365bet娱乐

2
Before going into the specific historical aspect of architecture we
would like to make certain general comments on the understanding of the
word silpa in relation to architecture and art. 'The term silpa means an art,
fine or mechanical' It covers some sixty-four such arts But here 艣谋lpa-
艣膩stra is used in the sense of v膩stu艣膩stra. The literal rendering of
v膩stus膩stra would be 'science of architecture', but a complete v膩stus膩stra
deals with more than what is generally understood by architecture. In the
v膩stus膩stra the term architecture is taken in its broadest sense and
implies what is built or constructed Thus in the first place it denotes all
kinds of buildings - religious and residential Secondly, it covers town-
planning, layout garden, constructing market places, gateways, building
enclosure walls railings and bathing ghats. Architecture also includes
sculpture and deals with the idols of deities, statues of great personages,
images of animals and bird.
5 In the Vedic literature the earliest references to the vestiges of
Indian architecture we get in Satapata Br膩hma峁嘺 and Aitareya
Br膩hma峁嘺 where in octagonal form of y奴pas or sacrificial stakes have
been explained as Vajra (eight sided). The S盲nkh膩yana G峁沨ya S奴tra
speaks of the houses built in accordance with the suitability of the
ritualistic performances These rituals and the symbolism attached to the
various forms of architecture indubitably point to the remotest antiquity of
their origin. The rituals connected with the architecture are to be found in