Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus c4.37

c4.37

The word *sthapati* is from *stha*, that which is fixed or formed, and *pati* lord or master, and consequently, like the Greek *Αρχιτεκτων*, signifies a person who presides over the erecting of an edifice, the formation of a statue, and the construction of a chariot, &c. The principal qualifications of an architect consist in a knowledge of various branches of learning, such as arithmetic, geometry, drawing, sculpture, mythology, astrology, &c., the usefulness of all of which to a master-builder is too obvious to require any comment. Nor are these qualifications altogether unlike those which Vitruvius and other western architects have prescribed as indispensable to their profession, if we except the knowledge of medicine, music, and even anatomy, which the latter have thought proper to add to the qualifications of an architect. It is curious to observe, that among other moral qualities enumerated in the texts above cited, as requisite in the Hindú architect, is included “sincerity,” a virtue, the want of which in the artists of India is proverbial.