Kashyapa Shilpa is a canonical treatise on architecture and iconography of unknown date. The text contains eight five chapters, of which about forty five are devoted to architectural topics and about forty to iconography.
There is a description of the battle between vastu purusha and the gods. There is description of multi-storied structures, ranging from one to sixteen, along with constructional details.
The fourth chapter describes the digging and filling of the foundations and descriptions of walls, pillars and stones.
The fifth chapter deals with pedestals and their types, and the sixth gives the details of plinth.
Chapters 7 to 15 deals with patterns and structural details of pillars, lattices, arches, etc.
Chapter 17 and Chapter 18 describe the doors.
Chapter 19 describes the slabs.
Chapters 20-22 deal with various parts.
Chapter 23 to 25 give measurements and scales.
Chapter 25 describes three main architectural types, - the Dravida, Nagara and the Vesara and their regional affiliations.
Chapter 43 to 45 describe enclosures and allocation of apartments for storing grains.
Chapters 46 to 50 give the iconography of Shiva with His retinue. Chapters 51 to 57 deal with iconometry, covering the tala measurement.
Chapter 58 to 78 again describes images of gods.
Chapters 79 to 85 refer to the selection of wood, chiseling of pegs, etc.
Kashyapa Shilpa was printed by Anandasrama Press, Pune. A critical edition with a Marathi translation has been brought out by a competent engineer, Dr. R.P.Kulkarni.
Kashyapa Shilpa (1987) Dr R. P. Kulkarni – Government of Maharashtra, Mumbai.