The city, be it Mohenjo-Daro the earliest or Chandigarh the latest, has held Man in thrall from the time it came into existence. Its public edifices, private mansions, lofty shrines, renowned schools, famous monasteries, crowded haunts and popular festivals have attracted poeople from far and wide. The Indians of old Hindus, Buddhists and Jains were aware that the city is the embryo of culture and civilization; for it provided the impetus to poets, dramatists, philosophers and artists to attain immortality through their creations. So, they codified all their knowledge and experience in town-planning and architecture into the treatise known as Manasara, for the edification of posterity. Prof. P.K. Acharya has devoted years of study and research to bring this vast, but almost forgotten, treasure-house within easy reach of all. This book Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad is the sixth volume in his Manasara series. It brings out in no uncertain terms that indigenous ideas of design and techniques of construction alone have imparted the qualities unabating vigour and having beauty to the surviving ancient temples which have withstood the onslaught of vandals, time and nature. The Swastika mansion, described in the preface, attests to the relevance of the principles enunciated in the Manasara, notwithstanding popular notions to the contrary, to modern conditions and needs.
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