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.s4.45

v6.c41.s4.45

‘Music assists him in the use of harmonic and mathematical proportion.’ In these matters, the *Mānasāra* is rather too elaborate; in most individual cases nine proportions have been suggested, and the selection of the right proportion and harmony has been made dependent on the application of the six formulas, which are treated in a very technical manner, based on mathematics. According to Vitruvius, music is, moreover, absolutely necessary in adjusting the force of the ballistae, catapultae, and scorpions, in whose frames are holes for the passage of the homotona, which are strained by gut-ropes attached to windlasses worked by hand-spikes. Unless these ropes are equally extended, which only a nice ear can discover by their sound when struck, the bent arms of the engine do not give an equal impetus when disengaged, and the strings, therefore, not being in equal states of tension, prevent the direct flight of the weapon. A knowledge of music is specially useful to the architect in building theatres, lecture rooms, and such other halls where the spread of sound is taken into particular considertion. Both Vitruvius and the *Mānasāra* are equally enthusiastic in speaking about it. The former further says that the architect ‘would, moreover, be at a loss in constructing hydraulic and other engines if ignorant of music.’ ‘Skill in physic enables him to ascertain the salubrity of different tracts of country, and to determine the variation of climates, for the air and water of different situations, being matters of highest importance, no building will be healthy without attention to those points.’ A very elaborate account of the selection of sites and the examination of soil is given in the *Mānasāra* and other architectural treatises.¹ The salubrity of the tracts is minutely ascertained with reference to the site where a village, town, fort, palace, temple, or dwelling-house is to be built. The soil is examined with regard to its contour, colour, odour, features, tastes, and touch. The level of the ground, as well as the characteristic vegetation of the site, as pointed out above, are also minutely examined.