01Maya and Manasara

Maya is the great builder of the asuras. The Mahabharata tells how, spared by Arjuna in the burning of the Khandava forest, he raised the Mayasabha for the Pandavas at Indraprastha, the hall where Duryodhana mistook a floor for water. The Mayamata opens by calling him a wise muni who, after bowing to the all-knowing Lord, set out the marks of every building for devas and men. The Manasara traces its teaching back to Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu, Indra, Narada and the great munis, and says the sage Manasara gathered it. Some scholars read the title instead as ‘the essence of measure’.

02When they were written

Neither text gives a date. Prasanna Kumar Acharya, who first edited the Manasara, placed it in the sixth or seventh century CE; others put it several centuries later, since its temple forms match those built under the Cholas and after. Bruno Dagens, editor of the Mayamata, found it in use in the Tamil country between the ninth and twelfth centuries, and much of its matter is shared with the Shaiva Agamas. Both texts grew by use in the hands of working builders, so their chapters do not all belong to one hour.

03How the books are arranged

Both follow the order of building itself. The Mayamata’s first chapter is a table of contents in verse; then come the kinds of vastu, testing and taking possession of the site, measures, orientation, the grid of the gods, offerings, villages and towns, the foundation deposit, plinths, bases, pillars and entablatures, joinery and the finial. Chapters 19 to 22 rise from one-storey to many-storeyed temples, then enclosures, gopuras, mandapas, halls, houses, palaces and doors, vehicles and beds, the linga, the pedestal and images. The Manasara runs the same course in 70 chapters, with a separate chapter for each storey count from one to twelve.

04Measure comes first

Every building is settled by measure alone, says the Mayamata, and so its fifth chapter fixes the units. Eight atoms make a chariot-dust mote; each step after is eight times the last, through the hair-tip, the nit, the louse and the barley grain, and eight barley grains make one angula. Twelve angulas make a vitasti and two vitastis a hasta, also called kishku. A hasta of 25 angulas is prajapatya, of 26 dhanurmushti, of 27 dhanurgraha, each for a different class of work. Four hastas make a danda, eight dandas a rajju. The same chapter names the four builders: sthapati, sutragrahin, vardhaki and takshaka.

05The site and the mandala

Building begins with the ground. The sthapati examines a site by its colour, smell, taste and slope, digs a pit and refills it to see whether the earth rises or sinks, and ploughs and sows it before anything is laid. A gnomon, the shanku, set up on a levelled circle, gives the true east from the morning and evening shadows. Then he draws the vastu-purusha mandala. Both texts list thirty-two grids, from a single square to 32 by 32. The 64-square manduka and the 81-square paramashayika are used most; in the paramashayika Brahma takes the nine central squares and the other devas sit around him.

06Villages and towns

The ninth chapter of the Manasara opens with eight village plans: dandaka, sarvatobhadra, nandyavarta, padmaka, svastika, prastara, karmuka and chaturmukha, each named for its shape. The Mayamata says dandaka has a single street, straight as a staff; sarvatobhadra is meant to be auspicious on every side; karmuka takes the shape of a bow. The text fixes widths in dandas, the number of streets, the gates in each direction and the places of the temples. The tenth chapter does the same for towns, forts and ports, and the Mayamata gives the same eight village forms.

07The temple from base to finial

Before the walls rise, the garbha-nyasa is laid: a casket of the sacred deposit placed in the foundation. Then the upapitha and adhishthana, the plinth and base, each in many named profiles of mouldings, the pillars with their capitals, and the prastara, the entablature. The vimana grows from one tala, or storey, to twelve, and every storey has its proportion to the whole. Enclosures, gopuras over the gates and mandapas follow. The rules reach past temples to houses with their courtyards, royal palaces, chariots, beds and thrones, so that a whole town could be built from one book.

