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ARCHITECTURE IN THE PURANAS Among the early Indian literature, the Puranas deal with the subject of architecture in greater detail than the other types of literature. Some ten Puranas the Matsya Purana, the Agni Purana, the Garuda Purana, the Bhavisya Purana, the Brahmavaivarta Purana, the Vayu Purana, the Skanda Purana, the Narada Purana, the Brahmanda Purana, and the Visnudharmottara (an Upa-Purana) have treated the subject of architecture in great detail and some of these Puranas such as the Matsya, the Agni and the Visnudharmottara have treated it very systematically and elaborately. ANCIENT ARCHITECTS Scholars differ as regards the chronology of the Puranas. But we can positively say that the Puranic tradition is very ancient. The Matsya Purana mentions eighteen teachers of the science of architecture, namely Bhrgu, Atri, Vasistha, Visvakarma, Maya, Narada, Nagnajit, Visalaksa, Indra, Brahma, Svami kartika, Nandisvara, Saunaka, Garga, Srikrsna, Aniruddha, 6 Sukra and Brhaspati. Some of these names might be mythological, but some must have been historical, celebrated authors and ancient Acaryas on the science of architecture. The Matsya Purana mentions the names of these eighteen preceptors of Vastusastra who were reputed in the age when these chapters on architecture of the Purana were written. The Matsya Purana was completed at the beginning of the Gupta period (1.e. before the fourth Century A.D.). It is true that we do not possess the treatises on Vastusastra by these authors. But we should

129 accept the current tradition. Of these teachers Visvakarma and Maya, to whom many extant architectural treatises are ascribed are common in the Matsya Purana, the Brhat-samhita and the Manasara. In the Manasara (the standard treatise Manu. 7 Visvakarma and on architecture), it is stated in a mythical geneology of the artists that from the four faces of Brahma originated the four heavenly architects, namely Visvakarma, Maya, Tvasta and Their four sons were called respectively, Sthapati or the chief architect, Sutra-grahin or the designer, Vardhaki or the painter and Taksaka or the carpenter. Maya are referred to in the epics and the Pali Jatakas as the architects of gods and demons respectively and the epics have mentioned many great deeds of these architects. The two different schools of architecture in India, the Dravida school of the South and the one prevalent in the North recognise Maya and Visvakarma as the ultimate authorities respectively. Among the other preceptors on Vastuvidya, Vasistha and Nagnajit are mentioned by Varahamihira in his Brhat-Samhita. Nagnajit has been quoted in the commentary of Bhattotpala. Another sage, Atri was mentioned in the Brhat-Samhita (Ch. 46) as the disciple of Garga. Vasistha and Narada are quoted in the Vasturatnavali. Garga was undoubtedly a very ancient writer on Vastuvidya. Varahamihira summarized his work. Bhattotpala has quoted largely from Garga. Brahaspati was a teacher of Narada and has been quoted by Bhattotapala. Saunaka and Sukra were also well known names. Dr. T. Bhattacharya has

- - 130 given detailed information about these preceptors and has tried to identify these names with some well-known ancient personalities. 8 He says, "These authors lived before the 6 th Century A.D. and they might have flourished even long before, as is apparent from the inclusion of their names in the Matsya Purana." The science of Architecture in ancient India gave maximum importance to the building of a temple. This was quite natural because in those bygone days a temple was the centre of almost all religious and cultural activities in a town. People used to meet in the temple for religious discourses and festivals. Knowing the importance of the institution of the temples the ruling kings also showered their munificence on these temples and gave large sums of money as donations from which were maintained the temple priests and their associates, other religious personages and artists of various sorts. Dancing and music were given considerable importance in temples. Thus, singers and dancers were closely associated with them. The very great importance which temples acquired in the social life naturally made it essential that the temples must be very highly decorated and magnifiscent structures. The magnifiscent structures could be built only with the aid of expert sculptors and architects. The structural and architectural beauty of these temples generally vied with regal palaces and very often even surpassed them. In the Golden Era of the Gupta kings when

-131 there was an allsided excellence in every field the emperors concentrated their attention on seeing to it that these temples were built on a vast scale and at the same time were aestheticall beautiful. They were the specimens of the acme of architectural and sculptural beauty. In early literature on Vastusastra and in the Puranic Chapters on architecture also, preference is given to temple building. Twenty and forty-five types of temples are described in the Puranas. Residential architecture and town-plaming etc. were given less importance.