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.s1.1

v3.c20.s1.1

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."