The Hindu Temple v1.c9.s9.63

v1.c9.s9.63

Gaṇya-māna, the proportionate vertical measurement of the height of the temple and of its component parts (‘Mānasāra’, XXVII. 35) is elaborated in South Indian Vāstuśāstras. The several component parts, analogous to the height of the temple, are subdivided each into a number of sub-sections, strata or mouldings; entire chapters, in the various texts, treat for example of the sub-divisions and proportions of the Ādyaṅgā, the socle (adhiṣṭhāna) only. Whereas eight varieties of the socle, according to its profiles and their proportions, are recorded in the ‘Vaikhānāśāgama’, VI, five varieties only are given in the ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’, LXI, fourteen varieties are described in the ‘Mayamata’ XIV. 38, and ‘Śilparatna’, XIX. 1, twenty-two in the ‘Kāśyapaśilpa’ and sixty-four different kinds of Adhiṣṭhāna under 19 classes in the ‘Mānasāra’, XIV. 10-372.⁶⁷ When the great Vimānas of South India were built meticulous ‘case-laws’ of the many possible proportions based on the norm were classified in Vāstu-śāstra.