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.c49.29

v7.c49.29

The *Mānasāra* is universally recognized as the standard Hindu treatise on architecture, and is the most complete and probably the oldest one extant, though no doubt it had many predecessors. This being so, it is rather surprising that no serious attempt has hitherto been made by modern scholars to edit and elucidate it. It has never before been translated into English, and most writers on Indian architecture disregard it or scarcely mention it. Eighty years ago indeed Ram Raz examined a portion of it in his excellent *Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus*; but it has never hitherto received comprehensive treatment. Scholars were no doubt shy of its technical terms or discouraged by its ‘barbarous’ Sanskrit, while it must be admitted that the Hindu tradition of presenting aesthetic principles as religious precepts and of embedding scientific matter in astrological formulas and mystic ritual is puzzling and disturbing to the non-Hindu. Nevertheless, the work deserves far more serious study than it has hitherto received, and not only from antiquaries, for Indian craftsmen of today still use the formulas of fifteen hundred years ago and the precepts of the *Śilpa-śāstras* are still the everpresent guides of the architect and the sculptor.