Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus c4.22

c4.22

The small portion which has come under my observation of the work called *Sacaládhicára*, "the universal authority," does not furnish sufficient data to form any opinion of the precise time at which it was composed; and in the section which gives rules for carving statues, that is, in the only part I have seen of it, I find no mention of the saints above referred to. It is generally believed to have been composed by *Agastya*, under the auspices of the founder of the *Pándya* government, a circumstance which, if admitted, would give to this work a very high antiquity. It is, however, difficult to trace the exact period when the *Pándya* principality was originally established. Mr. Wilson, in his prefatory remarks to his catalogue of the M'Kenzie collection, places this event three or four centuries before the Christian æra, although in another place he fixes the date of the civilization of the South of India, ten centuries before Christ; but the data on which this conjecture is formed is imperfect, being derived from a source which can be no authority in matters of this nature.[^asterisk] There exists indeed a long list of the princes of the *Pándya*, and their contemporary *Chóla* and *Chéra* dynasties, many of whom appear to have reigned long anterior