The Development of Hindu Iconography c8.30

c8.30

¹ *Devatāmūrti-prakaraṇam*, Introduction, pp. 12-15. The writer of the introduction refers to numbers of other texts whose *śilpa* character cannot be definitely demonstrated. Ram Raz's remarks on the *śilpaśāstras* of the Hindus are worth quoting in this connection: "It is true that the Hindus were in possession of numerous treatises on architecture, sculpture, etc., which collectively are called the *Śilpaśāstra* but unfortunately few traces of them remain. There appears to have been, according to some, 32 and according to others 64, standard treatises on the above-mentioned arts. In a series of memorial verses prescribed among the artists are recorded the names of the authors or titles of the above-mentioned 64 treatises. Of these 32 are *mukhya*, the others are *upa* or subordinate."