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) v3.c20.s1: History of Publication
Mānasāra Series (I. A Dictionary of Hindu Architecture; II. Indian Architecture according to Mānasāra-Śilpaśāstra; III. Mānasāra on Architecture and Sculpture: Sanskrit Text; IV. Architecture of Mānasāra: Translation; V. Architecture of Mānasāra: Illustrations; VI. Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad; VII. An Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture) v3.c20.s1
- Language
- English
History of Publication
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In 1834, in his *Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus*, Rām Rāj referred to the contents of the first few chapters of the *Mānasāra* from a fragmentary manuscript he had access to. Since then more manuscripts have been discovered, catalogued, and brought to the notice of the public. But the Sanskrit scholars like Dr. G. Bühler and Sir R. G. Bhandarkar have authentically branded this class of literature as written in "most barbarous Sanskrit."¹ Besides, the technical terms and obsolete expressions of the *Śilpa-śāstra*, practically a lost science, have had no place in any of the existing dictionaries. The texts contain no drawings, diagrams, or sketches. The then buildings, religious, military, especially residential, have mostly been destroyed, partly by time and partly by foreign invaders. Obviously these difficulties stood in the way of the elderly scholars and nobody had made any attempt to deal with this huge text for over 80 years, when, being induced by youthful enthusiasm, the present writer undertook in 1914 the task of giving "rebirth" to this "monumental work."
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¹ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. I, page 377; *Ind. Ant.*, Vol. II, page 140.
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The unsatisfactory condition, both original and accidental, of the existing manuscripts of the *śilpa-śāstra* generally, and of the *Mānasāra* in particular, aggravated the expedition into this unexplored field of Sanskrit learning. The unknown ways have had to be discovered at great pains and many new things had to be learnt after bitter experience and elaborate experiments. The vast store of literature on the subject and the inscriptions and other archaeological records have had to be ransacked. Extensive tours in company with trained architects and engineers have had to be undertaken, involving great expenditure of time, money, and convenience from Landikotal on the borders of Afghanistan to Rameswaram in the south, from Mahenjadaro in Sindh to Shillong in Assam, in order to examine ancient monuments throughout the country, including the cave temples of Western and Central India, the monuments of the Indian States in Rajputana and in Hyderabad, the hill temples of Kedarnath, Badrinath, Tunganath, etc. An encyclopædic dictionary has had to be compiled wherein for the first time an attempt has been made to settle the meanings of, and explain in English, some three thousand technical terms by illustrative quotations from cognate literature. In addition, some two hundred measured drawings, diagrams, and sketches in line and in colours have had to be prepared at great trouble and expense. Thus the peculiar pain of giving "rebirth" to a once fully grown "barbarous" child of unknown origin has been brought home to the writer. The youthful enthusiasm has been put to a great trial through the continuous struggle for seventeen years. With great diffidence, therefore, this curious child is presented to the learned world. If received with sympathy and kindness even such a child may thrive, and bring some solace to everybody responsible for and interested in it. Ultimately it may confer a lasting benefit on the country and the nation, because our architectural policy of the past few hundred years, based as it has been on foreign imitation, and in an entirely different climate and soil, has not proved quite successful in regard to temples and humble dwelling-houses, if not in regard to public edifices also.
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Lord Pentland, the then Governor of Madras and in charge of the Education Department, was induced by Sir John Marshall, lately the Director-General of Archæology in India, to take an interest in th *Mānasāra*, and some preliminary arrangements were made for its publi cation from Madras. But the unfortunate coincidence of H Excellency's retirement and Sir John's absence from India at th time of my arrival in Madras, forced me to leave the Presidency f Simla, where all the endeavours and the sympathy of Sir (then Mr George Anderson, Dr. D. B. Spooner, Sir Henry Sharp and Sir Sankaran Nair failed to secure a situation suitable for the "rebirth" the *Mānasāra*. At last an opportunity arose when the work could proceeded with in spite of other exacting duties. The Government India recommended, and the Government of the United Provinces offered me a post in the Indian Educational Service at Muir Central College, Allahabad. Sir Claude F. de la Fosse, the then Director of Public Instruction and the first Vice-Chancellor of the reorganized Allahabad University, took up the matter with friendly sympathy and scholarly interest and induced the great educationist Governor, Sir Harcourt Butler, to sanction the publication on behalf of the Government of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh through the Oxford University Press.