Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c72.10

v2.c72.10

The subject of Indian Iconography is one of the most fascinating branches of Indology. It is not a pure art, it is applied theology, religion and philosophy, all embeded in one. Iconography, the science of image-making, forms one of the principal topics of Hindu science of the Vāstu—Architecture (cf. writer's Hindu Science of Architecture—the scope and the subject-matter of architecture) and the religious origin of Indian Architecture is well known. Naturally, therefore, Indian Iconography, unless studied in its background of the religious beliefs of the people; its treatment is only half done. It is from this broad cultural stand-point that the writer has devoted as many as ten chapters, a Daśādhyāyī, to the exposition of this background—the Institution of Worship.