Shilpani

Dr Uday Dokras

Shilpani, works of art of man,

imitate the divine forms,
by employing their rhythms,
they metrically reconstitute,
and interpret the limitless knowledge,
of the sacred hymns,
from the limits of being human.

— Aitareya Brahmana, Rig Veda, 6.5.27

The need to build structures with integrity goes back as far as recorded history. Houses needed to be
able to support their own weight, plus the weight of the inhabitants. Castles needed to be fortified to
withstand assaults from invaders. Tools needed to be strong and tough enough to do their jobs.
However, the science of fracture mechanics as it exists today was not developed until the 1920s,
when Alan Arnold Griffith studied the brittle fracture of glass.
Starting in the 1940s, the infamous failures of several new technologies made a more scientific
method for analyzing structural failures necessary. During World War II, over 200 welded-steel ships
broke in half due to brittle fracture, caused by stresses created from the welding process, temperature
changes, and by the stress concentrations at the square corners of the bulkheads. In the 1950s,
several De Havilland Comets exploded in mid-flight due to stress concentrations at the corners of
their squared windows, which caused cracks to form and the pressurized cabins to explode. Boiler
explosions, caused by failures in pressurized boiler tanks, were another common problem during this
era, and caused severe damage. The growing sizes of bridges and buildings led to even greater
catastrophes and loss of life. This need to build constructions with structural integrity led to great
advances in the fields of material sciences and fracture mechanics.
So what about ancient temples? Structural integrity is the ability of a structure to withstand its
intended loading without failing due to fracture, deformation, or fatigue. It is a concept often used in
engineering to produce items that will serve their designed purposes and remain functional for a
desired service life.
To construct an item with structural integrity, an engineer must first consider a material’s mechanical
properties, such as toughness, strength, weight, hardness, and elasticity, and then determine the size
and shape necessary for the material to withstand the desired load for a long life. Since members can
neither break nor bend excessively, they must be both stiff and tough. A very stiff material may resist
bending, but unless it is sufficiently tough, it may have to be very large to support a load without
breaking. On the other hand, a highly elastic material will bend under a load even if its high
toughness prevents fracture.
Furthermore, each component’s integrity must correspond to its individual application in any load-
bearing structure. Bridge supports need a high yield strength, whereas the bolts that hold them need
good shear and tensile strength. Springs need good elasticity, but lathe tooling needs high rigidity. In

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 addition, the entire structure must be able to support its load without its weakest links failing, as this
can put more stress on other structural elements and lead to cascading failures
Structural integrity and failure is an aspect of engineering that deals with the ability of a structure
to support a designed structural load (weight, force, etc.) without breaking and includes the study of
past structural failures in order to prevent failures in future designs.
Structural integrity is the ability of an item—either a structural component or a structure consisting of
many components—to hold together under a load, including its own weight, without breaking or
deforming excessively. It assures that the construction will perform its designed function during
reasonable use, for as long as its intended life span. Items are constructed with structural integrity to
prevent catastrophic failure, which can result in injuries, severe damage, death, and/or monetary
losses.
Structural failure refers to the loss of structural integrity, or the loss of load-carrying capacity in
either a structural component or the structure itself. Structural failure is initiated when a material is
stressed beyond its strength limit, causing fracture or excessive deformations; one limit state that
must be accounted for in structural design is ultimate failure strength. In a well designed system, a
localized failure should not cause immediate or even progressive collapse of the entire structure.

The basic form of a Hindu structural temple consists of the following.

 Garbhagriha: It literally means 'womb-house' and is a cave like a sanctum. ...
 Mandapa: It is the entrance to the temple. ...
 Shikhara or Vimana: ...
 Amalaka: ...
 Kalasha: ...
 Antarala (vestibule): ...
 Jagati: ...
 Vahana:

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Span on the other hand is the distance between two intermediate supports for a structure, e.g.
a beam or a bridge. A span can be closed by a solid beam or by a rope. The first kind is used for
bridges, the second one for power lines, overhead telecommunication lines, some type of antennas or
for aerial tramways.

