मानसार शिल्पशास्त्र (प्रसन्ना कुमार आचार्य - प्राचीन भारतीय स्थापत्य, नगर-नियोजन व मूर्ति-शिल्प महाकोश)

x PREFACE
Mahenjadaro in Sindh to Shillong in Assam, in order to examine ancient
monuments throughout the country, including the cave temples of
Western and Central India, the monuments of the Indian States in
Rajputana and in Hyderabad, the hill temples of Kedarnath,
Badrinath, Tunganath, etc. An encyclopædic dictionary has had to be
compiled wherein for the first time an attempt has been made to settle
the meanings of, and explain in English, some three thousand technical
terms by illustrative quotations from cognate literature. In addition,
some two hundred measured drawings, diagrams, and sketches in line
and in colours have had to be prepared at great trouble and expense.
Thus the peculiar pain of giving “ rebirth ” to a once fully grown
“ barbarous ” child of unknown origin has been brought home to the
writer. The youthful enthusiasm has been put to a great trial through
the continuous struggle for seventeen years. With great diffidence,
therefore, this curious child is presented to the learned world. If
received with sympathy and kindness even such a child may thrive
and bring some solace to everybody responsible for and interested in
it. Ultimately it may confer a lasting benefit on the country and the
nation, because our architectural policy of the past few hundred years,
based as it has been on foreign imitation, and in an entirely different
climate and soil, has not proved quite successful in regard to temples
and humble dwelling-houses, if not in regard to public edifices also.
Lord Pentland, the then Governor of Madras and in charge of the
Education Department, was induced by Sir John Marshall, lately the
Director-General of Archaeology in India, to take an interest in the
Mānasāra, and some preliminary arrangements were made for its publi-
cation from Madras. But the unfortunate coincidence of His
Excellency's retirement and Sir John's absence from India at the
time of my arrival in Madras, forced me to leave the Presidency for
Simla, where all the endeavours and the sympathy of Sir (then Mr.)
George Anderson, Dr. D. B. Spooner, Sir Henry Sharp and Sir C.
Sankaran Nair failed to secure a situation suitable for the “ rebirth ” of
the Mānasāra. At last an opportunity arose when the work could be
proceeded with in spite of other exacting duties. The Government of