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.s8.2

v6.c40.s8.2

These altars could be constructed in different shapes, the earliest enumeration of which is found in the *Taittirīya-Saṁhitā*.¹ Following this enumeration,² Baudhāyana and Āpastamba furnish us with full particulars about the shape of all these different *chitis* (altars) and the bricks which were employed for their construction. Everyone of these altars was constructed of five layers of bricks, which together came up to the height of the knee; in some cases ten or fifteen layers, and proportionate increase in the height of the altar, were prescribed. Every layer in its turn was to consist of two hundred bricks, so that the whole *agni* (altar) contained a thousand; the first, third, and fifth layers were divided into two hundred parts in exactly the same manner; a different division was adopted for the second and the fourth, so that one brick was never laid upon another of the same size and form.