Side view of a simply supported beam (top) bending under an evenly distributed load (bottom).
The span is a significant factor in finding the strength and size of a beam as it determines the
maximum bending moment and deflection. The maximum bending moment and deflection in the
pictured beam is found using an equation involving:
= Uniformly distributed load
= Length of the beam between two supports (span)
= Modulus of elasticity
= Area moment of inertia

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Note that the maximum bending moment and deflection occur midway between the two supports.
From this it follows that if the span is doubled, the maximum moment (and with it the stress) will
quadruple, and deflection will increase by a factor of sixteen.
For long-distance rope spans, used as power line, antenna or for aerial tramways, see list of spans.
The beginning of Lentin was the Dolmen. A dolmen (/ˈdɒlmɛn/) is a type of single-
chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more vertical megaliths supporting a large
flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the early Neolithic (4000–3000 BC) and were
sometimes covered with earth or smaller stones to form a tumulus. Small pad-stones may be
wedged between the cap and supporting stones to achieve a level appearance. In many instances,
the covering has weathered away, leaving only the stone "skeleton" of the mound intact.
It remains unclear when, why and by whom the earliest dolmens were made. The oldest known
are found in Western Europe, dating from c 7,000 years ago. Archaeologists still do not know
who erected these dolmens, which makes it difficult to know why they did it. They are generally
all regarded as tombs or burial chambers, despite the absence of clear evidence for this. Human
remains, sometimes accompanied by artefacts, have been found in or close to the dolmens which
could be scientifically dated using radiocarbon dating. However, it has been impossible to prove
that these remains date from the time when the stones were originally set in place.

Dolmen at Ganghwa Island, South Korea

The word dolmen entered archaeology when Théophile Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne used it to
describe megalithic tombs in his Origines gauloises (1796) using the spelling dolmin (the current
spelling was introduced about a decade later and had become standard in French by about
1885). The Oxford English Dictionary does not mention "dolmin" in English and gives its first
citation for "dolmen" from a book on Brittany in 1859, describing the word as "The French term,
used by some English authors, for a cromlech ...". The name was supposedly derived from
a Breton language term meaning "stone table" but doubt has been cast on this, and
the OED describes its origin as "Modern French". A book on Cornish antiquities from 1754 said
that the current term in the Cornish language for a cromlech was tolmen ("hole of stone") and the
OED says that "There is reason to think that this was the term inexactly reproduced by Latour
d'Auvergne [sic] as dolmen, and misapplied by him and succeeding French archaeologists to
the cromlech". Nonetheless it has now replaced cromlech as the usual English term in
archaeology, when the more technical and descriptive alternatives are not used. The later Cornish
term was quoit - an English language word for an object with a hole through the middle
preserving the original Cornish language term of 'Tolmen' - the name of another dolmen-like
monument is in fact Mên-an-Tol 'stone with hole' (SWF: Men An Toll.

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Dolmens are known by a variety of names in other languages.The rarer
forms anta and ganda also appear. In the Basque Country, they are attributed to the jentilak, a
race of giants.
The etymology of the German: Hünenbett, Hünengrab and Dutch: hunebed -
with Hüne/hune meaning "giant" - all evoke the image of giants buried (bett/bed/grab =
bed/grave) there. Of other Celtic languages, Welsh: cromlech was borrowed into English
and quoit is commonly used in English in Cornwall.
In architecture, post and lintel (also called prop and lintel or a trabeated system) is a building
system where strong horizontal elements are held up by strong vertical elements with large
spaces between them. This is usually used to hold up a roof, creating a largely open space
beneath, for whatever use the building is designed. The horizontal elements are called by a
variety of names including lintel, header, architrave or beam, and the supporting vertical
elements may be called columns, pillars, or posts. The use of wider elements at the top of the
post, called capitals, to help spread the load, is common to many traditions.
The trabeated system is a fundamental principle of Neolithic architecture, ancient Indian
architecture, ancient Greek architecture and ancient Egyptian architecture. Other trabeated styles
are the Persian, Lycian, Japanese, traditional Chinese, and ancient Chinese architecture,
especially in northern China, and nearly all the Indian styles. The traditions are represented in
North and Central America by Mayan architecture, and in South America by Inca architecture. In
all or most of these traditions, certainly in Greece and India, the earliest versions developed
using wood, which were later translated into stone for larger and grander buildings. Timber
framing, also using trusses, remains common for smaller buildings such as houses to the modern
day.
The biggest disadvantage to a post and lintel construction is the limited weight that can be held
up, and the small distances required between the posts. Ancient Roman architecture's
development of the arch allowed for much larger structures to be constructed. The arcuated
system spreads larger loads more effectively, and replaced the post and lintel trabeated system in
most larger buildings and structures, until the introduction of steel girder beams in the industrial
era. As with the Roman temple portico front and its descendants in later classical architecture,
trabeated features were often retained in parts of buildings as an aesthetic choice. The classical
orders of Greek origin were in particular retained in buildings designed to impress, even though
they usually had little or no structural role.
In architecture, a post-and-lintel or trabeated system refers to the use of horizontal beams
or lintels which are borne up by columns or posts. The name is from the Latin trabs, beam;
influenced by trabeatus, clothed in the trabea, a ritual garment.
A noteworthy example of a trabeated system is in Volubilis, from the Roman era, where one side
of the Decumanus Maximus is lined with trabeated elements, while the opposite side of the
roadway is designed in arched style.In India the style was used originally for wooden
construction, but later the technique was adopted for stone structures for decorated load-bearing
and purely ornamented non-structural purposes.Post and lintel construction is one of four ancient
structural methods of building, the others being the corbel, arch-and-vault, and truss.
There are two main force vectors acting upon the post and lintel system: weight
carrying compression at the joint between lintel and post, and tension induced by deformation of

