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lofty towers stored with fire-arms and adorned with banners. It was constantly filled with female stage players; it was beautiful with gardens and groves of mango-trees, and enclosed with high walls. It was surrounded by impassable ditches, and secured by fortifications difficult of assault by foreign kings; it was full of horses, elephants, cattle, camels, and mules. It was ornamented with palaces of exquisite workmanship, lofty as mountains, and enriched with jewels, abounding with beautiful houses consisting of several stories, and it shone like Indra's heaven. It was crowded with tributary princes, purified with sacrificial rites, and filled with merchants of foreign countries. Its aspect had an enchanting effect; and the whole city was diversified with various colours, and decorated with regular avenues of sweet-scented trees. It was full of precious stones, and resplendent with stately edifices and beautiful apartments. It was filled with buildings erected close to one another, and without intermediate voids, and situated on a smooth level ground. It abounded in delicious rice, and water sweet as the juice of sugar-cane. It incessantly echoed with the sounds of kettle-drums, tabors, cymbals, and lutes; this city truly surpassed any that was ever beheld on earth. The houses which it contained resembled the celestial mansions which the Sidd'hás obtain through the virtue of their austerity."

Of the remaining portion of the Mánásara, twelve successive chapters, from the eighteenth to the twenty-ninth, are entirely taken up with rules respecting the measurements, &c. of as many sorts of vimánas or pyramidal temples. The same subject is also treated of in several sections of the Cásyapa.

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“A vimúna consists, according to the former, of from one to twelve stories;' and according to the latter, of from one to sixteen stories;' and ' is made round, quadrangular, or of six or eight sides.' The form of the edifice may be uniformly the same from the basement up to the spire, whether it be square, oblong, circular, oval, or the like; or it may be of a mixed nature, composed partly of one and partly of another form.'"

"A

quadrangular temple is called nágara, an octangular drávid ha, and a circular vésara."

"Vimánas are of three sorts, distinguished one from another by the prin cipal materials of which they are formed, as suď'ha, pure; misra, mixed; and sancírna, anomalous. An edifice is called sudha which is composed of but one kind of material, as stone, brick, &c., and this is considered the best of all. Misra is that which is composed of two kinds of materials, as brick and stone, or stone and metals; and sancírna is that which is composed of three or more kinds of materials, as timber, stone, brick, metal, &c."

"Vimánas are further distinguished into three kinds, namely, st'hánaca, ásana, and sáyana; the first having reference to the height, the second to the breadth, the third to the length. Moreover, the idol to be placed in the vimána, called st'hánaca, should be in an erect posture; that to be placed in the ásana, in a sitting; and that to be placed in the sayana, in a recumbent posture."

"Vimánas are again divided into five sorts, with respect to their magnitude. They are called sántica,* panstica,† jayada,‡ atbhuta,§ and sarvacáma.|| The breadths of these five kinds of temples being divided into seven, six, five, four, and three parts in due order; ten, nine, eight, and seven of those parts are given to their respective heights."

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Temples consist of the garb'hagriha (the womb of the house), the antarála (the anti-temple), and the ard'ha mantapa (the front portico). The diameter of the whole length of the building, including the walls, is to be divided into four and a-half or six parts; and the garb'hagriha to take up two, two and a half, or three; the antarála, one and a-half or two; and the ard'ha mantapa, one or one and a-half. I

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¶ Sometimes a portico is made round the garb’hagriha and antarála together, the whole being

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Temples on a large scale have three or four successive porticoes attached to them in the front, which are called ardha-mantapa, mahámantapa, st'hapana mantapa, urittya mantapa, &c. Ard'hamantapas are sometimes made broader than the garb'hagriha, in which case the width of the former is either once and a-half or twice that of the latter. In the event of the three compartments being of the same breadth, the length of the whole should be two and a-half the breadth."

"The breadth of the garb'hagriha being divided into three, four, five, seven, nine, eleven, thirteen, or fifteen parts, let two, three, four, five, six, seven, or eight be allowed to the interior space, and the remainder take up the thickness of the walls on all sides."

