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.s1.87

v6.c42.s1.87

Dr. Acharya's three volumes appear most appositely, marking a centenary in the study of Hindu architecture, for it was in 1834 that Ram Raz published in English his *Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus*, based on a fragmentary manuscript of the *Mānasāra*. It may seem strange that the publication of a complete text of such importance should have been so long delayed, but Sanskritists were little attracted to a purely technical work having no claims to literary excellence and abounding in words used in a technical sense differing entirely from their derivative literal rendering and, moreover, not to be found in dictionaries. A belief that the *Mānasāra* is the standard Hindu work on architecture and sculpture prompted Dr. Acharya to undertake the difficult and laborious task of editing this text and has sustained him in his unremitting labours for some twenty years.