Studies in Indian Art c14.s5.1

c14.s5.1

*Vāstu-Sāra*¹ is the name of an interesting work on architecture written by Thakkura Pheru in 1315 A.D. in the reign of King Alauddin Khilji at Delhi, as stated by the author himself. It must have served as a practical handbook for architects of Jaina temples in the early Sultanate period. Its value for us lies in supplying architectural terms of precise significance applied to various parts of a temple building. Except for differences in the images installed in the sanctum of the religious edifices of the Hindus and the Jainas, the temple architecture of both was substantially identical, and more often than not the same artists and architects were being commissioned to build for the patrons of both religions. Thus the terminology used by Thakkura Pheru can be said to have been quite widely current, and as appears from a comparison with other texts, these words must have been the result of an uninterrupted evolution of architectural traditions as embodied in literature and illustrated in the existing monuments of the period. Some of those details can be recognised even in the temples of Un and Nemawar in Indore state published in this issue (i.e. JUPHS. Vol. XVI, Pt. I) and a knowledge of the original words designating the different parts, motifs and mouldings of a temple would make the study of such monuments more interesting. The following words are therefore recorded.