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self-weight and the load above between the posts. The two posts are under compression from the
weight of the lintel (or beam) above. The lintel will deform by sagging in the middle because the
underside is under tension and the topside is under compression.

Hindu weddings and marriage stones:

In Hinduism, it is customary in a marriage ceremony for the bride to stand on a stone slab or
millstone to symbolise her commitment to the marriage during times of difficulty, in a practice
known as Shila Arohan (Ascending the stone). A marriage stone, nuptial stone or lintel stone
is usually a stone, rarely wood, lintel carved with the initials, coat of arms, etc. of a newly
married couple, usually displaying the date of the marriage. They were very popular
until Victorian times, but fell out of general use in the 20th century. Many survive for aesthetic
value, particularly where well carved or of historic value. Many are part of or in the grounds of
a listed building or in conservation areas.
Purpose:

A marriage stone at Woodside House Parish of Beith.

Marriage stones serve as a record of a marriage, the joining together of two families, although in
Jersey, where they are probably more common than elsewhere in the British Isles, they rarely, if
ever, bear the date of a marriage, but mostly the names of the occupants of a property at the time
it was built, restored or extended, or when it was acquired by those whose initials appear on the
stone especially important in aristocratic families and also sometimes practised amongst the
newly established and monied middle classes. They were sometimes added to a building which
was constructed specifically as the new family home for the married couple, especially when the
dowry was large, or were carved into a pre-existing lintel over the main entrance or over a
fireplace. The stones also clearly indicated the ownership of the building to onlookers at the time

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as well as serving as a record for posterity of both marital bliss and often also of social
advancement.
Datestones are a subtly different category in that they primarily commemorate the construction
of a building rather than record a marriage. They may do both and such symbolism as entwined
hearts indicates that they serve to perform both functions. Date stones are far more common than
marriage stones and are found on most types of vernacular buildings, indeed they are in vogue
again today (2007), partly through the influence of the significance of the 2000 millennium year.
Some buildings have both marriage stones and datestones, such as 'The Hill' at Dunlop, which
has a date stone on the 'mansion house' and even the gateposts are dated.

PositioninG;

The stones were placed where they would be easily and frequently seen by visitors, usually on
the lintel above the front door of a house, above a fireplace or in a prominent position facing the
entrance or in the gardens, such as above a doorway in wall. [1] Many are no longer visible having
been covered over in some way such as when older buildings have been extended, porches built,
etc. Often the husband's initials were on the left and the wife's were on the right.
Design: Usually carved into stone or sometimes wood, they can be very detailed, with usually
only the initials of the married couple, the date of the marriage and sometimes the coat of
arms of the two families, just those of the husband and very rarely the combined coats of arms of
both families. In some cases the adornment was religious in nature, such as at 'The Hill' farm
mansion house (see photograph) or an artistic design simply placed there as an ornamentation.
The designs are found cut into the stone or standing proud of the rock face. Originally some of
these stones would have been brightly painted and adorned with gilt.

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 A marriage stone above the door to the Formal Gardens at Robertland House, East Ayrshire.
Circa 1930./The marriage stone lintel at 'The Hill' farm, Dunlop, East Ayrshire. One of many
16th century door lintels in Edinburgh's Old Town

A view of the marriage stone lintel positioned over the entrance to 'The Hill' farm mansion
house together with the motto "Delights and Adorns" and a Bible held in a hand dexter held
upright, suggesting both northern Ireland and Protestantism./ marriage stone set into the old
Sawmill near Aiket Castle. The faded markings have been enhanced.1811 marriage stone
from the original Nettlehirst house near Barrmill, North Ayrshire.

