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.c16.416

v2.c16.416

Historical facts, as stated above, cannot generally be extricated adequately from the complexities of the fiction. Moreover although some vague conclusion has been inferred from the circumstantial evidence about the period in which Daṇḍin, the undeniable author of the *Daśa-kumāra-charita* lived, no such vague idea even is available about the period or periods in which the semi-historical incidents described in the *Daśa-kumāra-charita* might have taken place. Besides King Mānasāra of the *Daśa-kumāra-charita*, it may be incidentally pointed out, was not the hero or even one of the chief characters of the fiction. He is stated, as pointed out above, to be the King of Malwa and a contemporary of King Rājahamsa of Magadha who was the father of Rājavāhana, the chief of the ten princes (daśa-kumāra). In the *Daśa-kumāra-charita* itself King Mānasāra is stated to have been engaged in a war with King Rāja-haṁsa, that is all. There is in the fiction practically no direct or indirect reference made as to the nature of interest which King Mānasāra might have been in the habit of taking in literary or artistic matters; it must, however, be admitted that there were no real occasions for such a reference¹. In this connection another incident too may be advantageously taken into consideration: neither in the three styles mentioned in the treatise *Mānasāra* under three geographical names (Nāgara, Vesara and Drāvida) nor in the ten types of buildings bearing again geographical names and provincial divisions (Pāñchāla, Drāvida, Madhyakānta, Kalinga, Virāta, Kerala, Vaṁśaka, Magadha, Janaka, and Gurjaka) is included Mālava which was presumably the capital city and provincial kingdom of king Mānasāra of the *Daśa-kumāra-charita*. In the circumstances it would be really doubly unwarranted to take any decision about the possibility or otherwise of King Mānasāra's patronage or instrumentality in the production of the standard treatise on architecture which, as its title would seemingly indicate, might have been named after him.