{{Short description|Ancient Sanskrit treatise on Indian architecture}} {{for|the 2010 film|Manasara (film)}} {{italic title}} thumb|upright=1.5|Some town plans recommended in the 700 CE ''Manasara'' Sanskrit text on Hindu architecture{{sfn|Sinha|1998|pp=27–40}}{{sfn|Ram Raz|1834}}{{sfn|Ernest Havell|1972|pp=7–17}} The '''''Mānasāra''''', also known as ''Manasa'' or ''Manasara Shilpa Shastra'', is an ancient Sanskrit treatise on Indian architecture and design.<ref name="Klostermaier2014"/> Organized into 70 ''adhyayas'' (chapters) and 10,000 ''shlokas'' (verses),<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thakur |first=Renu |date=1994 |title=Urban hierarchies, typologies and classification in early medieval India: c. 750–1200 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/urban-history/article/abs/urban-hierarchies-typologies-and-classification-in-early-medieval-india-c-7501200/E37D17D79BD2487770BF55D1CDFE8D50 |journal=Urban History |language=en |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=61–76 |doi=10.1017/S0963926800010701 |issn=1469-8706|url-access=subscription }}</ref> it is one of many Hindu texts on ''Shilpa Shastra'' – science of arts and crafts – that once existed in 1st-millennium CE.<ref name="Acharya2011">{{cite book|author=PK Acharya|editor=N. C. Panda|title=Architecture of Mānasāra: Text with English Translation and Critical Notes|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=3jCpvAEACAAJ|year=2011|publisher=Bharatiya Kala Prakashan (original publication: 1934 by Oxford University Press)|pages=1–7}}</ref> The ''Manasara'' is among the few on Ancient Indian architecture whose complete manuscripts have survived into the modern age. It is a treatise that provides detailed guidelines on the building of Hindu temples, sculptures, houses, gardens, water tanks, laying out of towns and other structures.<ref name="Klostermaier2014">{{cite book|author=Klaus K. Klostermaier |title=A Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v1UQBwAAQBAJ |year=2014|publisher=Oneworld Publications, Oxford |isbn=978-1-78074-672-2|page=112}}</ref><ref name="Acharya2011"/>
==Etymology== ''Manasara'' is a compound of Sanskrit {{Transliteration|sa|māna}} (measurement) and {{Transliteration|sa|sāra}} (essence), meaning "essence of measurement" states P.K. Acharya – the scholar who discovered the complete manuscript (70 chapters) and was first to translate it into English in early 20th-century. While the text is now commonly referred as simply ''Manasara'', the Sanskrit manuscript title is {{Transliteration|sa|Manasara Shilpa Shastra}} ({{Lang|sa|मानसार शिल्पशस्त्र}}).<ref name="BharneKrusche2014p256"/> Based on the early verses of the partial manuscript (58 chapters) studied in early 19th-century, Ram Raz suggested that the term "Manasara" is better rendered as "the standard measurement" or "the system of proportion".<ref name="BharneKrusche2014p256"/> According to Bharne and Krusche, scholars who have written books on Hindu temple and architecture, the complete title ''Manasara Shilpa Shastra'' is best understood as "science of architecture where the essence of measurement is contained, the standard measurement is followed, or the system of proportions is embodied".<ref name="BharneKrusche2014p256">{{cite book|author1=Vinayak Bharne|author2=Krupali Krusche|title=Rediscovering the Hindu Temple: The Sacred Architecture and Urbanism of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CGukBgAAQBAJ |year=2014|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|isbn=978-1-4438-6734-4|pages=256 notes 39–47}}</ref>
==Manuscripts and date== Indian manuscripts that have survived into the modern age suggest that there once existed a large collection of treatises on architecture, design, arts and crafts. Many are referred and cited in surviving text but they are lost to history or yet to be discovered. Some have survived in portions, over hundred of which PK Acharya has listed in his ''Encyclopedia of Hindu Architecture''.{{sfn|Acharya|1927|p=xviii-xx}} The ''Manasara'' is one of the few that have survived in full and has been completely translated.{{sfn|Acharya|1927|p=xviii-xx}}
{{multiple image | image1 = 1834 sketch of elements in Hindu temple architecture, four storey vimana.jpg | width1 = 170 | image2 = 1834 sketch of elements in Hindu temple architecture, two storey gopura.jpg | width2 = 146 | footer = Illustrative sketches of elements in Hindu temple architecture in Ram Raz's study of the ''Manasara'' in 1834 }} Like manuscripts on many notable subjects, the ''Manasara'' was believed to have been lost by the 19th-century. Fragments of 58 chapters of the ''Manasara'' manuscript in Sanskrit had been found in early 19th-century. Ram Raz had studied these, and published his summary notes in English with interpretations of implied architecture drawings for the western audience.{{sfn|Ram Raz|1834}}{{sfn|Acharya|1934|p=xiii-xiv}}