Dougong (See pic above) is a unique structural element of interlocking wooden brackets, one of
the most important elements in traditional Chinese architecture.
The use of dougong first appeared in buildings of the late centuries BC and evolved into a
structural network that joined pillars and columns to the frame of the roof. Dougong was widely
used in the ancient Chinese during the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BC) and developed
into a complex set of interlocking parts by its peak in the Tang and Song periods. The pieces are
fitted together by joinery alone without glue or fasteners, due to the precision and quality of the
carpentry.
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After the Song Dynasty, brackets and bracket sets became more ornamental than structural when
used in palatial structures and important religious buildings, no longer the traditional dougong.
Dougong is part of the network of wooden supports essential to the timber frame structure of
traditional Chinese building. Because the walls in these structures are not load-bearing (curtain
walls), they are sometimes made of latticework, mud or other delicate material. Walls functioned
to delineate spaces in the structure rather than to support weight.
Multiple interlocking bracket sets are formed by placing a large wooden block (dou) on a column
to provide a solid base for the bow-shaped brackets (gong) that support the beam or another gong
above it. The function of dougong is to provide increased support for the weight of the horizontal
beams that span the vertical columns or pillars by transferring the weight on horizontal beams
over a larger area to the vertical columns. This process can be repeated many times, and rise
many stories. Adding multiple sets of interlocking brackets or dougong reduces the amount of
strain on the horizontal beams when transferring their weight to a column. Multiple dougong also
allows structures to be elastic and to withstand damage from earthquakes.
During the Ming Dynasty an innovation occurred through the invention of new wooden
components that aided dougong in supporting the roof. This allowed dougong to add a decorative
element to buildings in the traditional Chinese integration of artistry and function, and bracket
sets became smaller and more numerous. Brackets could be hung under eaves, giving the
appearance of graceful baskets of flowers while also supporting the roof.
The Bao'en Temple in Sichuan is a good example of the Ming style. It has forty-eight types and
2,200 sets of dougong to support and ornament it. It is a well-preserved fifteenth century
monastery complex located in northwestern Sichuan province, China. It was built by Wang Xi, a
local chieftain, between 1440 and 1446 during Emperor Yingzong's reign (1427–64) in the Ming
Dynasty (1368–1644).

An I-beam, also known as H-beam (for universal column, UC), w-beam (for "wide
flange"), universal beam (UB), rolled steel joist (RSJ), or double-T (especially Pic at RIGHT

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in Polish, Bulgarian, Spanish, Italian and German), is a beam with an I or H-shaped cross-
section. The horizontal elements of the I are flanges, and the vertical element is the "web". I-
beams are usually made of structural steel and are used in construction and civil engineering.
The web resists shear forces, while the flanges resist most of the bending moment experienced
by the beam. The Euler–Bernoulli beam equation shows that the I-shaped section is a very
efficient form for carrying both bending and shear loads in the plane of the web. On the other
hand, the cross-section has a reduced capacity in the transverse direction, and is also inefficient
in carrying torsion, for which hollow structural sections are often preferred. The method of
producing an I-beam, as rolled from a single piece of steel, was patented by Alphonse Halbou of
the company Forges de la Providence in 1849.
Bethlehem Steel was a leading supplier of rolled structural steel of various cross-sections in
American bridge and skyscraper work of the mid-twentieth century. Today, rolled cross-sections
have been partially displaced in such work by fabricated cross-sections.Now we come to I beams

Typical cross-section of I-beams.There are two standard I-beam forms:

 Rolled I-beam, formed by hot rolling, cold rolling or extrusion (depending on material).
 Plate girder, formed by welding (or occasionally bolting or riveting) plates.
I-beams are commonly made of structural steel but may also be formed from aluminium or other
materials. A common type of I-beam is the rolled steel joist (RSJ)—sometimes incorrectly
rendered as reinforced steel joist. British and European standards also specify Universal Beams
(UBs) and Universal Columns (UCs). These sections have parallel flanges, as opposed to the
varying thickness of RSJ flanges which are seldom now rolled in the UK. Parallel flanges are
easier to connect to and do away with the need for tapering washers. UCs have equal or near-
equal width and depth and are more suited to being oriented vertically to carry axial load such as
columns in multi-storey construction, while UBs are significantly deeper than they are wide are
more suited to carrying bending load such as beam elements in floors.
I-joists—I-beams engineered from wood with fiberboard and/or laminated veneer lumber—are
also becoming increasingly popular in construction, especially residential, as they are both
lighter and less prone to warping than solid wooden joists. However, there has been some
concern as to their rapid loss of strength in a fire if unprotected.

