Yantras or Mechanical Contrivances in Ancient India c2.156

c2.156

It now remains for me to deal with two works of Bhoja, one a poetic composition and the other a technical treatise. The former, which is yet unpublished, is the prose work of fiction, *Śṛṅgāramañjarī*.³² In it, Bhoja himself is the hero and, as it is not proper for a noble soul to indulge in self-glorification, the device is adopted of making a mechanical figure (*yantra-putrikā*), discharge the function. Confirming almost all the details set forth on the one side by Somadeva in his *Campū* and on the other by Bhoja himself in his book on architecture, this work gives an elaborate description of a *yantra-dhārā-griha*, a fountain pavilion with manifold mechanical works: there are figures in constant action; there is a *jalayantra-putrikā* which scatters a fine spray; *dhārās* which fall like slender lotus-stalks, and in a curve like a bow; mechanical drum-players filling the place with their rhythms; an artificial lotus pond; toy bees which keep humming; *yantra-vriksha* or trees, with monkey figures; a pond filled with replicas of cranes bending over and getting deceived by fishes which come near and move on; artificial tortoises diving and coming up every now and then; and *yantra-orchestras*.³³