The British India official Austen Chamberlain had a keen interest in Indian heritage and his efforts to locate ancient Indian manuscripts in early 20th-century resulted in the discovery of 11 Sanskrit manuscripts of ''Manasara'' in five Indic scripts,{{refn|group=note|Of the eleven manuscripts then found, three were in Devanagari script, four were in Grantha script, two in Telugu script, one each in Tamil script and Malayalam scripts. The language of all was Sanskrit. Six were traditional palm leaf manuscripts, while the remaining five were on paper.{{sfn|Acharya|1934|p=ix-xiv}}}} in the archives of Hindu temples, only one of which was complete. This complete manuscript found in Tamil Nadu, along with the fragmentary manuscripts, were studied by the Sanskrit scholar Prasanna Acharya to create and publish a critical edition of ''Manasara'' manuscript along with a separate glossary of architectural terms. Few years later, in 1934, he published the English translation of the critical edition.{{sfn|Ram Raz|1834}}<ref name=Hargreaves/><ref>Madhuri Desai (2012), ''Interpreting an Architectural Past Ram Raz and the Treatise in South Asia'', Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 71, No. 4, pages 462-487</ref>
Acharya relied on manuscripts that had no ''bhasya'' (commentary) and drawings.{{sfn|Acharya|1934|p=xiii-xiv}} However, with assistance of K.S. Siddhalinga Swamy – a traditional ''shilpin'' (artist and architect) in South Indian architectural traditions and S.C. Mukherji – another ''shilpin'' fluent in Sanskrit and trained in the North Indian traditions, Acharya combined the text with a study of major temples, and then published 121 drawings to go with his publications.<ref name=Hargreaves>{{cite journal|title=A Review of Mānasāra on Architecture and Sculpture by P. K. Acharya: Architecture of Mānasāra by P. K. Acharya|author = H. Hargreaves| year= 1935| journal = The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland | number = 4| pages = 777–779| publisher = Cambridge University Press| volume=67 | doi = 10.1017/S0035869X00095952| jstor=25201273}}</ref>
;Date and author The Manasara is an ancient text, states Acharya, which was likely in its final form by about 700 CE, or by other estimates around the 5th-century CE.{{sfn|Acharya|1927|pp=160–198}} Tarapada Bhattacharya, a historian specializing in Indian arts and crafts, in his book published in 1963, states that the ''Manasara'' is best viewed as a "recension of recensions" text that organically evolved over the centuries.{{sfn|Tarapada Bhattacharyya|1963|pp=183–195}} It is the work of no single author, and has layers of verses which are from the Gupta period and even more ancient. Other verses and some chapters were likely added to ''Manasara'' in later part of the 1st-millennium CE and the 11th-century CE as Hindu temples grew in their grandeur.{{sfn|Tarapada Bhattacharyya|1963|pp=183–195}} Bhattacharya admits that this hypothesis can neither directly be disproved or proved, but submits that this can be inferred from the fact that the architectural teachings in ''Manasara'' borrow from and are identical or essentially similar to those found in Sanskrit Puranas, Agamas and ''Brihatsamhita'' that have been dated by scholars to about mid-1st millennium CE. It is likely, states Bhattacharya, that the complete surviving manuscript of ''Manasara'' is a recension produced in South India around or after the 11th-century based on major treatises that now exist only in fragments.{{sfn|Tarapada Bhattacharyya|1963|pp=183–195}}
George Michell, an Indologist known for his many books on Hindu temples, art and architecture, dates the text to 7th to 8th-century CE.{{sfn|George Michell|2000|p=33}}
==Scope and contents== {{AI-generated|section=Scope|date=December 2025}} The ''Manasara'' is a comprehensive text on architecture and design, part of the larger corpus of the ''Vaastu Shastras'' and ''Shilpa Shastras'', which provide guidelines on the principles of Indian architecture and construction. These texts blend technical design aspects with deep symbolic meaning derived from Hindu cosmology and traditions.{{sfn|Acharya|1927|p=xviii-xx}} {{sfn|Sinha|1998|pp=27–41}}Together with other texts like the ''Mayamata'' and ''Brihatsamhita'', the ''Manasara'' encompasses not just building principles but also broader elements of spatial planning, such as urban design, temple construction, domestic architecture, and even the layout of cities and streets.
