Sri Bhojadeva was first and foremost a man of great learning, a versatile scholar, a polymath indeed, for he has been credited with works in almost every branch of knowledge. According to Ajada who wrtote a commentary named Padakaprakasa on Sarasvati Kanthabharana, Bhoja wrote 84 works giving them names with his own titles and binds. Of the various works ascribed to him, Samarangana Sutradhara is a voluminous treatise, an architectural masterpiece, dealing with technical subjects such as town planning, house architecture, temple architecture and sculptural subjects like Pratima Laksanfa, Iconography, Iconometry, Iconoplastic art together with Mudras, the different hand poses and the poses of the body as well as the postures of legs. It deals with the canons of painting and devotes a big chapter to the art of mechanical contrivances, the yantras. Samarangana Sutradhara is in eighty three chapters with chapter thirty one specialising in the mechanical contrivances and yantras, having verses 95-100 dealing with the construction of bird shape aerial cars and verses 101-107 dealing with the Robots meant to act as guards. This is the first time that an English translation of this great architectural work has been attempted with various annotations and the complete original Sanskrit text. This is definitely a landmark in the field of ancient Indian architecture.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sudarshan Kumar Sharma
Dr. Sudarshan Kumar Sharma is B.A. (Hons.), M.A, Ph.D. He competed his graduation from D.A.V. College, Jalandhar in 1955 with first class first in Sanskrit (Hons.) and post-graduation in 1958 from Deptt. of Sanskrit, Punjab university, Jalandhar. In 1961, he joined as regular lecturer in Sanskrit and served various colleges at Chanigarh, Bhatinda, Jalandhar etc., in his long teaching career. Finally, he retired as principal, Govt. College, Fazika, Punjab. He has a number of books to his credit. Prominent among them are- 1) Tilakamanjari of Dhanapala -A Critical and Cultural Study. 2) Mrcchakatika of Sudraka -A Critical and Cultural Study. 3) Karnabharam and Madhyam-vyayoga of Bhasa (Sanskrit text with English and Hindi translation). 4) yajnaphalam of Bhasa (Sanskrit text with English and Hindi translation). 5) Udayadundari Katha of Soddhala (Sanskrit text with English translation. 7) Brhatkatha-sloka-samgraha of Buddhasvamin (Sanskrit text with English translation). He had been an active participator at various Oriental Conferences and Seminars held in the past at various places of India. His research papers and journals have been published in almost all magazines and felicitation volumes. Since his retirement, he has been an active writer and doing critical translations of various rare books. His forthcoming books are-Garuda Purana (Sanskrit text with English Translation), Vayu Purana (Sanskrit text with English Translation), Brhat-Katha-Manjari (Sanskrit text with English Translation), Kalki Purana (Sanskrit text with English Translation), Avanti-Sundari-Katha (Sanskrit text with English Translation) etc.
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