Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c74.s2.70

v2.c74.s2.70

According to B. S. of Varāhamihira (belonging to the Gupta period), the height as well as girth of the self same five types of men is 96, 99, 102, 105 and 108 aṅgulas, respectively. It may however, be pointed out that the standards of measurement of the length of the five principal types of men as given in the text is the middle of the path canon, and the text which is missing might have added something more to relate these measurements to the traditional ones as ordained in so many other books. Or are these standards of measurements influenced by the secular tendencies of medieval art when the royal statues and the statues of great men, men of letters and artists (cf. the statues of Maṇḍana and his sons) came to the sculptured? Again as elucidated by Utpala, the famous commentator of the B. S. on the authority of Parāśara, a hoary sage and one of the earliest authorities on Vāstu-śastra, these standards of Varāha-mihira appear to apply to mahāpuruṣas alone and so are most suited to the standards of the divine beings.