Bhaktajan II
Hare Krishna Yogi
- Messages
- 2,277
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a] I remember where 'iron-filings' were placed atop a drum skin [surface of a drums taut surface] ---and then, a pattern would form as per different sounds resonating upon the drum. .
TBC?
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b] I stubled upon this artical I had fpound and kept for the net. The Names etc must be googled to find this 1995 reprinted article. Th architect cited was retired back in 1988.
Master Builder Uncovers Striking Similarities In Indian and Incan / Mayan Sacred Structures - Architecture
Reprinted Courtesy of Hinduism Today, June 1995
Ancient Architects Employed Analogous Design Doctrines and Masonry Methods
Mr. V. Ganapati Sthapati [Indian Born Architect] measured with tape, compass and a lay-out story pole, two ancient Incan structures at Machu Picchu: a temple and a residence, in South America.
He has confirmed that the layout of these structures, locations for doors, windows, proportions of width to length, roof styles, degree of slopes for roofs, column sizes, wall thicknesses, etc., all conform completely to the principles and guidelines as prescribed in the Shaastra Vaastu of India.
Residential layouts are identical to those found in Mohenjodaro. The temple layouts are identical to those that he is building today and that can be found all over India."
These startling discoveries came during a March, 1995, visit of the master builder to the ancient Incan and Mayan sites of South and Central America.
Mr. Ganapati Sthapati is India's foremost traditional temple architect and perhaps the first true expert in sculpture and stone construction to personally examine these ancient buildings. To do so has been his dream since the 1960's.
It is Sthapati's theory that ‘Maya-deva’, the creator of Indian architecture, originated from the Mayan people of Central America.
In Indian history, ‘Maya-deva’ appears several times, most significantly as the author of Mayamatam, "Concept of Mayam" which is a Vastu Shastra, a text on art, architecture and town planning. The traditional date for this work is 8,000bce.
‘Maya-deva’ appears in the Ramayana (13000bce) and again in the Mahabharata (3000bce)-in the latter he designs a magnificent palace for the Pandava brothers.
‘Maya-deva’ is also mentioned in Silappathikaram, an ancient Tamil scripture, and is author of Surya Siddhanta, one of the most ancient Hindu treatises on astronomy.
The fundamental principle of Mayan's architecture and town planning is the "module." Buildings and towns are to be laid out according to certain multiples of a standard unit. Floor plans, door locations and sizes, wall heights and roofs, all are determined by the modular plan.
More specifically, ‘Maya-deva’ advocated the use of an eight-by-eight square, for a total of 64 units, which is known as the Vastu Purusha Mandala.
The on-site inspection by Sthapati was to determine if the Incan and Mayan structures did follow a modular plan and reflect the Vastu Purusha Mandala. He also intended to examine the stone working technology-his particular field of expertise.
Sthapati was born in 1927 into a family whose ancestors, members of the family lineage of Viswakarma-deva, built the great temple at Tanjore in the 10th century ce at the request of Raja Raja Chola.
Machu Picchu
The moment Sthapati approached an ancient Incan residential building at Machu Picchu on March 15th, he pointed at the wall and said, "That is a thickness of one kishku hasta"-33 inches, a standard measure in South India first promulgated by Mayan.
He proceeded to measure the buildings in detail and discovered each was indeed built on a module-based plan, following the system of Mayan's eight-by-eight squares. The module method was followed within small fractions of an inch.
The buildings were oriented toward certain points of the compass, also a principle of Mayan, rather than randomly placed. Also the lengths of buildings were never more than twice their width, as Mayan stipulated.
From Machu Picchu they traveled to Saqsayhuman, an Incan site dated from 400 bce to 1400 ce. Here are the famous stone walls made of rocks weighing up to 160 tons and fitted together so expertly that a knife blade cannot be put in any joint.
Sthapati pointed out the insets chiseled into the base of many stones, as well as small knobs left on their faces.
"These are for the use of levers, the exact same system we continue to use in India to move large stones. Thirty to forty men can move these very large rocks with this method," he explained to the guide's astonishment.
He could see other details of the stone working were identical to what is practiced in India, such as the method of quarrying stones by splitting off slabs.
So too was the jointing and fitting of stones, the use of lime mortar, leveling with a plumb line and triangle, and the corbeling for the roofs. Corbeling is the method by which stones are drawn in layer by layer until they meet or nearly meet to allow a roof slab to be placed on top.
Sthapati considers the similarity of this technology to that used in India to be very significant.
The use of the horizontal lintel and the absence of the arch are additional noteworthy points of correspondence between the two traditions.
Land of the Mayans
Amidst the crowds, Sthapati, Deva and Thamby again unsheathed their tape measures and closely examined the Pyramid of the Castle. It too conformed to the Vastu Vedic principles of Mayan.
The temple structure at the top was exactly 1/4th of the base. And the stepped pyramid design derived from a three-dimensional extension of the basic eight-by-eight grid system. The temple room at the top was also modular in design, with the wall thickness determining the size of doorways, location of columns, thickness of columns and the width and length of the structure.
Most interesting was the name of this structure-chilambalam, meaning a sacred space. It is Sthapati's theory that the Mayans worshiped the very concept of space, specifically a space made according to the modular system.