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DESIGN

Illustration of an I-beam vibrating in torsion mode.

I-beams are widely used in the construction industry and are available in a variety of standard
sizes. Tables are available to allow easy selection of a suitable steel I-beam size for a given
applied load. I-beams may be used both as beams and as columns.
I-beams may be used both on their own, or acting compositely with another material,
typically concrete. Design may be governed by any of the following criteria:

 deflection: the stiffness of the I-beam will be chosen to minimize deformation

 vibration: the stiffness and mass are chosen to prevent unacceptable vibrations, particularly
in settings sensitive to vibrations, such as offices and libraries
 bending failure by yielding: where the stress in the cross section exceeds the yield stress
 bending failure by lateral torsional buckling: where a flange in compression tends to buckle
sideways or the entire cross-section buckles torsionally
 bending failure by local buckling: where the flange or web is so slender as to buckle locally
 local yield: caused by concentrated loads, such as at the beam's point of support
 shear failure: where the web fails. Slender webs will fail by buckling, rippling in a
phenomenon termed tension field action, but shear failure is also resisted by the stiffness of
the flanges
 buckling or yielding of components: for example, of stiffeners used to provide stability to the
I-beam's web.
A beam under bending sees high stresses along the axial fibers that are farthest from the neutral
axis. To prevent failure, most of the material in the beam must be located in these regions.
Comparatively little material is needed in the area close to the neutral axis. This observation is
the basis of the I-beam cross-section; the neutral axis runs along the center of the web which can
be relatively thin and most of the material can be concentrated in the flanges.
The ideal beam is the one with the least cross-sectional area (and hence requiring the least
material) needed to achieve a given section modulus. Since the section modulus depends on the
value of the moment of inertia, an efficient beam must have most of its material located as far
from the neutral axis as possible. The farther a given amount of material is from the neutral axis,
the larger is the section modulus and hence a larger bending moment can be resisted.

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Design for bending

The largest stresses () in a beam under bending are in the locations farthest from the neutral axis.
When designing a symmetric I-beam to resist stresses due to bending the usual starting point is
the required section modulus. However, these ideal conditions can never be achieved because
material is needed in the web for physical reasons, including to resist buckling.
Issues
Though I-beams are excellent for unidirectional bending in a plane parallel to the web, they do
not perform as well in bidirectional bending. These beams also show little resistance to twisting
and undergo sectional warping under torsional loading. For torsion dominated problems, box
beams and other types of stiff sections are used in preference to the I-beam.

In classical architecture, an architrave –“beam", also called an epistyle or "door frame" is

the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns.The term can also apply to all sides,
including the vertical members, of a frame with mouldings around a door or window. The word
"architrave" has come to be used to refer more generally to a style of mouldings (or other

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elements) framing a door, window or other rectangular opening, where the horizontal "head"
casing extends across the tops of the vertical side casings where the elements join (forming a butt
joint, as opposed to a miter joint).
In an entablature in classical architecture, it is the lowest part, below the frieze and cornice. The
word is derived from the Greek and Latin words arche and trabs combined together to mean
"main beam". The architrave is different in the different Classical orders. In the Tuscan order, it
only consists of a plain face, crowned with a fillet, and is half a module in height. In
the Doric and Composite order, it has two faces, or fasciae, and three in the Ionic and Corinthian
order, in which it is 10/12 of a module high, though but half a module in the rest.
The term architrave has also been used in academic writing to mean the fundamental part of
something (a speech, a thought or a reasoning), or the basis upon which an idea, reasoning,
thought or philosophy is built.
Examples:

1. "...the Mature Hegel – the Hegel of the Philosophy of Right – who becomes the
architrave on which he (Honneth, ed.) constructs his social philosophy."
2. "to become the architrave of his theoretic construction"

Temple Structural failure can occur from many types of problems, most of which are unique to
different industries and structural types. However, most can be traced to one of five main causes.

