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.c40.s7.14

v6.c40.s7.14

‘The view of Zimmer and others after him (*Vedic Index*, I, 538 to 540), that Vedic India knew of nothing more solid and complex than the hamlet, like the early Germans and Slavs who had no castle-structures and town-life, is an extreme one; for it is now being realized more and more as a basic fact that the Vedic Indians, like the Irānians, Hellenes, and Italians, were superimposed upon as earlier civilization. . . . Thus it becomes quite reasonable to find in *prithvī*, *ūrvī*, *śatabhuji*, *asmamayi*, or *āyasi purs*, or the massive, extensive, hundred-walled, stone-built, or iron-protected forts, the vivid descriptions of new and wonderful things the Vedic heroes actually saw; and rather forced explanations discovering in them mysteries of myths and fancies of metaphor become unnecessary.’⁴ The archaeological remains discovered at Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, and other places in Sind fully corroborate this view.