रूपमण्डन एवं देवमूर्त्ति-प्रकरणम् (मण्डन सूत्रधार - प्राचीन मूर्तिकला एवं देव-प्रतिमा लक्षण सटीक)

[ 27 ] Of the eighteen or nineteen Mahā-purāṇas, besides the other Upa-purāṇas⁷⁹, some nine have special reference to architec- ture and sculpture etc. Most of the Purāṇas are Vaiṣṇava and as many as fourteen of them are devoted to the worship of Viṣṇu ; but they deal with the images of all the three deities, Trimūrti, forming the Triad.

1. The Agni-purāṇa has sixteen chapters on Vāstu and Śilpa —one of them on town-planning, two on residential buildings and thirteen on sculpture.
2. The Garuḍa-purāṇa has two chapters on architecture and two on sculpture.
3. The Nāradīya-purāṇa treats only the construction of temples, reservoirs, wells and tanks in its one chapter.
4. The Brahmāṇḍa-purāṇa, likewise, treats the construc- tion of temples and other buildings in its one chapter.
5. The Bhaviṣya-purāṇa has four chapters, three being devoted to sculpture and one on the architecture of temples.
6. The Matsya-purāṇa has eight comprehensive chapters dealing in great detail with architecture and sculpture, constituting M. Winternitz : A. History of Ind. Lit. Vol. I. Section II ; especially, pp. 517—586. About the Śilpa sections of the Purāṇas, see :— P. K. Acharya : Ind. Arch. I. General Survey. III. The Epics. V. The Age of Mānasāra ; and also A Dictionary of Hindu Archit. Appendix II. ; N. Law : Vārtā—the Hindu Economics, Ind. Antiq., Vol. XLVII.
7. For full lists of the Purāṇas and the Upa-Purāṇas : see M. Monier- Williams : Indian Wisdom (1893, Lond), chapt. XV.—ff. Purāṇas ; and see, especially—about eighteen Purāṇas, pp. 513-14 and about eighteen Upa- Purāṇas, p. 521. Also, M. Winternitz : Op. cit., p. 532-33. “But the Matsya-Purāṇa mentions only four Upa-Purāṇas. The Brahma-vaivarta-P., without enumerating them, says that eighteen Upa-P. exist. The Kūrma-P. enumerates them.”