 The first is that the structure is not strong and tough enough to support the load, due to either its
size, shape, or choice of material. If the structure or component is not strong enough, catastrophic
failure can occur when the structure is stressed beyond its critical stress level.
 The second type of failure is from fatigue or corrosion, caused by instability in the structure’s
geometry, design or material properties. These failures usually begin when cracks form at stress
points, such as squared corners or bolt holes too close to the material's edge. These cracks grow
as the material is repeatedly stressed and unloaded (cyclic loading), eventually reaching a critical
length and causing the structure to suddenly fail under normal loading conditions.
 The third type of failure is caused by manufacturing errors, including improper selection of
materials, incorrect sizing, improper heat treating, failing to adhere to the design, or shoddy
workmanship. This type of failure can occur at any time and is usually unpredictable.
 The fourth type of failure is from the use of defective materials. This type of failure is also
unpredictable, since the material may have been improperly manufactured or damaged from prior
use.
 The fifth cause of failure is from lack of consideration of unexpected problems. This type of
failure can be caused by events such as vandalism, sabotage, or natural disasters. It can also
occur if those who use and maintain the construction are not properly trained and overstress the
structure

In śilpaśāstra, the Hindu texts on architecture, the architrave is commonly referred to by its
Sanskrit name uttara. In Hindu temple architecture it is placed above the bracket (potika) of a
pillar (stambha), which gives it extra support. The Indian entablature is called prastara.

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Dravidian architecture recognizes several distinct types of architraves:[7]

 rounded (vṛttapotika)
 wavy (taraṅgapotika)
 flower shaped (puṣpapotika)
 bevel and tenon type (ādhārapotika)
 voluted (muṣṭibanda)
 figural (citrapotika)
Shilpa Shastras (Sanskrit: शिल्प शास्त्र śilpa śāstra) literally means the Science of Shilpa (arts
and crafts). It is an ancient umbrella term for numerous Hindu texts that describe arts, crafts, and
their design rules, principles and standards. In the context of Hindu temple architecture and sculpture,
Shilpa Shastras were manuals for sculpture and Hindu iconography, prescribing among other things,
the proportions of a sculptured figure, composition, principles, meaning, as well as rules of
architecture.
Sixty-four techniques for such arts or crafts, sometimes called bāhya-kalā "external or practical arts",
are traditionally enumerated, including carpentry, architecture, jewellery, farriery, acting, dancing,
music, medicine, poetry etc., besides sixty-four abhyantara-kalā or "secret arts", which include
mostly "erotic arts" such as kissing, embracing, etc. (Monier-Williams s.v. śilpa).
While Shilpa and Vastu Shastras are related, Shilpa Shastras deal with arts and crafts such as forming
statues, icons, stone murals, painting, carpentry, pottery, jewellery, dying, textiles and others. Vastu
Shastras deal with building architecture – building houses, forts, temples, apartments, village and
town layout, etc.
I. Prastara (Sanskrit: प्रस्तर, romanized: prastāra, extension, flat top) is a sort
of entablature in the Hindu temple architecture.It is a horizontal superstructure of
bands and moldings above column capitals, sometimes functions as a parapet of a
story. Prastara is both functional and decorative element located above
the architrave of the temple.[2][3][4] Being the third part of the building counting from
the bottom, prastara is a very important element of the overall architectural
composition of the temple
In the Dravidian context, prastara signifies a meeting place, where the two divisions of the
temple, prasada varga (the Earth) and the pada varga (the Heaven), meet each other.
Prastara consists of several parts from bottom to top: uttara, valabhi (stringcourse above uttara),
and kapota (dripstone). Kapota is usually shaped as a pigeon's head.

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 Stambha

Stambha (tower in English) is a pillar or column found in India. In the context of Hindu mythology,
it is believed to be a cosmic column that functions as a bond, joining heaven (Svarga) and earth
(Prithvi). A number of Hindu scriptures, including the Atharva Veda, feature references to Stambhas.
In the Atharva Veda, a celestial stambha has been described as an infinite scaffold, which supports
the cosmos and material creation.
A Stambha was and is also used in the context of Indian architecture. Different Stambhas serve
different purposes, including the following:

 Dhvaja Stambha (Flagstaff Towers) are placed opposite the main shrine, on an axis with the
main deity.
 Kirti Stambha (Glorious Tower) & Vijaya Stambha (Victory Tower) are erected to commemorate
victories.
 The most well-known stambhas of India are the Ashoka Stambha (Pillars of Ashoka) — erected
during the reign of Ashoka, spread across the subcontinent, bearing different types of royal
edicts.
 Adi Purana — a huge manastambha — stands in front of the samavasarana of the tirthankaras,
which causes entrants to a samavasarana to shed their pride.

