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.c49.30

v7.c49.30

For the *Mānasāra* is, apart from its astrology, a practical craftman's handbook, none the less so because its directions are regarded as ritual rules and its classifications seem often arbitrary and fantastic. In it, as always in India, art is a practical affair, a means to a definite end, never unrelated to life and worship. *Mānasāra* means ‘the essence of measurement’; and what would now be considered the practical part of the work consists of explicit directions regarding town-planning and the selection of sites, and more especially of minute statements of the mathematical proportions of every kind of building and image. This is not the place to examine the principles on which these proportions are worked out, nor are they always easy to follow without plans. The Essay of Ram Raz was illustrated, and it would have been a great help if Dr. Acharya could have rounded off his work with the addition of a series of well-executed plates. These would have been of especial value in examining what is perhaps the most interesting chapter of *Indian Architecture*, that in which the treatise of Vitruvius and the *Mānasāra* are compared. All that need be said here is that the two works, with all their essential differences, have so many striking affinities (in their classification, for instance, of the orders and mouldings) that we can hardly doubt that the standard Indian treatise was somehow or other influenced by the Roman architect who lived five hundred years or more earlier. Exactly how is another question, the solution of which would establish some important conclusions in architectural history.