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.c47.7313

v7.c47.7313

In modern times it is a favourite ornamental device. It is found in buildings, covering ceilings, cornices, fenders and other iron, silver, gold and wooden works. It is used not only as ‘an auspices mark and a symbol for Buddha and Siddha, but also as a sign for the crossing of the arms and as the meeting of the four roads.’ It has been translated into a sitting posture. In the *Śilpa-śāstra* it has been elaborately worked out in the town-planning, and village schemes, in designing screens, lattice, joinery work, windows, pavilions, halls, and storeyed mansions, in digging wells, and carving the phallus or the emblem of Śiva (*Dictionary of Hindu Architecture*, p. 732 ff.). The *Mānasāra-Vāstu-śāstra* contain elaborate details of svastika plan, of villages (Chap. IX, 3, 330; XII, 75-76, '146; XLIX, 152; LIV, 120; LVIII, 12), of joinery work (Chap. XVII, 60), of windows (Chap. XXXIII, 583), of Pavilions (Chap. XXXIV, 552) and of Halls and Storeyed Mansions (Chap. XXV, 3, 80). These references are further elaborated in the general literature. For instance the *Bṛihat-saṁhitā* (Chap. LIII, 34 ff.) contains a technical description of a svastika house: "The svastika (house) is auspicious if it have the entrance on the east side, and one continual terrace along the west side, at the end whereof begin two other terraces going from west to east, while between the extremities of the latter lies a fourth terrace" (Chap. LIII, 34 and *J. R. A. S.*, Vol. VI, p. 286).