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.c42.s1.12

v6.c42.s1.12

The seventy chapters (of the *Mānasāra*) deal with such varied subjects as the qualifications of architects, the selection of sites, the examination of soil, site-plans, the village, town-planning, forts, the dimensions of buildings, the bases and pedestals of columns, the features of buildings (one-storeyed to twelve-storeyed), courts, temples, pavilions, mansions, dwelling-houses, royal palaces, bedsteads and swings, thrones, arches, theatres, ornamental trees, crowns, altars, personal ornaments, furniture, various kinds of images and penalties for defective construction. No wonder that the author thinks that, like the medical works, this is ‘the most practical of Sanskrit treatises.’ He re-affirms ‘the hope that a trial may be given to its methods and principles, its rules and regulations, because the foreign imitation in architecture for a millennium has proved more or less unsuccessful and uneconomical.’