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.c39.187

v6.c39.187

Lastly, none of these arts can be properly cultivated by a person, community, or nation who is not endowed with a sense of beauty and youth. In this matter age is no sure test of youth. The Great Buddha could renounce the world while yet a young man and in the midst of worldly prosperity because he had grown oldish in heart and had no interest for youth and beauty. Almost at the same age Chaitanya also renounced the world, but he was never deprived of a sense of beauty and youth, and the result has been the origin of *Saṅkīrtana*, a kind of very exciting mass music, as well as the establishment of *Nava-dvīpa*, and later *Vaishṇavism*, where many of the erotic arts developed under different garbs with a tinge of religion. On the other hand, poets like Rabindranath and others write highly erotic poems and love stories in their sixties and seventies. because, in spite of their age, they have kept alive an interest for beauty and youth in their heart. In fact, beauty and youth need not always be dependent upon a well-proportioned figure or any particular complexion or upon a particular age.