra* the number given, as pointed out above, is seventy-two, which are not, however, specified. Yaśodhara declares that the sixty-four are the basic arts, which may be subdivided into five hundred and eighteen.⁷ These basic arts are classified under different groups in an unspecified text (of the *Kāma-sūtra*). Of these, twenty-four are stated to be the useful arts⁸; twenty refer to gambling, of which fifteen deal with theoretical things¹ and five with practical objects²; and sixteen are concerned with cohabitation³ and four with subsidiary matters connected with cohabitation.⁴ The last twenty are entirely private matters and are never meant for public discussion; they are too fine to be exhibited in a museum for fine arts, although indecent paintings of the sort are noticed in temples at Puri, Kanarak, Benares and elsewhere; they are stated to be practised in private.⁵