The ''Manasara'' itself is an extensive work, consisting of 10,000 verses in Sanskrit. These verses elaborate on a wide variety of architectural elements—ranging from the design of palaces, homes, and temples to more practical structures like gateways, wells, and streets. <ref name="BharneKrusche2014p256" />{{sfn|Sinha|1998|pp=27–41}}{{sfn|Acharya|1927|p=xviii-xx}}Additionally, the text delves into topics like furniture, vehicles (such as carts and wagons), and ornamentation, showcasing the holistic approach to design in ancient Indian architecture.
At its core, ''Manasara'' is part of a tradition that dates back to the principles outlined in the ''Sthapatya Veda'', considered one of the oldest sources of architectural knowledge in Hindu tradition. The text, along with others in the ''Vaastu Shastra'' collection, presents architecture not just as a physical craft but as a spiritual and philosophical practice, integrating the cosmic order with human living spaces.
These texts reflect the cultural significance of architecture in ancient India, where form and function were intertwined with religious and philosophical beliefs. The detailed instructions offered in the ''Manasara'' were intended to ensure that buildings were in harmony with nature, the cosmos, and human purpose. {| class="wikitable" align=center style = " background: transparent; " |+ ''Manasara'' |-style="text-align: left;" | width=80px style="background: #ffad66;" | Chapter | width=80px | Verses | width= 300px | Topics{{sfn|Acharya|1934|pp=ix-xi}} |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 1 | 40 | saṃgraha: a brief list of contents (predominantly Hindu topics, verse 31–32 mention Jaina and Buddhist arts) |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 2 | 80 | śilpi-lakṣaṇa: Qualifications of Architects, mānopakaraṇa: the system of Measurement |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 3 | 34 | Vāstu-prakaraṇa: objects of architecture |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 4 | 42 | bhūmi-saṃgraha: selection of construction site |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 5 | 91 | bhūparīkṣā: procedures for testing the soil |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 6 | 120 | śaṅku-sthāpana-lakṣaṇa: Rules for gnomoms and pegs |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 7 | 271 | padavinyāsa-lakṣaṇa: Ground plans |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 8 | 88 | balikarma: offerings and puja before planning and construction |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #eecc66;" | 9 | 538 | grama: village planning |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #eecc66;" | 10 | 110 | nagara: town planning |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 11 | 145 | bhumilamba: building dimensions |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 12 | 217 | garbhavinyasa: building foundation |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 13 | 154 | upapitha: pedestal of columns |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 14 | 412 | adhisthana: base of columns |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 15 | 437 | stambha: columns |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #000000;" | [...] | [...] | [to be added] |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 40 | 158 | rajaharmya: royal palace |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 41 | 51 | rajanga: royal entourage |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 42 | 82 | rajalakshana: royal insignia |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 43 | 170 | rathalakshana: chariots and chariot-cars |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 44 | 85 | sayana, paryanka, manca: couch, beds and swings |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #000000;" | [...] | [...] | [to be added] |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 51 | 94 | trimurti: Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesha |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 52 | 376 | Linga: Shaiva icon |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 53 | 60 | pīṭha-lakṣaṇa: the Hindu temple images, supporting structure for deities |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 54 | 192 | śakti-lakṣaṇa: the Hindu temple images, female deities |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 55 | 94 | jaina-lakṣaṇa: the Jaina temple images |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 56 | 18 | bauddha-lakṣaṇa: the Buddhist temple images |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 57 | 60 | muni-lakṣaṇa: the images of sages |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #000000;" | [...] | [...] | [to be added] |-style="text-align: left;" | style="background: #ffdd66;" | 70 | 118 | nayanonmilana: rules for the chiseling of the eye |}
