Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v1.c48.17

v1.c48.17

In the end, I may touch on the pertinent problem of the sources from which it has drawn and the originality it can claim. I am of the definite view that the whole work is a master-piece of original contribution. Even some of the preliminary chapters (i. e. Mahadādisarga, Bhuvanakośa and Sahadevādhikāra, etc. etc ) though drawn from the Purāṇas, are independent and original in sense that they are not reproductions. The Yantra, and the Citra—machines and paintings all these portion of the work are quite original. The House architecture is its special contribution. The S. S may be deemed as the founder of the civil architecture among the ancient classics of this branch of lore. Among the manifold varieties of the Prāsāda, dealt with in this work, though some of the types represent the Pauranic classification of the Prāsādas, their ramifications into so many classificationions of the Prasadas with their architectural details are Samarāṅgaṇa's original contributions. Even in matters of the proportions, more particularly of the finial the geometrical progressions which do not tally with the earlier works like the Agni-purāṇa, are the original workings of the S. S. I shall say more on all this in the concluding chapter of this study.