The purpose of this paper is to analyze the dutes and abilities of the silpin (artisan) in two texts of southern Indian architecure. The first text is the Mayamata, which was written between the ninth century and twelfth century in Tamil Nadu, and the second is the Silparatna, which was written during the sixteenth century in Orissa. The word silpin is a general term for these four kind of workmen, i. e. sthapati (architect), sutragrahin (draftsman), vardhaki (carpenter) and taksaka (wood-cutter).
I compared the contents of duties and indispensable abilities of the silpin described in sthapati-laksana (artisans' regulations). As a result, it will be naturally assumed that the Silparatna was written practically based on the descriptions of the Mayamata, also because of compositional similalities of both text.
