Introduction (A Study of Representative or Principal Texts)

In the foregoing pages we have already taken notice of the manifold types of Vāstu Works. We have also had a birds’s eye view on the vast mass of the literature and the different traditions, that are incorporated in it. We have also tried to evaluate this lore on the basis of two broad and distinct traditions or schools of Indian architecture. Here in this chapter, a somewhat detailed notice of some of the most representative and renowned texts on Hindu architecture is necessary to complete the introductory part of this treatise and to justify the title ‘Hindu Science of Architecture’ with special reference to Bhoja’s Samarāṅgaṇa-Sūtradhāra.

Accordingly the following six texts in two sets of three each belonging to the two famous schools of Indian architecture, the Aryan and the Dravidian, may be purviewed:

A: Northern or Aryan or Nagara.

1. Viśvakarmā’s Works,
2. Samarāṅgaṇa-Sūtradhāra,
3. Aparājita-pṛcchā.

B: Southern or non-Aryan or Dravidian

1. Mānasāra,
2. Mayamata,
3. Śilparatna.

Before proceeding with these individual texts, some remarks are necessary to bring home to my readers as to why only these six texts have been chosen. Are all these works equally representative? Any affirmative answer may not be fully correct. We have already taken notice of the scope of the Vāstu-Śāstra. Accordingly these are the principal texts which are not only broad-based but also they delineate upon almost all the principal subjects of Hindu Science of Architecture, town planning, buildings (both secular and religious), icons and iconography, (both sculptural and pictorial). The works like Kāśyapa-śilpa or Agastyasakalādhikāra though very large treatises, are limited in scope of treating mainly sculpture. Nārada-śilpa undoubtedly is a very important work, but it is still under investigation and has not attained the status of a popular treatise as these works have done. Moreover, it is only a broad indication. Nothing is water-tight treatment. Our architectural heritage is really very sublime and its lore very vast- and therefore in a critical work like this a review of only limited- number of texts can be attempted. Let us begin with Viśvakarmā’s works.