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.c49.85

v7.c49.85

*Śilpa-śāstra* or *Vāstu-śāstra*, which is conveyed by the term 'architecture,' is much wider than the English term. 'It denotes all sorts of buildings, religious, residential, and military, and their auxiliary members and component mouldings. Secondly, it implies town-planning; laying out gardens; constructing market-places; making roads, bridges, gates; digging wells, tanks, trenches, drains, sewers, moats; building enclosure-walls, embankments, dams, railings, ghats, flights of steps for hills, ladders, etc. Thirdly, it denotes articles of house-furniture, such as bedsteads, couches, tables, chairs, thrones, fans, wardrobes, clocks, baskets, conveyances, cages, nests, mills, etc. Architecture also implies sculpture and deals with the making of phalli, idols of deities, statues of sages, images of animals and birds. It includes the making of garments and ornaments, etc.'