The experience of Indian Shilpis in making of pillars has been profound be it stone, timber or brick.
Pillars (Stambha) forms an innate part of the Hindu Temple Architecture, thousand years back when
these temples were built there were established design principals, testing methods, though no
software, calculators and spreadsheets etc were available, still the end results exhibited by these
temples are fabulous and are ‘Structural Engineering Marvels’. These pillars played a very
prominent and pleasing part in the temple architecture of the time. Tall, slender, free-standing, beam
supporting pillars, and pilasters, but these elements are not well defined as in the western classic

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architecture, and hence it becomes difficult to classify them as they have multifold relations which
they have carried from one period to another transforming into new types with minute changes, this
can be seen as a result of craftsmanship prevailing at the time at a particular place also the social
needs and ruling power were the factors in evolution of the pillars.

They were expressions of strength, support, celestial connection and manifestation of arts prevailing
at that era. Although they evolved from Sastraic Mathematical proportions, they displayed greater
freedom of design which the Indian wrought in his own imaginative way, these pillars still stand
today as a source of inspiration, promoting diverse studies for designing of pillar in contemporary
temples. This paper analyses the Pillars (Stambha) as vital element of the Hindu temple and provides
more explanation of ancient literature study on pillars, also the rules and regulations which govern
the construction of these marvelous element of temple architecture. Further the paper discusses the
Yali [Vyala] Pillars with respect to elements of space making in temples of Vijaynagar era, and how
these Yali Pillars when treated with extraordinary ornamentations enhanced, beautified and lender
unique character to the structure and identified the temples given impression of strength, stability and
reliability. The volume of distinct spaces, movements and visual impact created by these pillars in
temples gives an idea of the distinct identity of architecture to create a sense of group identities
between those who built and those who inhabited or used these structures, such elements embody not
just the earth or stone from which they were built, but the people and experiences involved in their
construction, holding special place in human memory giving distinct identity to structures of
architecture.
Author: Ar.Meenal Kumar https://www.journalcra.com/article/pillars-stambha%E2%80%93-supportive-
elements-hindu-temples-0#:~:text=Pillars%20(Stambha)%20forms%20an%20innate,temples%20are
%20fabulous%20and%20are

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File:Plan Of The Ancient Temple Of Vishveshvur by James Prinsep 1832.jpg

Dark areas refer to Structural elements of Pillars. Above the pillars are the lentins.

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 Simple linten
A lintel or lintol is a structural horizontal block that spans the space or opening between two
vertical supports. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented
structural item. It is often found over portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. In the case of
windows, the bottom span is instead referred to as a sill, but, unlike a lintel, does not serve to
bear a load to ensure the integrity of the wall. Modern day lintels are made using prestressed
concrete and are also referred to as beams in beam and block slabs or ribs in rib and block slabs.
These prestressed concrete lintels and blocks are components that are packed together and
propped to form a suspended floor concrete slab.
In worldwide architecture of different eras and many cultures, a lintel has been an element
of post and lintel construction. Many different building materials have been used for lintels.[1]
In classical Western architecture and construction methods, by Merriam-Webster definition, a
lintel is a load-bearing member and is placed over an entranceway. Called an architrave, the
lintel is a structural element that is usually rested on stone pillars or stacked stone columns, over
a portal or entranceway. An example from the Mycenaean Greece cultural period (c. 1600 –
1100 BCE) is the Treasury of Atreus in Mycenae, Greece. It weighs 120 tons, with approximate
dimensions 8.3 × 5.2 × 1.2 m, one of the largest in the world.
A lintel may support the chimney above a fireplace, or span the distance of a path or road,
forming a stone lintel bridge.
The use of the lintel form as a decorative building element over portals, with no structural
function, has been employed in the architectural traditions and styles of most cultures over the
centuries.
Examples of the ornamental use of lintels are in the hypostyle halls and slab stelas in ancient
Egypt and the Indian rock-cut architecture of Buddhist temples in caves. Preceding prehistoric

