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.c16.297

v2.c16.297

All these divisions are indicated by terms which were already in use as class names. The architecture of the country is divided into three broad styles and ten types, corresponding to the geographical divisions and the political entities. And there seems to have been a bond of union between these entities, however autonomous and independent they may have been in their mutual relation. In the total absence or rather non-existence of a unifying authority, the growth of a record of generalization, a guide book for the whole country, would be highly exceptional if not improbable. In other words, the presence of a standard work on architecture like the *Mānasāra* seems to presuppose an empire comprising countries having their own styles, methods, and principles, which are recorded and illustrated under so many divisions. Whether or not such books of generalization could have been written in those ancient days of India even without the patronage, active or passive, direct or indirect, of an imperial authority, it will be a useless, at any rate an unnecessary, discussion for our purpose. It is sufficient for me that the existence of such an empire may be taken to be conducive to the growth of such a treatise as the *Mānasāra*.