Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus c4.30

c4.30

The second chapter of the *Mánasára* treats of the qualities of an architect (*Silpi lacshanam*); and as preliminary thereto, of the origin of artists of the several kinds, and which is traced to *Viswacarma* the heavenly architect. This personage is stated to have had four heads, probably in allusion to the supernatural talents with which he was endowed, and to his invention of so many useful arts. Another *Viswacarma*, *Twasta*, *Maya*, and *Manu* are named as his sons, and said to have left four other offspring, whose names, however, are not mentioned in any of the works under examination, but of whom the first is affirmed to have been by profession a *sthapati*, architect; the second *sútragráhi*, the measurer; the third *vardhaci*, the joiner; and the last *tacshaca*, the carpenter; and all of whom are considered as indispensably necessary to the building of an edifice. Their intermarriage, also, with the families of some noted persons of the Hindú mythology, is adverted to as a further proof of the divine origin of the artists; and the whole concludes with a short notice of their requisite qualifications, of which the following passages from the *Manushyálaya Chandrica*cont will convey some idea.