As a policy matter of surveying ancient remains and monuments at a regional and local level, different States of British India began to establish their Departments of Archaeology. The Hyderabad Archaeological Department was constituted in 1914 to study the ancient monuments and sites in the former Nizam's Dominions. Since its inception, a large number of temples and Buddhist sites have been systematically studied and described in detail in the Annual Report of the Department. The first report was published in 1916. Yazdani as the Director of the Department surveyed the monuments of the Nizam's Dominions and offered remarks on their architectural features. In particular, he surveyed and studied the temples at Pillalamarri, Palampet, Warangal, Dichpally, Nagulapudu, Alampur, and so on. Principal forts in the Dominion like Elgandal, Warangal, and Koyalkonda were also studied, with details on such aspects as trenches, trap doors, draw bridges, ramparts, walls, gates bastions, cellars, and secret passages. However, like another surveyor of the time, he did not discuss aspects of the technical skills involved in making either temples or fort buildings.
G.Jouveau-Dubreuil's contribution to the study of Indian architecture, particularly in South India is most significant. He combined the first-hand knowledge of the actual monuments and living traditions of the Silpins by subjecting them to a logical and systematic application of an appropriate methodology. This study was published as A History of Dravidian Architecture in 1917. it excelled previous achievements from a stylistic point of view, by thus interpreting every aspect of Indian Architecture. The concern is to understand important texts bearing on the architecture being brought to light, edited, and published. Among these, the Isanasiva Gurudevapadhati published from Trivandram between 1920-24, the Silparatna also from Trivandrum in 1922, the Samarangana Sutradhara from Baroda in 1923, the Manasollasa from Mysore in 1926 and the Vastuvidya from Trivandrum in 1940 are signification to mention as they facilitated researchers to understand the relevant terminology of architecture within the Indian tradition. They had another far-reaching impact in that they opened the door to appreciating Indian technological achievements along with appealing to the aesthetic sensibilities of the art that went along with the building.
According to Pramod Chandra," "many of the shortcomings of the scholarship of Indian temples architecture such as the failure to explore Indian sources and understand the inner meaning of the monuments, the purely literary studies of the Silpa texts, without reference to the surviving monuments of its living practitioners, the study of style conceived only in terms of the development of ornamental motifs and without a grounding in architectural or religious history, were all largely overcome in the works of Ananda Coomaraswamy". Coomaraswamy's writings on Indian architecture reflect this characteristic yearning to know the conceptual framework and the multifarious manifestations of Indian architecture through the ages. His first important work was History of Indian and Indonesian Art published in 1927. His Early Indian Architecture was published in 1930 which is indeed a masterpiece. We find in it a brilliant discussion example, which was integrated into the architectural form, for the first time. In another context, he described the various parts and components of the palace, the walls, gateways, different quarters and apartments, pillars, windows, etc. Like a professional architect, he further examined the material in the construction of the multi-storied prasadas and the development of Gavaksha, or the arched window which was a characteristic feature of Indian architecture.
Coomaraswamay's work left an indelible mark on the writings of later scholars. His work also opened up avenues for serious research on the Silpa texts. The ethos of his work in portraying the essence of ancient Indian buildings was carried forward by Stella Kramrisch. Her authoritative work on the meaning and symbolism of the Hindu Temples'' in two volumes, was published in 1946. This contains valuable information on the principles and methods of construction of temples with a direct focus on South India. Her scholarly endeavors took pains to describe all aspects of temple building from the selection of the site to the laying of its foundation, the spatial organization of the temple layout, the construction of the Upapitba, Adhistana, and other aspects of the superstructure. In giving these details, she heavily depended on ancient Silpa Texts which were utilized to supplement her views on the description of extant temples. From our point of view, it is pertinent to note that her work is one of the first to embody discussions on technical details of building temple complexes and information on building materials and bye-laws necessary to build structures which thus enable us to have a holistic view of the inter-relationship between architecture and technology. Necessary details for the latter and the terminology used for it was brought out systematically by P.K. Acharya. His, An Encyclopedia of Hindu Architecture! was also published in 1946 and provided detailed notes on the temple building activity according to the ancient Manasara Silpa Sastra. This was supplemented by making drawing to illustrate the relevant terminology used to describe various facets of temple building. This ranged from soil testing before executing the building to plastering which ultimately lent finishing touches to the buildings such as common dwellings, palaces, roads, and defense structures have also been elaborated upon and critically discussed. What is significant from our point of view is that aspects of building technology such as procurement of materials for construction, dressing of stone, erection, joining of beams, and providing roofs have been fully explained based on information provided by the Manasara
