Banister Fletcher by Riyaz Tayibji

 

Sir Banister Fletcher started writing Banister Fletcher, A history of architecture by comparison in 1890. The first edition was published in 1896. The next edition was published in 1901 which contained a few pages of European history.  It is considered to be one of the most detailed accounts of architecture from all over the world in the 20^th century.It gives factual accounts of world architecture from the earliest ties.

Ferguson talks about the fact that buildings cannot always be classified under the heading of architecture. He believed in the categorization of the rationale. The European way of thinking suggested that a building held up by the structure made it rational. Greeks believed in minimal ornamentation as compared to romans who believed in more of it. The European way of thinking created a divide between structure and ornamentation. Lady Mary, banister Fletcher’s son’s wife raised this issue.

A history of architecture by comparison has a tree describing types of architecture. The tree stems from only two concepts, one of Greek architecture and one of Roman architecture.

In 1930, the 7^th revised edition was published and in 1970, the 10^th. The book was structured like an encyclopaedia. The elements and parts of the building were described. Styles like Indian and Chinese were first introduced in the 4^th edition. The 19^th edition introduced Indian and Asian architecture in an abstract form and was descibed to be over-ridden by ornamentation. Temples at Thiruvanantamalai and Srirangam were described in a similar way even though their architecture and proportions were radically different. The complex relationships of the temples and the gods were overlooked and they seem to be looked at as the first experience only which was not enough to become familiar with the environment and parameters that were looked at when the temples were built.. In 1987, the book was completely structured at it looked at the Kailasa temples.

Samrangana Sutradhara

 

by Nitin Raje

Samrangana means battlefield and sutradhara means a person who guides with a thread. Samrangana may also mean mortals or dwelling for mortals. The book was written/compiled by Raja Bhoj, who was the king of Dhār. He was a unique ruler and he had unique subjects. He was a writer and a theoretician. He was also a practical person and a man of means to put deas into practice. He planned cities, built educational institutions, palaces, temples hospitals, step wells, pavilions and lakes. The Bhoja Pathshala had verses inscribed. It is interesting to speculate a society which could read, discuss and learn. The book was an incredible vision. It may be an accumulation of several texts. The ideas in the text are hazy. The text was translated into English, before which it was a set of scattered manuscripts. It has 83 chapters and 7500 verses.

A verse from Chapter 1:

‘Barring aside the science of architecture of that, there may there may not be a definite conclusion regarding auspicious masses, hence out of gracefulness for populace this science is dilated upon. ‘

The chapter looks at the science of housing in historic housing, principles of building and the impact on architectural discourse. The inputs about the texts may not be called medieval as they may have been drawn from older texts.

The book has a compilation of verses related to vastu. It discusses town planning, house architecture, temple architecture, sculptural arts, mudras and yantras. It also looks at spaces, entry and exit, neighbours etc. The book also refers to robots, flying machines, dolls and yantras among other things. It looks at mudras in sculptures, paintings and dancing. It is similar in this way to Natyashastra which also describes mudras in sculptures and dancing. It talks of the static and dynamic.

The book begins with the description of the earth, the 7 continents and the equal number of oceans. It then talks individuals comprised of panch mahabhutans or basic elements. The 5 elements: earth, air, water, fire and ether. It talks about the interplay of senses or tanmantras.

On town planning, he looks at the town as a living organism,. He emphasizes of the location, land, elevation, sun and climate and surrounding environment. He used a square grid of organization, with 64, 81 or 100 squares described in them.  He looks at vulnerable organs, like the king’s palace and army headquarters and positions them accordingly. He talks about arteries and veins as highways and roads.

Chapter 55 describes 16 dwelling places with names and detailed dimensions in hastas. Dwellings up to 12 storeys tall are described with orientations, organization of spaces, interiors etc. considering everything from astronomy to astrology.  He mentions that houses with internal water channels and a water outlet are the best in the world. He talks about construction details in about 300 verses. He describes building methods of 20 more houses in 200 more verses.

The dwellings had names known by ones who intended to construct them. The architect understood the names and recreated the particular house. None of the drawings of the house plans are available.

Several chapters describe construction of temples, idols and the method of installation of the idols in temples. Measurements of limbs of idols are mentioned as per Matsya Purana. Surprisingly he has included descriptions of temples which are both of the Nagara and Dravidian types.

In chapter 41, 33 verses talk about the specifications for brick and like mortar masonry. Chapter 48 deals with faulty construction techniques for houses. First 4 chapters deal with good and bad quality brick masonry construction. 5-20 describe faults in brick construction and problems faced by owners if guidelines are not followed. 21-31 describes measured to be taken to avoid bad quality brick masonry.

• Suvibhakta: Properly broken joints
• Samah : levelled brick work at each level.
• Caru: beautiful looking masonry patterns according to necessary strength

He also mentions a version of Pythagorean Theorem: A rope stretched along the length of the diagonal produces and an area which the vertical and horizontal sides make together. This is used to make sure that walls are perfectly perpendicular to each other. He also mentions that the thickness of the wall has to be equal throughout.

In chapter 82, he mentions the prerequisites of sentiments (rasas) in paintings. He mentions 11 sentiments: erotic, humour, pathos, terror, preyas, love, fear, heroism, odium, marvel and calmness in detail. Humour being described as

‘Having corner of the eyes affluent or dilated and having cheek region and eyelash broad and supportive in comic sentiment may be the dilated gaze. ‘

‘Having lovely eye corner, flashing, throbbing elegantly the lower lip accompanied by supportive mannerisms is called sentiment of humour.’

Ytmtra vidhnam is a chapter on preparation of mechanical devices. Basic principles of making these machines have been described. They are based on the 4 basic elements, earth, fire, water and air. Mercury is mentioned as a distinct element with its qualities and use with other elements.

He has described bed of a bed which crawls up by the force of air from one story to another in a 5 story building. (I think he means a lift maybe?)

He mentions moving dolls (robots) and time being measured with water and sound. Murhuttas or auspicious time, kasthas (seconds) can be found with different pleasing and terrifying sounds). Some devices mentioned for fun and frolic like the door keeper machine, soldier machine and a flying bird powered by mercury. He has a separate book on ship building called Yutikalpataru.