"The thickness of the wall being divided into twelve equal parts, let five or six be given to the door-frames or posts without, and seven or eight to the inside of the door. The door-frames or posts may be placed either in the middle or at the extremity of the point of the division before mentioned."

"The height of the pillars of the vimána is to be divided into ten or eight equal parts; and nine, eight, or seven of them are given to that of the doorway, the breadth of which is to be half its height."

"In temples, and houses of Brahmans and others, two-leafed doors may be used. The doors are turned either by means of a perpendicular cylinder, one end of which rests on the ground, or by hinges. The outside of the door-frames are ornamented with foliages, &c., and on the architrave of the door, and on both sides of it, are carved the images of the gods and goddesses presiding over gates and door-ways."

closed by walls on all the sides but the front, in which are the doors for entrance, approached by the front portico, which is generally a peristyle, and it serves as the innermost court around which people perform their circumambulations; I say the innermost court, because there are other courts around the whole temple.

"Let a water-spout be made over the base on the back wall of the garb'hagriha, on the left side of the idol, either towards the east or the north, according as the temple may face towards the south or the east. The thickness of the spout should be either eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, or sixteen angulas. Its length should be equal to the ad'hist'hána, which length being divided into three equal parts, one is given to the projection below (lambana). The breadth of the bottom of the spout is to be divided into five parts, and three to be given to the breadth of the sloping extremity below. The whole spout being divided into five parts, three to be given to the cugmala,* one to the padma,† and one to the vajina or fillet. On the surface of the spout a cavity is to be made for discharging the water, from one to five angulas broad. The breadth of the cavity at the end should be three-fifths of that at the bottom. The spout may be made to spring from the head of a lion, &c., and the whole so devised as to project like a plantain flower."

To these observations succeeds a detailed enumeration of the proportions of the different sorts of vimánas, consisting of from one to twelve stories; but as it would be extremely tiresome to specify the whole, even in the most abridged form, I shall insert the measurements of a few sorts only, which, with the assistance of the designs that accompany this essay, will, it is hoped, serve as a standard by which to determine the proportions of the rest of this class of buildings.

A VIMÁNA CONSISTING OF A SINGLE STORY.
(See Plate XXI.)

The breadth of this vimána, which is measured between the two angular pillars, is divided into six parts: two are given to the muc'hb'hadra (or the

* An ornament made in the form of a bud.

+ Lotus, or cima recta.

middle niche), and two to the space on each side of it. The height of vimánas is measured from the base to the apex, exclusive of the pedestal below, and is equal to one and a-half of its breadth. Let the whole height be divided into eight equal parts; give one to the ad'hist'hána (base), two to the páda (pillar), one to the prastara (entablature), one to the gríva (the neck of the dome), two to the sic'hara (cupola), and one to the st'húpi (pinnacle). The ad'hist’hána (base) is divisible into twenty-six parts. The height of the griva being divided into three parts, one is given to the véd'hica or basement, one to the griva,* and one to the uttira (entablature). The sic'hara (cupola) being divided into thirty-two parts, three to be given to the lupa mula,† two to the ad'hópadma (the lower cima recta), one to the málábaddha (the fillet ornamented with a wreath), two to the úrdd hvapadma (the upper cima), sixteen to the sic'hara (dome), one to the málábadd'ha, two to the chandrahnila,‡ five to the mahápadma (the great lotus). The breadth of the pavement being divided into six parts, one of which is diminished for the breadth of the véd'hica (or base) on the first story, which being divided into four parts, three of them are given to the breadth of the griva. The projection of the pendents is equal to the breadth of the véd'hica below.

"The breadth of the sic'hara being divided into five parts, three are to be given to that of the pattica,§ which being divided into five parts, three and a-half are given to the breadth of the padma above, one-third of it to the

* Gríva is here used to signify that hollow space which supports an entablature under the cupola, though the term is generally applied to denote the whole ornament, consisting of the base, the hollow space, and the entablature before-mentioned.

A sloping and projecting member of the entablature, representing a continued pent roof. It is made below the cupola, and its ends are placed as it were suspended from the architrave, and reaching the stalk of the lotus below.

A horizontal moulding over the sic'hara and below the base of the pinnacle.

§ A round ornament at the bottom of the pinnacle.

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