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.c41.s25.46

v6.c41.s25.46

Of the more recent advocates of the Persian theory, Sir John Marshall is stated by Dr. Spooner to have inferred from the Sarnath capital that 'the Mauryan stonework had been wrought by foreign masons.'² Dr. Spooner himself has gone much further, and the idea which was almost within the grasp of Fergusson but 'missed,' altogether possessed him (Spooner), and he could not think of anything but Persian in the Mauryan period of Indian history.³ He imagined to have explored everything as the result of his excavation at Kumrahar, Patna, which, however, did not proceed further than its initial stage, and could not unearth anything but a portion of a badly damaged pillar and the footmark of what he imagined to be a hall. Starting with a preconceived idea that 'the style of Asoka's sculptured capitals originated in Persepolis,' he began to see, at the very outset, 'the peculiar Persian polish in the columns,' some twenty-three hundred years after their erection, and (from this polish) it seemed to him 'not impossible that even in its design the building (i.e. the hall of which only the footmarks remain) might have been under Persian influence.' The Hall of a Hundred Columns at Persepolis, which is discussed later on, was a square hall with ten rows of ten columns evenly spaced in square bays. 'At Pataliputra,' Spooner himself emphatically declares, 'to be sure, we had only eight rows,' but he consoles himself with an equally emphatic assumption that 'there was every reason to suppose that others would be found, and possibly evidence for a porch as well, to correspond with the porch in Persepolis.' He further admits that 'the intercolumnation at Kumrahar was found to be five diameters, an intercolumnation [Figure: SUGGESTION FOR ELEVATION OUT LINE SECTION. ASOKAN HALL OF HUNDRED COLUMNS KUMRAHAR. PLAN. NOTE. This plan is based on the findings of Kumrahar excavation]