Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus c4.2

c4.2

It is true that the Hindus were in possession of numerous treatises on architecture, sculpture, &c., which collectively are called the *Silpa Sástra*,[^asterisk] but unfortunately few traces of them remain. There appears to have been, according to some, thirty-two, and according to others sixty-four, standard treatises on the above-mentioned arts, but of these, excepting a few scattered fragments which are occasionally to be met with among the artists themselves, nothing but the titles of the works are now generally known to the learned. Speaking of these treatises, Sir William Jones expresses it as his opinion that they contained useful information on sixty-four different arts and manufactures; but while I admire his extraordinary talents and extensive knowledge of Asiatic literature, I cannot but think that he was misinformed as to the number of subjects comprised in the *Silpa Sástra*, as from the similarity of the contents of the remains of several of these treatises, and which will be hereafter noticed, there is reason to think that