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) v6.c41.s25.283

v6.c41.s25.283

The incompleteness of the complaint lies in the omission of the authority and authenticity of the source of information on these essential features of Indian architecture. It is again due to the British Government in India and the highly placed English officials, ungenerously and falsely accused of having destroyed Indian architecture, who have made available the archaeological materials and the original texts on architecture, the most authenticated sources of information on all architectural and allied subjects for critical study and reconstruction of our forgotten architecture and cognate arts. The establishment of the Archaeological Department itself is an innovation in India. The Bill introduced in the Assembly by an English Home Member, Sir Basil Blackett, to establish a permanent fund to carry on the work of the Archaeological Department could not be passed owing to the opposition of our own representatives. Under such adverse circumstances the distinguished Director General of Archaeology, Sir John Marshall, again an Englishman, a real scholar and lover of Indian culture, was the first and foremost to realize that no reconstruction of real Indian architecture is possible from the scanty archaeological remains, and that it could be done only with the assistance to be derived from the literary sources and numerous architectural texts if they could be scientifically edited, translated and illustrated. The architectural tradition, as truly said, has been lost. The professional craftsmen have all but disappeared. The terms of the *Śilpa-śāstras*, frequently referred to in the scriptures, *Purāṇas*, *Āgamas*, and all other branches of literature, had become unintelligible, obscure, and obsolete. Thus some Indian student possessing sufficient knowledge of our classics and several modern vernaculars, conversant with the principles of philology, and thoroughly educated in Indian history, culture, and archaeology had to be found, after much searching, for special training and experience abroad to tackle these valuable treasures, left so far unrecognized, neglected, and unutilized. The result has been the publication by the Government of the United Provinces, with the substantial assistance rendered by the Secretary of State for India and the Government of India, through the Oxford University Press, of seven volumes, covering some 5,000 quarto pages, dealing with the whole subject thoroughly and in a scientific manner. They comprise not only the standard text—the *Mānasāra*—its translation into English, and illustrations of architectural and sculptural objects described therein, but also an *Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture* which will enable students, builders, engineers, and architects to study the original texts and the archaeological records that are gathered together therein, according to their own light, and, an introductory volume dealing with a historical survey of all architectural evidences of the past and finally the present volume, which will enable all unprejudiced readers to form a true perspective and which may remove ignorance and false notions from the mind of the professional misleaders.