Devta Murtiprakaranam tatha Rupmandanam

Author(s): Upendramohan Sankhyatirtha
Publisher: Metropolitan Printing and Publishing House Limited

Page 30

[ 18 ] arts on which each work treated, or of the authors of the treatises themselves, the renowned Rishis or holy men, who are said to have flourished in the earlier ages."
The South Indian Agamas are extensive works and deal mostly with Siva. There are twenty-eight recognized Agamas.52 Some of them incidentally deal with architectural subjects, in great
52 a. For the South Indian Saivàgamas see :-H. W. Schomerus : Der Caiva-Siddhānta eine mystik Indiens. Leipzig, J. C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandhung, 1912. Pp. 7ff. Einleitung : 2. Die Caivāgama, die Hauptautoritat des Caiva-Siddhanta (a) Der Ursprung and das Alter der Agama
Die Gruppierung der Agama and ihr Umfang; J. M. Nallaswami Pillai ; Sivanāna Siddhiyar of Arunandi Sivāchārya. Madras, Meykandan Press, 1913. Pp. lii-lv. List of Agamas or Tantra with Upāgamas.
52 b. "Some of the Agamas deal with very technical matters, which are not met with in the Puranas. Moreover, some Agamas, to all intents and purposes, are but architectural treatises. The Kāmikāgama, for instance, devotes sixty chapters out of a total of seventy-five to architecture and sculpture, and its treatment of the subjects can hardly be surpassed by that of an avowedly architectural treatise".
"The Karanāgama also devotes much space to architecture and sculpture. There are thirty-seven chapters in the Agama, which deal with these subjects exhaustively. It makes a distinct addition to the Agamas' contributions to the Silpa-śāstras. It contributes two valuable chapters dealing with the details of the nine and ten tāla measures. This is also a highly technical matter concerning sculpture and entirely missing in the Puranas".
"The Suprabhedagama has devoted only fifteen chapters to architecture and sculpture. Nor has it anything new to add to the Agamas' contributions to the Silpa-sõstras. But its unique nature consists in the fact that it has quite successfully summarised all important matters in a comparatively small space, and in respect of brevity, explicitness and precision it surpasses even the Brhat-samhitū of Varāhamihira."
"The Vaikhīnasāgama has two chapters on sculpture, one of which deals with the general description of images and the other with the ten tāla measures. The Amsumad-bhedāgama has a single chapter on the ten tāla measures." ... · P. K. Acharya : Ind. Architecture according to the Münasāra, pp. 23--28. The Āgamas,