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.c47.7011

v7.c47.7011

‘The orders and their several characters and qualities do not merely appear in the five species of columns into which they have been sub-divided, but are distributed throughout the edifices to which they are applied, the column itself being the regulator of the whole composition. It is on this account that the name of orders has been applied to the differently formed and ornamented supports, as columns, which have received the names of Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite orders, whereof the three first are of Grecian origin, and the two last, it is supposed, of Italian or Roman origin. Each of these, by the nature of its proportions and the character resulting from them, produces a leading quality, to which its dimensions, form and ornaments correspond. But neither of the order is so limited as to be confined within the expression of any single quality. Thus the strength indicated in the Doric order is capable of being modified into many shades and degrees of that quality.’—(Gwilt.. *Encyl.*, art. 2538.)