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.s1.3

v3.c20.s1.3

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.