Tala: proportions of the body
The face as a unit of measure: how image-makers count a body in talas, and what a reader notes.
- 6-minute lesson
- Basic course: Samudrika Shishya
- Samudrika Shastra
- The face as the unit
- How many talas
- In a reading
A first look at the lesson
Image-making texts measure a figure in talas. One tala is the length of the face, from the hairline to the chin.
Shilpa texts such as Manasara give different figures different numbers of talas, and deities the most. A living adult is about nine to ten face-lengths tall; the Roman writer Vitruvius gave ten.
Words in this lesson
More lessons on this subject
- Height and the angulaMeasured by one's own finger: the three heights of Brihat Samhita, 108, 96 and 84 angulas.
- What Samudrika Shastra isAn old Indian study of the whole body's marks and features, where it sits in Jyotish, and what it is not.
- The texts of SamudrikaBrihat Samhita, the Garuda Purana, Samudrika Tilaka, the Jain Angavijja and Charaka: what each gives.
- Reading old texts todayThe texts reflect their age; the fixed limits every Samudrika reader keeps, and why.
Your first lesson takes about five minutes
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