Acknowledgement

I would like to record my deepest gratitude to Late Sri B. Madhavan, former Secretary, The Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute who granted me permission to enroll myself for the Ph.D. at the Institute.

I am thankful to Dr. Sita Sundaram, Secretary KSRI who evinced interest in my research and encouraged me.

My thanks to Dr. S. Padmanabhan, former Prof. of Sanskrit and Head of the Dept. Dept of Sanskrit, University of Madras, member of the Doctoral Committee for giving his valuable suggestion on the subject of study.

I am immensely grateful to my guide Dr. T. V. Vasudeva for having taken great pains to decipher some extremely corrupt portions of the texts taken up for study and for guiding me at every step till the submission of the thesis.

The Director of K.S.R.I., Dr. V. Kameswari and the Dy. Director of K.S.R.I., Dr. K. S. Balasubramanian, have to be thanked specially for going through the whole study and giving valuable suggestions.

I am thankful to Dr. S.P. Sabharatnam Sivacarya, who helped me in getting familiarized with the language of the text.

This study would not have been possible without Dr. M. Raghu, Madras Sanskrit College who taught me the Śilpa part of the text. I am deeply indebted to him.

I am grateful to Dr. S. Aruna Sundaram, Prof. of Vyakarana, Madras Sanskrit College for clearing some of my doubts regarding the Agamic aspects that are part of the thesis.

I would also like to thank Sri Umapati Acharya, authentic traditional Sthapati, Kumbakonam; Sri Karthikeya Sthapati, Karur; Dr. Raman, Lecturer, Dept. of Stucco Sculpture and Mr. R. Guberan, Teacher, Dept. of Architecture, Government College of Architecture and Sculptor, Mamallapuram for familiarizing me with the technicalities of this subject, patiently clearing my doubts about the text and also offering pictorial illustrations that are used in the thesis.

I am also thankful to Sri Kapali Vaidyanathan, Chief Priest at the Kapalesvarar temple, for explaining the practical nuances of the Agamic tradition.

I take this opportunity to thank Mr. T. S. Gopalan of L.G. Foundation, Chennai, for providing me with financial assistance during the course of my study.

I am thankful to the Librarian and all the staff of the institute who helped me during the research from the very start.

(K. Vidyuta)