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) v7.c47.6698

v7.c47.6698

Columns are called jaṅghā, charaṇa, (s)tali, stambha, aṅgrika, sthāṇu, thūṇa, pāda, skambha, araṇi, bhāraka, and dhāraṇa (lines 4–6). The height or length of a column is measured from above the base to below the Uttara, or above the pedestal from Janman to the Uttara (lines 7–9). The height of a column is, in other words, ‘measured from the plinth (of the former) up to the lowest part of the entablature, that is, from the base to the capital inclusive.’ The length of a column is twice, 1½ or 1¼ times of its base (lines 8–10); or the heights of the column begin with 2½ cubits and end at 8 cubits, the increment being by 6 aṅgulas or ¼ cubit (lines 11–12). But according to Kāśyapa (*see* Rām Rāz, *Ess. Arch. of Hind.*, p. 29), the height of the pillar may be 3 times that of the base; or 6 or 8 times that of the pedestal. The diameter of a pillar may be 1/7th, ⅛th, 1/9th, or 1/10th of its height, if it be made of wood or stone, ⅓rd, ¼th, or ⅕th, of the height, if it be a pilaster joined to a wall (kuḍya-stambha). In other words, the column is from three to ten times the diameter. The width of the pilaster, according to the *Mānasāra*, is 3, 4, 5, or 6 mātras (parts), and twice, thrice, or four times of these should be the diameter of the pillar (*M.*, xv, 14-15). The height of a pillar being divided into 12, 11, 10, 9, or 8 parts, one of these parts is the diameter of the pillar, and at the top it is diminished by one-fourth (lines 16–18).