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.s4.20

v6.c41.s4.20

AS HAS ALREADY been pointed out in the Preface, the name *Mānasāra* is of ambiguous significance. It is, however, clear from the preceding chapters that the text bearing the title *Mānasāra* is a standard treatise on Indian architecture. It is divided into seventy chapters each bearing a distinct title. In 1834, in his *Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus*, Rām Rāz referred to the first few chapters of the *Mānasāra* from a single fragmentary manuscript to which he had access. Since then several manuscripts have been discovered ; but, owing to some serious difficulties stated in the Preface, nobody had made any attempt to deal with this huge text in any way for a period of 80 years till the present writer undertook in 1914 to edit it for the first time. This, the first edition, is based on all the eleven available manuscripts which are written in five different scripts in a language branded as 'barbarous Sanskrit.' Figures, sketches, or illustrations of any kind are absolutely wanting in all these manuscripts. The various scripts and the provenance of the manuscripts,¹ however, indicate that the *Mānasāra* was known and used in all provinces of ancient India.² Its extensive popularity has been further established by its unique position in literature, discussed in Chapter V.