Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v1.c53.38

v1.c53.38

All the manuals other than Samarāṅgaṇa have confused the residences of men and the gods alike, this point needs elaboration. This kind of enumeration or classification of the buildings is not only unscientific but against the tradition. We know that in India for a long time the stone architecture was a taboo for the residential houses of men. It was only for the gods that the stone could be used. That is why the earliest civil architecture is wooden architecture. Later on, as time passed, stone was permitted in the Prāsādas of kings and the other higher people and gradually it was adopted in the secular architecture also.