The Bimbamana (popularly called Sariputra), an eleventh century Sanskrit silpa text on Buddhist iconometry, provides the most detailed treatment of the uttam-dasa-tala system pertaining to standing, sedent and recumbent Buddha images. All the available palmleaf manuscript copies of this work (numbering over fifteen) are from Sri Lanka which is most probably the country of its origin. Unlike the Manjusribhasita-vastuvidyasastra, another Sri Lankan silpa text which is boldly Mahayai in character, the Bimbamana appears to have been composed taking into consideration the Theravadic susceptibilities of the Sri Lankan Buddhist. This speaks for its wide popularity among the Sinhala craftsmen up to the present day. The text has been critically edited together with an English translation which is copiously annotated for the benefit of the lay reader.
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