Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v1.c56.46

v1.c56.46

3. The third evidence to show that the Southern Vāstu-vidyā and the architecture i. e. Kalā thereof is earlier than its Northern counterpart is based on the origin and evolution of the Stone architecture, especially with relation to the temple architecture in Ind a. Though as per reference in the Ṛg-Veda, the Epics, and the Jātakas (H. A. I. A.), the stone architecture was not unknown in India, it was not associated with Aryans. Dr. T. P. Bhattacary (vide Canons of Indian Architecture Ch. XXVIII) maintains that it was the Asuras (Dravidians or Dānavas) and the Nāgas (cf. also the view of the late Dr. Jayaswala who attributed the origin of Nāgara architecture--Stone architecture to Bhāraśiva Nāgas) who helped the development of Stone Architecture in India. He further maintains that Stone houses were in early days erected by the Asuras and Nāgas, the Asuras of the Ṛg-vedic period, the Nāgas and Asuras of Taxila, the capital of Nagnajit and the Asuras and Nāgas of Eastern India mentioned in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa and Buddhist traditions. The introduction of the cult of image worship among the Aryans was the harbinger of the adoption of the stone architecture among them. It is our common knowledge that originally the Aryan houses were simple, built of wood and mud. Even when they adopted the cult of worship, the places where they kept their deities were no more than the houses, as they themselves were living in. They called their temples the house of the gods, Devāgāra, Devatāyatana, Devagṛha, Devakula and a host of others prevalent in literature—all indicative of this fact. They were nothing but the replicas of the residential houses. With the introduction of the Stone Architecture, these temples got the name of Mandira, as Viśvakarma Prakāśa (IV. 13), defines it as temples of stone.