Manasara Series (I. A Dictionary of Hindu Architecture; II. Indian Architecture according to Manasara-Shilpashastra; III. Manasara on Architecture and Sculpture: Sanskrit Text; IV. Architecture of Manasara: Translation; V. Architecture of Manasara: Illustrations; VI. Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad; VII. An Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture) v1.c3.1

v1.c3.1

*Origin and scope of the work*—This dictionary owes its name to the University of London¹. A glossary of the architectural terms used in the Mānasāra, the standard work on Hindu architecture, was prepared for my private use when I found it indispensable after struggling for two and half years to edit for the first time and translate into English a text which is written in five different scripts², possesses eleven badly preserved manuscripts, has undergone five recensions and comprises more than 10,000 lines of a language rightly remarked by Dr. Bühler as the "most barbarous Sanskrit."³ In this connection there arose an occasion for me to express to the University the opinion that an Encyclopædia of Hindu architecture was badly needed. Architectural expressions appear throughout the whole field of general Sanskrit literature and the epigraphical records, as well as in the extensive special branch of literature known as Vāstu-śāstras, more familiarly called Śilpa-śāstras. Existing dictionaries, in Sanskrit, English or any other language, do not elucidate architectural expressions: and the texts of the Vāstu-śāstras have been waiting for hundreds of years to be unearthed from manuscripts which are quite inaccessible without the guidance of a special dictionary that would also be instrumental in bringing to light many new things hitherto left unexplained in inscriptions and general literature. The University selected me as the person most immediately concerned and entrusted me with the task suggesting that I should "make a full dictionary of all architectural terms used in the Mānasāra, with explanations in English and illustrative quotations from cognate literature where available for the purpose."