Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v1.c53.35

v1.c53.35

Thus the house architecture, the secular architecture as opposed to the devotional architecture has got a distinct place in this manual of architecture. A perusal of the extant Śilpa works like Mānasāra, and Mayamata, will convince the reader that buildings in general are described in one category alone. If there are some additional delineations, they are just like appendices to them differing only in degree and not in kind. Let us take for instance either Mānasāra or Mayamata (as the arrangement of the chapters and the subjects treated therein are more or less similar); we find that in Mānasāra all the 98 types of mansions, either may be taken as the residences of gods (the Mānasāra temples) or of men or the gorgeous mansions or princely palaces. Similar is the case of Mayamata or any treatise on the Vāstu Śāstra. In my opinion there is a complete absence of fundamental distinction to be made in the two realms of architectural planning belonging to two different and divergent sets of buildings—Mānava-Vāsa and Deva-Vāsa. In India, or for the matter of that, in any country, the shape, super-structure, decoration and ornamental mouldings and the like, together with the specific materials used and the planning of the accommodation etc. in buildings, like temples, churches, cathedrals, mosques or mausoleums are fundamentally different from the buildings to be used as residential houses: Naturally, therefore, while we have the grandest. and largest of the Prāsādas in the monuments, the specimens of the secular buildings—the residences of the common run of men (barring of course the royal palaces) are hardly found. The thatched houses made of mud, bamboos and easily available materials from the local surroundings which have been our typical residential quarters from times immemorial, should also have some architectural traditions.