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The Samarāṅganasūtradhāra: Themes and Context for the Science of Vāstu*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2012

MATTIA SALVINI
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Extract

The Samarāṅganasūtradhāra is an encyclopedic work, attributed by tradition to King Bhoja of the Paramāra dynasty. It collects a vast number of subjects under the general heading of vāstu, a term that refers to a dwelling or dwelling place and, by inclusion, comes to treat the many activities connected with dwellings and construction sites. Although probably incomplete in the available manuscripts, the size of the Samarāṅganasūtradhāra remains impressive: including the ‘interpolated section’ it runs for almost 7,500 Sanskrit verses. The various portions resemble, in turn, a Purāṇa, a treatise on architecture, a disquisition into dramaturgic detail and much more. Bhoja's work can be classified as belonging to the ‘northern’ Vāstu tradition; the text presents itself as such, by tracing its own origin to the divine architect Viśvakarman rather than Maya, as a southern text would do. Nevertheless, the Samarāṅganasūtradhāra contains an extensive treatment of southern temple types.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 35 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2012

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Footnotes

*

I thank Adam Hardy, Daud Ali, and Michael Willis for useful suggestions and comments, and for constant support and encouragement during my research on the text.

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