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) v2.c16.265

v2.c16.265

A number of questions may now arise. Did these ten countries exist in a prosperous condition at any one time in the history of India? Did they ever possess gorgeous edifices of twelve storeys admitting of ten different types? How could the author of the *Mānasāra* come to know of them? Was the description of these buildings based on the details of the existing edifices, or was it meant to be an injunction to be followed in erecting edifices in these countries? Is there any reason to think that the *Mānasāra* is a technical treatise on architecture, and not a work on poly-technics like the *Bṛihat-saṁhitā* dealing casually with architecture and sculpture, nor an encyclopædic work like the *Purāṇas* of northern India and the *Āgamas* of southern India, which too have incorporated within them architectural and sculptural as well as literary, religious, and scientific subjects?