Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c76.45

v2.c76.45

This chronological estimation of this text is not very sound. Painting as a science and art of India is very very old. The earliest finds in our possession and the various references in the early literature all corroborate to the fact that canons too must have developed long long ago and therefore this date of the V.D. falls too short in our chronological. estimation of the Purāṇa. Nagnajit's 'Citralakṣaṇa' is a pointer in this contention of mine. Nagnajit, being a Nāga king of hoary antiquity, a contemporary of the Brāhmaṇas (vide writer's 'Hindu Science of Architecture'—an outline history of Vāstu-vidyā) must have compiled his work on the basis of the prevalent art canons. The doctrine of 'Ṣaḍaṅga' in the pictorial technique of ancient India, as referred by such an early pre-Christian Āchārya, as Vātsyāyana, the celebrated writer of Kāmasūtra, is also an ample testimony to prove that pictorial canons in India had developed long ago. A complete Vāstu-Śāstra or Śilpaśāstra must say something on this most fascinating branch of the art, having a universal appeal both to the princes and the priests alike. All this shows that the V.D. must also be as old as its component, the Viṣṇupurāṇa, a treatise which cannot be placed further up than the golden Gupta Age, 2nd to 4th century A.D.