Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus c4.s3.5

c4.s3.5

The first sort[^asterisk] is a column six diameters high; it is rarely made but upon a high base and pedestal. The entablature is more than half the altitude of the column; and the intercolumniation generally four diameters. The pedestal is of the second sort of the *pratibandha* kind, see Plate I.; and its height is equal to that of the base, which is one-third of that of the column itself, or two diameters. The base is called *manchabandha*, and is divisible into thirty parts. The capital is equal in height to the upper diameter of the shaft, and its projection is equal to its height. The form of the capital is called *pushpabandha*. “The height of the capital,” says *Mánasára*, “may be either equal to the breadth of the shaft, or one-half or three-quarters of it, according as it may appear proportionate to the size of the column.” Let the breadth of it be either one, one and a-quarter, half, or three-quarters of the diameter.” I cannot find in any of the authors a description of this capital, and it is only mentioned by name by *Mánasára* and others. I have given the design of it from the specimens found in buildings in the vicinity of Madras; and the artists call it in Tamil *pútaleibódicai*, literally “flower-headed capital.”