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) v7.c44.1

v7.c44.1

This is the seventh and the last volume of the *Mānasāra* series so far as the present writer is concerned. A few more volumes are, however, required to complete the work. Those new volumes will have to deal with the practical conclusions and workable plans and designs. This remaining work will involve an additional expenditure and an engineering study and draughtsmen's survey, estimate, calculations and comparisons with the few extant structures referred to in the writer's sixth volume, the *Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad*. In fulfilment of the fateful prediction of the late Professor E. J. Rapson of Cambridge University, the whole of the official career of the present writer commencing from the eventful year of 1914 has been fully occupied in preparing and seeing through press some 5,000 pages of these seven volumes. As the decree of fate would have it the war of 1914–18 caused from the very beginning of this task all possible interruption, risk and inconvenience while the work was carried out in London, Oxford, Cambridge, and Leyden. The difficult Indian conditions presented the familiar dilemma either to give up the self-imposed task altogether as is usually done by us after securing a degree and an appointment to a permanent post, or to carry it through, without much encouragement and assistance from any quarter, shouldering in addition to the peculiar duties of an occasionally unfortunate Professor of an Indian University the heavy burden of research. The unusual exigencies of the reconstructed Allahabad University demanded of the writer preparation and delivery of lectures to B. A., M. A., and Research classes up to 30 times per week and never less than 18, and also to do the departmental administration, and the routine work of various committees and examinations.