Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus c4.s3.42

c4.s3.42

The proportion in which the diminution at the top of the columns of the two former is made, seems to have been regulated by the same principle, though not by the same rule. The general rule adopted by the Hindú architects in this respect. is, that the thickness at the bottom, being divided into as many parts as there are diameters in the whole height of the column, one of these parts is invariably diminished at the top; but in the Grecian and Roman architecture, the diameter of the upper part of the shaft, in a column of fifteen feet in height, is made one-sixth less than its thickness at the base; and in a column of fifty feet, the diminution is one-eighth. The higher the columns are, the less they diminish, because the apparent diminution of the diameter in columns of the same proportion, is always greater according to their height, and this principle is supposed to have been discovered with great scientific skill, and is adduced as one of the proofs of the highly refined taste of the Greeks; but we observe, that precepts derived from the same principle have been taught and practised in India from time immemorial.