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spot on their legs and foreheads, with eyes resembling the petals of the lotus, are to be preferred. They should be decorated with fillets and the like, and their horns and hoofs with gold or silver rings. The sthapati, clad in fresh garments, and adorned with garlands of flowers, waits the auspicious moment to present his offerings to the deity, and then, guiding the oxen, draws the first furrow. After this, sudras,* hired for the purpose, complete the ploughing of the whole ground. A minuter description of the plough is contained in the first section of the Cásyapa, the insertion of which may not be irrelevant in this place, as affording some proof that, how rude soever this useful implement of the Hindú husbandmen of the present day may appear, it has been originally constructed on principles derived from no slight knowledge of mechanical laws. The author says, "the plough should be made from the wood of any species of milky trees, such as are used in sacrifices, and according to the prescribed form; let the beam be three hastas long, with a projection of seven angulas from the yoke, and its bottom six angulas broad, four thick, tapering gradually from the lower to the higher end, with a slight indenture about the middle. The inverted piece at the lower end of the stilt or handle should be nine angulas long, two broad, and one and a half thick. The mould-board should be twenty-four angulas long, and its height above the beam, five. Let a head be fashioned in the bosom of the mould-board, of fourteen angulas in length, and the remainder of the inverted piece may be said to be taken up by the hole in which the beam and the handle are joined together. Let the mould-board be six angulas broad and four thick, with a point shaped like a pin, and gradually diminished towards the front; three times five angulas are said to be the interval between the beam and the fore end of the mould-board, to which the coulter should be fixed. The yoke pole is equal in length to the beam, with holes at both ends, and a leathern strap attached to each, of two hastas in length, and of the thickness of the little finger."

* Men of the fourth class.

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Having yoked the oxen," continues the same author, a little more to the right than to the left of the pole, or towards the right hand of the driver, and having recited the appropriate prayers, let furrows be drawn towards the east or west, the grass being plucked out in the first instance. Let sesamum seeds, pulse, and kidney-beans be sown, with incantations pronounced over them, and let due reverence be paid to the spiritual teacher, and the oxen and the plough to which they are attached presented to him. When the crops are matured, and the flowers in bloom, let them be grazed on by cattle, and let cows remain on them for one or two nights. The ground will become purified by the froth flowing from the mouths of the cows, and by their ordure, after which you may commence building in the centre thereof."

The next thing of seeming importance treated of by Hindú architects, is the mode of ascertaining the cardinal points by means of a gnomon. It is indispensably necessary that all the quarters should be distinctly and precisely marked on the spot on which buildings are to be erected, for the purpose of giving them an auspicious aspect, and of preventing their being opposite to any of the intermediate points, which are declared to be inauspicious. The sixth chapter of the Mánasára is exclusively devoted to this subject, the fifth containing directions for performing certain religious rites to propitiate the presiding deities of the soil. The first section of the Cásyapa combines both these topics, and the fifth of the Máyámata corresponds with the sixth of the Mánasára; but the portions of the manuscripts which are in my possession are so imperfect from the causes before noticed, that the whole taken together, conveys but a very imperfect idea of the subject treated on, and recourse has therefore been had to other sources to supply the defect.

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The mode of ascertaining the points of the compass by the shadow of a gnomon is extremely simple. On a smooth level piece of ground is erected a gnomon," which according to some, "should be of sixteen angulas in height, and of the same diameter at the bottom; the whole should

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ON THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE HINDUS.

be shaped like the leaf of an opening bud, tapering gradually from the

bottom to the top." "Around this a circle is drawn with a cord of twice the height of the gnomon, by fixing one end of it to its base and carrying the other around it. Points are marked in the circumference where the shadow of the gnomon projects, both in the forenoon and afternoon, that is at any given hour after sun-rise, and at the same time before sun-set; and between these points a right line is drawn so as to join them; the point marked by the morning shadow will shew the east, and that marked by the evening shadow the west. Then, from each of these two points, and with a radius equal to the distance between them, describe two more circles cutting each other, and resembling (in their points of intersection) the head and tail of a fish, between which draw a right line, which will point to the south and north. Again, from the southern and northern points, which touch the circumference of the inner circle respectively, and with the same radius, describe two more circles, and the points of intersection on the two other sides will indicate the east and west." The text goes on with repeating a similar process for ascertaining the intermediate points. Some treatises require the first circle to be described around the gnomon,

not previous to making the morning and afternoon shadows, but afterwards; and in this case, the shadow being marked in the first instance, the circle is described from the centre of the gnomon, with a radius equal to the length of the shadow, plus half the diameter of the gnomon."

Various rules have been laid down for the purpose of rectifying the variation of the shadow owing to the irregularity of the sun's motion in the ecliptic, the simplest of which seems to be as follows: The place where the shadow of the gnomon projects, on two successive days at the same hour, being marked, the difference between those two days, is taken as the variation of the shadow for sixty ghaticas or twenty-four hours. The interval between the times at which the western and eastern points were marked on the preceding day is multiplied by the difference of the shadow measured for one day, and the product being divided by sixty ghaticas, the result will give the difference of the shadow for the given time; it will then be only necessary to remove the eastern or western point so far towards the south or north, according as the difference of the shadow on the second day may be in either of those directions, or as the sun is in the southern or northern solstice.

Another rule for finding the true points is given in the Súrya Sid'dhánta. "But, in consequence of the processional variation of the times of the shadow marked in the east and west of the circle, the difference in the sine of the declination between those times, being multiplied by the hypothenuse of the shadow at either of those times, and the product divided by the cosine of the latitude, the quotient will give the angulas; remove the western point so many angulas in the opposite quarter of the sun's declination, and the eastern point will become due east; or else, according as the sun is in the northern or southern solstice, the eastern point may be removed the same distance in that direction."

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Having marked," says the commentary, "a point in the middle of a level piece of ground, from that point, and with a radius equal to the length of the shadow projected at the third ghatica after the sun's rise, plus half of

the diameter of the gnomon (because the shadow is measured from the circumference of the gnomon), let a circle be described, and in the centre of it. let a sanc'hu be erected, of twelve angulas in height and of the same diameter: mark points where the shadow falls before and after noon on the east and west of the circumference; then having computed the sines of the declination three ghaticas after sun-rise, and three ghaticas before sun-set, multiply the difference between these two sines by the hypothenuse of the shadow at the third ghatica after sun-rise, and the product being divided by the cosine of the latitude of the place, the quotient will give the angulas or their integral parts. Then remove the eastern point so many angulas, &c. according as the sun is in the south or north latitude; by this means all the points of the compass may be rectified."

Passing over several sections of the Mánasára which are not immediately connected with the main purpose of this essay, and reserving one or two of them for future consideration, we now come to the thirteenth and fourteenth, which treat of pedestals and bases.

The Hindú orders may be said to consist of four principal parts, namely, the upapítha or pedestal, the athisthána or base, the sthamba or pillar, and the prastára or entablature. Western architects consider the base, not as a distinct member, but as a constituent part of the column; and this is not altogether at variance with the practice of the Hindú architects, for they likewise include the base and capital in taking the height of the pillar, and even consider the pedestal as a necessary part of the order. However, the latter invariably treat of a pedestal and base as separate bodies, as they are sometimes employed without pillars. These several members of the order have also been subdivided into various inferior parts, and the whole are curiously compared to the several parts of the human body, in all which particulars a striking similarity may be perceived between the Indian and European systems.

The two first members now under consideration derive their names as upapítha and athisthána—the former from upa, under, and pítha, a seat or

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