08The measure of a deity

For images both texts use the tala, the length of the face, as the unit, and each tala is divided into angulas so that every limb follows from it. The Manasara gives separate chapters to the great and middle ten-tala systems used for the highest deities, and smaller talas for lesser beings, attendants and devotees. It has chapters on the Trimurti, the linga, Shakti, the vahanas Garuda, Nandi and the lion, and also Jain and Bauddha images. Near the end comes the madhucchishta-vidhana, casting in wax by the lost-wax method still used at Swamimalai, and last the nayanonmilana, the opening of the image’s eyes.

09The living sthapatis

In Tamil Nadu the hereditary sthapatis of Mamallapuram, Swamimalai and Karaikudi still learn these texts, often by heart, and new temples in India and abroad are laid out from them. The Government College of Architecture and Sculpture at Mamallapuram teaches them. T. Ganapati Sastri printed the Mayamata in the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series in 1919. Prasanna Kumar Acharya published the Manasara with an English translation in seven volumes between 1927 and 1934. Bruno Dagens edited the Mayamata at Pondicherry in 1970–76, and his English translation appeared in India in 1985 and 1994.

What it contains

1
Samgraha and vastu-prakara
The opening chapters: a table of contents in verse, and the definition of vastu. Wherever mortals and immortals dwell is vastu, and it is of four kinds: the ground, buildings, vehicles and beds, with the ground as the chief.
2
Manopakarana
Units of measure from the atom to the rajju, the kinds of hasta, and the qualities of the four classes of builders. In the Manasara this chapter comes second and begins with the sthapati’s qualifications.
3
Bhumi-pariksha and shanku-sthapana
Choosing and testing a site by colour, smell, taste, sound and slope, taking possession of it, and finding the directions with a gnomon.
4
Padavinyasa and balikarma
The thirty-two grids of the vastu-purusha mandala and the devas assigned to each square. Offerings are then made to every deity of the grid before work begins.
5
Grama and nagara
Eight village plans from dandaka to chaturmukha, with streets, gates and temple sites; then towns, forts and ports. Widths are measured in dandas and suited to the people who will live there.
6
Bhulamba and garbha-nyasa
The height of a building in relation to its width, and the sacred deposit laid in the foundation of temples and houses.
7
Upapitha and adhishthana
Plinths and bases, with their many named sequences of mouldings. These chapters are among the most exact in the texts, and surviving Dravida temples can be read against them.
8
Stambha, prastara and sandhikarma
Pillars and their parts, beams and entablatures, and the joints of timber and stone. The Mayamata adds the choice of materials for each.
9
Vimana
Temple towers from one storey to twelve, each storey count with its own chapter in the Manasara. The shikhara and the finial complete the building.
10
Prakara, gopura and mandapa
Enclosure walls and the shrines of attendant deities, the gateway towers and the pillared halls. The Manasara’s gopura and mandapa chapters are among its longest.
11
Shala, griha and rajaharmya
Halls, houses of one to four wings around a court, house-warming, palaces and their doors. Rules for the placing and size of doors take two chapters in the Manasara.
12
Yana, shayana and simhasana
Chariots and palanquins, beds, thrones, toranas and ornaments. The Manasara also describes crowns and the marks of a king.
13
Linga, pitha and pratima
The linga and its pedestal, images of the deities in the tala system, their vahanas and seats, casting in wax, and the opening of the eyes. The Mayamata closes here, at chapter 36; the Manasara at chapter 70.

Famous verses

वक्ष्येऽहं ग्रामविन्यासं शास्त्रे संक्षेपतः क्रमात्। दण्डकं सर्वतोभद्रं नन्द्यावर्तं तु पद्मकम्॥ स्वस्तिकं प्रस्तरं चैव कार्मुकं च चतुर्मुखम्। एवं चाष्टविधं ग्रामं तत्तद्रूपेण संज्ञितम्॥
I shall now set out, briefly and in order, the plans of villages in the shastra: dandaka, sarvatobhadra, nandyavarta and padmaka, svastika, prastara, karmuka and chaturmukha. So the village is of eight kinds, each named after its form.Manasara 9.1–2

Influence

Together with the Kashyapa Shilpa and the Agamas, they are the working canon of Dravida temple building. Vastu advice given in Indian homes today goes back to their site and mandala chapters.