==Reception== Stein published the first review of Acharya's translation of the ''Manasara'' manuscript, remarking that the ''Manasara'' "seems to occupy the same importance to ''Shilpa'' (arts and crafts) like that of the ''Manusmriti'' to law" among the Hindus.<ref>O Stein (1935),''"Acharya P. K.: Architecture of Manasara (Book Review)'', Archiv Orientální; Praha, Volume 7, Issue 1, pp 249-250</ref> Neither Ram Raz nor Acharya shared Stein's views on the ''Manasara''. They had interviewed numerous native temple architects and artisans, and based on these interviews they considered ''Manasara'' to be an important text but not the authority.<ref name="BharneKrusche2014p255"/> The oral tradition of the native builders and portions of manuscripts the native architects possessed led both to the view that the architectural tradition in India relied on 32 ''mukhya'' (principal) and 32 ''upa'' (secondary) architectural texts, along with a different treatise they called the ''Sacaladhicara''.<ref name="BharneKrusche2014p255"/> Both Raz and Acharya interpreted the ''Manasara'' in light of the fragmented ''Sacaladhicara'' treatise available to them.<ref name="BharneKrusche2014p255">{{cite book|author1=Vinayak Bharne|author2=Krupali Krusche|title=Rediscovering the Hindu Temple: The Sacred Architecture and Urbanism of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CGukBgAAQBAJ |year=2014|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|isbn=978-1-4438-6734-4|pages=255–256 with notes 30–31}}</ref>
According to George Michell, the ''Manasara'' is one of many building manuals with chapters important to Hindu temple construction history. These works discuss selection of building site, ground plan, merits of different construction materials, proportion between plans and elevation, and details of the reliefs and decorations seen in Hindu temples.{{sfn|George Michell|2000|p=33}}
Contemporary reviewers state that the ''Manasara'' manuscript attests to the early advancements and literature on architecture in India. These guidelines such as measurements and ratios are precise, but the text leaves much room for diverse interpretations. The palm leaf manuscripts of ''Manasara'' do not have any drawings, unlike the current editions and English translations of ''Manasara'' that include drawings.<ref name="BharneKrusche2014p256"/> According to Tillotson – a historian of Indian architecture, the ''Manasara'' "offers a programme for building, and a fairly thorough one at that, but like other text it remains a compilation of words, not of forms. It only tells, it cannot show."<ref name="Tillotson 1997 pp. 87–97">{{cite journal | last=Tillotson | first=G.H.R. | title=Svastika Mansion: A Silpa-Sastra in the 1930s | journal=South Asian Studies | publisher=Routledge | volume=13 | issue=1 | year=1997 | doi=10.1080/02666030.1997.9628528 | page=95}}</ref>
According to Adam Hardy – an Indologist specializing in Hindu architecture and temples, the ''Manasara'' is a guide with prescriptions of ratios and rules for design and architecture, like other Vastu sastra texts that have survived. These prescriptions can be interpreted into a variety of drawings and forms after a careful study, but such studies and publications have been rare. Hardy and Salvini illustrate their view by first translating another vastu sastra text ''Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra'' into English, then deriving mathematical ratios and drawings from it in a manner similar to those of Ram Raz for ''Manasara''.{{sfn|Hardy|2009|pp=41–62}} After his study of ''Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra'', Hardy remarks the forms and drawings that result are quite similar to ''Manasara''. More specifically, he writes, "interestingly, this very form of all-the-way-down alignment [of temple Vimana] is present to a large degree in the interpretations of the ''Mānasāra''", as presented in Ram Raz's publication.{{sfn|Hardy|2009|pp=53–54}} The ''Manasara'' and other texts present the theory, the architect interprets and projects it into a tangible form following the training and field experience he must have received in the architectural traditions.{{sfn|Hardy|2009|pp=53–54}} Hardy shares the Tillotson view that some creative attempts with hybrid drawings by Acharya derived from ''Manasara'' do not reflect any real buildings from the past or early 20th-century.<ref name="Hardy 2009 pp. 41–62">{{harvnb|Hardy|2009|pp=60–61, note 2}}</ref>
