Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus c4.9

c4.9

The first work, entitled *Mánasára*, is the most perfect I have seen, and perhaps the most perfect on the subject that now exists. It is stated to be the production of a sage named *Mánasára*, and is of great celebrity in the south of India, as affording copious information on every branch of the art on which he treats, but particularly on that of building sacred edifices; and it is often consulted by the artists as the highest authority for the solution of contested points in architecture. This work appears, according to an enumeration of the contents given in the preface, to consist of fifty-eight *adhyáyas* or chapters, each of which is devoted to a particular topic, but the portion I have in my possession contains no more than forty-one chapters, in which are described the measures used in architecture, sculp-