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and subsequent Indian Buddhist temples were wooden buildings with structural load-bearing
wood lintels across openings. The rock-cut excavated cave temples were more durable, and the
non-load-bearing carved stone lintels allowed creative ornamental uses of classical Buddhist
elements. Highly skilled artisans were able to simulate the look of wood, imitating the nuances
of a wooden structure and the wood grain in excavating cave temples from monolithic rock. In
freestanding Indian building examples, the Hoysala architecture tradition between the 11th and
14th centuries produced many elaborately carved non-structural stone lintels in the
Southern Deccan Plateau region of southern India. The Hoysala Empire era was an important
period in the development of art and architecture in the South Indian Kannadigan culture. It is
remembered today primarily for its Hindu temples' mandapa, lintels, and other architectural
elements, such as at the Chennakesava Temple.
The Maya civilization in the Americas was known for its sophisticated art and monumental
architecture. The Mayan city of Yaxchilan, on the Usumacinta River in present-day southern
Mexico, specialized in the stone carving of ornamental lintel elements within structural stone
lintels. The earliest carved lintels were created in 723 CE. At the Yaxchilan archaeological site
there are fifty-eight lintels with decorative pieces spanning the doorways of major structures.
Among the finest Mayan carving to be excavated are three temple door lintels that feature
narrative scenes of a queen celebrating the king's anointing by a god.
Radiation Protection: Lintels may also be used to reduce scattered radiation in medical
applications. For example, Medical linacs operating at high energies will produce activated
neutrons which will be scattered outside the treatment bunker maze with a dose rate that depends
on the maze cross section. Lintels may be visible or recessed in the roof of the facility, and
reduce dose rate in publicly accessible areas by reducing the maze cross section.

Today structural fracture mechanics is the field of structural engineering concerned with the
study of load-carrying structures that includes one or several failed or damaged components. It
uses methods of analytical solid mechanics, structural engineering, safety
engineering, probability theory, and catastrophe theory to calculate the load and stress in the
structural components and analyze the safety of a damaged structure.

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There is a direct analogy between fracture mechanics of solid and structural fracture mechanics:

Analogy between fracture mechanics of solid and structural fracture mechanics

Fracture mechanics Structural fracture mechanics

Multi-component structure with a failed

Model Solid with a crack
component

Defect driving Stress intensity

Overload stress
force factor

System property Fracture toughness Reserve ability / Structural robustness

There are different causes of the first component failure:

1. mechanical overload, fatigue (material), unpredicted scenario, etc.

2. “human intervention” like unprofessional behavior or a terrorist attack.
There are two typical scenarios:

1. A localized failure does NOT cause immediate collapse of the entire structure.
2. The entire structure fails immediately after one of its components fails.
If the structure does not collapse immediately there is a limited period of time until the
catastrophic structural failure of the entire structure. There is a critical number of structural
elements that defines whether the system has reserve ability or not.[citation needed]
Safety engineers use the failure of the first component as an indicator and try to intervene during
the given period of time to avoid the catastrophe of the entire structure. For example, “Leak-
Before-Break” methodology means that a leak will be discovered prior to a catastrophic failure
of the entire piping system occurring in service. It has been applied to pressure vessels, nuclear
piping, gas and oil pipelines, etc.
The methods of structural fracture mechanics are used as checking calculations to estimate
sensitivity of a structure to its component failure.

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Catastrophe failure model and reserve ability of a complex system. The model supposes that
failure of several elements causes neighboring elements overloading. The model equation shows
the relationship between local and external stresses. The equation is similar to the cusp
catastrophe behavior. The theory predicts reserve ability of the complex system and the critical
external stress.
The failure of a complex system with parallel redundancy can be estimated based on
probabilistic properties of the system elements.

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Hoysalesvara temple east door lintel. Karnataka

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A. Strutural Plan Density
Structural plan density defined as the total area of all vertical structural members divided by the gross floor
area. The size and density of structural elements is very great in the Indian temples as compared to the today's
buildings. For a R.C.C. framed building it is generally 3, but in Indian this can go as high as 47% as it is in the
case of the Surya temple Konark.

Fig. 2. Structure plan density of Indian temples

1) Column and beams

The columns are monolithic structure. They are made up of 5 parts and all are interlocked by the mortise and
Tenon joints. The five parts consists of two parts of the base one part as theshaft and two as the capital of the
column. The top of the column have the brackets which provide a good bearing for the beams and reduce the
spans. The beams were placed over the column structure which further supports the roofing system of the temple.
2) Mandapa
The mandapa of the temple may be flat roofed in the south and have pyramidical superstructure in the north.
The mandapa ceiling is built with basic beam and slab construction method. Octagonal patterns were constructed
by placing the triangular slabs across the corners of the square plan. The square bay of the mandapas were
reduced to stepped pyramidical roof via triangular corner slabs or diagonal beams.

Fig. 5. Plan of arrangement and joining of beams

3) Sikhara
The sikhara is the pyramidical structure built on the garbhagriha of the temple. Corbelling construction system
is used for the construction of the sikhara. The sikhara is usually hollow from inside or in some cases filled with
rubble. The apex of the superstructure is mounted by a single piece of stone called as amlaka in the north and

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sikhara in the south.

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