The ''Manasara'' is the "best-known and possibly the most complete" treatise on Indian architecture and planning that has survived into the modern age, states Jennifer Howes.{{sfn|Jennifer Howes|2003|p=8}} Its first complete manuscript was discovered in a temple in Thanjavur (Tamil Nadu) in early 20th-century, and as a result the early illustrations and translations give a distinct South Indian style and a context of Hindu temples.{{sfn|Jennifer Howes|2003|p=10}} This history and context is perhaps why, states Howes, it is often incorrectly "billed as more relevant to studies of temple architecture than to architecture serving any other function". A more cohesive analysis of ''Manasara'' suggests it is a broader design and architecture treatise on a wide range of "man-made things".{{sfn|Jennifer Howes|2003|pp=10, 8-24 with plates}}
==Notes== {{reflist|group=note}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== *{{cite book|first=P. K.|last=Acharya|year=2010|title=An encyclopaedia of Hindu architecture | url=https://archive.org/stream/encyclopaediaofh07achauoft#page/n9/mode/2up |publisher=Oxford University Press (Republished by Motilal Banarsidass)|location=New Delhi|isbn=978-81-85990-03-3}} *{{cite book|first=P. K.|last=Acharya|year=1927|title=Indian Architecture according to the Manasara Shilpa Shastra|url=https://archive.org/stream/encyclopaediaofh07achauoft#page/n9/mode/2up |publisher=Oxford University Press (Republished by Motilal Banarsidass)|location=London|isbn=0300062176}} *{{cite book|first=P. K.|last=Acharya|year=1934|title=Architecture of Manasara, Translated from Original Sanskrit |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.108320/page/n5/mode/2up |publisher=Oxford University Press (Republished by Oriental Books, 2nd edition in 1980)}} *{{cite book|author=Tarapada Bhattacharyya|title=The Canons of Indian Art: Or, a Study on Vāstuvidyā, 2nd Edition|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=o2wUnQEACAAJ|year=1963| publisher=Firma KLM|isbn=978-0-8364-1618-3}} *{{cite book|first=J. C.|last=Harle|year=1994|title=The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent|url=https://archive.org/details/artarchitectureo00harl|edition=2nd|publisher=Yale University Press Pelican History of Art|isbn=0300062176|ref=Harle|url-access=registration}} *{{cite journal | last=Hardy | first=Adam | title=Drāvida Temples in the Samarānganasūtradhāra | journal=South Asian Studies | publisher=Routledge | volume=25 | issue=1 | year=2009 | issn=0266-6030 | doi=10.1080/02666030.2009.9628698 | pages=41–62| s2cid=15290721 | url=http://orca.cf.ac.uk/13911/1/Dravida%20Temples%20in%20the%20Samarangana.pdf }} *{{cite book|author=Ernest Havell|title=The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xHM-7CaV5zYC|year=1972|publisher=John Murray, London (Reprinted S. Chand)}} *{{cite book|author=Jennifer Howes|title=The Courts of Pre-colonial South India: Material Culture and Kingship|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aex_vpsu3gwC |year=2003|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-7007-1585-5}} *{{cite book|first=M.|last=Juneja|year=2001|title=Architecture in Medieval India: Forms, Contexts, Histories|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7N7VAAAAMAAJ |edition=2nd|publisher=Orient Blackswan|isbn=978-8178242286|ref=Juneja}} *{{cite book|first=George|last=Michell|year=1988|title=The Hindu Temple: An Introduction to its Meaning and Forms|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ajgImLs62gwC |edition=2nd |publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago/London|isbn=0-226-53230-5|ref=Michell}} *{{cite book|author=George Michell|title=Hindu Art and Architecture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YVl2QgAACAAJ |year=2000 |publisher=Thames & Hudson|isbn=978-0-500-20337-8}} *{{cite journal |last=Patra | first=Reena | title=A Comparative Study on Vaastu Shastra and Heidegger's 'Building, Dwelling and Thinking' | journal=Asian Philosophy | publisher=Taylor & Francis | volume=16 | issue=3 | year=2006 | doi=10.1080/09552360600979430 | pages=199–218| s2cid=144592593 }} *{{cite book|author=Ram Raz|title=Essay on the Architecture of the Hindús|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSg5AQAAMAAJ|year=1834 |publisher=Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland}} *{{cite journal| last=Sinha | first=Amita | title=Design of Settlements in the Vaastu Shastras | journal=Journal of Cultural Geography | publisher=Taylor & Francis | volume=17 | issue=2 | year=1998 | doi=10.1080/08873639809478319 | pages=27–41}} *{{cite book|first=D. N.|last=Shukla|year=1993|title=Vastu-Sastra: Hindu Science of Architecture|publisher=Munshiram Manoharial Publishers|isbn=978-81-215-0611-3|ref=Shukla}}
==External links== *{{Commons category-inline}}
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