Hindu temple sculpture is governed by the shilpa shastras, the classical Sanskrit treatises on craft and iconography, most notably works such as the Manasara and the Mayamata, which fix in detailed technical prescription the correct proportions, postures, attributes and iconographic markers proper to each deity, so that carving a temple image is understood traditionally not as free artistic invention but as the correct, canonically constrained execution of a form already established by scriptural and traditional authority, a constraint the tradition treats as essential to the resulting image's religious validity rather than as an obstacle to artistic achievement.
A murti carved outside this canon, whether in incorrect proportion, missing prescribed attributes or bearing an unauthorised innovation in posture or form, is traditionally held to be improperly consecratable or, in stricter readings, simply invalid as an object suitable for temple worship, a strict linkage between correct craft and religious legitimacy considerably tighter than most sculptural traditions worldwide maintain between technical execution and the finished object's religious status. The sthapati, the master temple architect and sculptor, holds a position of considerable traditional authority and religious respect, overseeing both the temple's architectural construction and the iconographic programme of its carved images as a single unified undertaking rather than treating architecture and sculpture as separable specialisations.