Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus c4.s2.1

c4.s2.1

The height of a base is equal to either a half, three-quarters, or a whole diameter of the shaft. When placed under pillars of an inferior sort, in porticoes and the like, and without a pedestal, its height is stated to be one-fourth, or one-third of that of the whole pillar. To bases, or rather basements, raised under pilasters in *vimánas*, &c., *Mánasára* gives twelve different heights, to be used in so many different stories one above another; the first height consisting of thirty *angulas*, and the last of four *hastas*, each of the intermediate ones being increased in the proportion of six *angulas*. The same author also prescribes the heights of pedestals to be constructed in the houses of the several classes, as follows: Brahmans should have them of four *hastas*; *C'shetriyas*, of three; *Vaisyas*, of two; and *Súdras*, of one *hasta*. The remaining parts of this chapter enumerate, at much length, the proportions of the component parts of no less than sixty-four different sorts of bases, under various denominations, as *prati bandha*, *ecabandha*, *praticrama pushpapushacala*, *sribandha*, *manchabandha*, *srénibandha*, &c. &c.; but as it would be extremely tedious to repeat in detail the measures of the different members of each sort, I pass them over here, referring the reader to Plates II. and III., which contain designs of twenty-eight sorts of bases, with the heights and projections of all their parts therein notified.