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) v4.c29.s1.1

v4.c29.s1.1

Architecture of Mānasāra is an English version of a Sanskrit text of that name edited, with critical notes, for the first time by the writer. The text is based on all the eleven available manuscripts gathered together by the then Secretary of State for India, Sir Austin Chamberlain, for the use of the writer. Except one, all other manuscripts are fragmentary and none contains any commentary, drawings, diagrams or sketches. The buildings of the time, religious, military, or residential, do not appear to exist in their entirety for a ready reference. In 1838 Ram Raz based his *Essay on Architecture of the Hindus* on a few chapters of a single fragmentary manuscript. In recent years several other scholars have quoted extracts from one or other of the manuscripts, but no one, including Ram Raz, attempted the translation of any passage. A few Sanskrit texts of architecture have also been printed in the recent years, but none has been translated into English or elucidated in any other language, Indian or European.