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.s6.1

v4.c29.s6.1

So far as the date of the *Mānasāra* is concerned the indications to the period discussed at great length elsewhere² must await final decision till the question of the identification of the author and the treatise have been satisfactorily settled. Up till now no tangible argument or proof has been found as to the possibility of the treatise being the compilation of a number of authors, instead of a single individual, who might have added to it from time to time until it has grown up to its present complete form and thus spreading its time to a long period. Nor has it been possible to say definitely what the title was intended to imply. In the treatise itself *Mānasāra* has been used in three distinct senses,³ namely, an individual author of an unknown parentage and time; a class of sage-artists who deal with the essence of measurement which is the derivative meaning of the term *māna-sāra*; and, lastly, a treatise containing methods and principles, as well as rules and regulations and illustrative examples of all the principal architectural and sculptural objects for the construction of which the essence of measurement is required.