Samarangana Sutradhara

{{Short description|11th century Indian treatise on architecture}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}

{{Use Indian English|date=March 2017}}

{{italic title}}

Samarangana Sutradhara ({{IAST3|Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra}}) is an 11th-century poetic treatise on classical Indian architecture (vastu shastra) written in the Sanskrit language attributed to Paramara King Bhoja of Dhar.{{cite book|author=Adam Hardy|title=Theory and Practice of Temple Architecture in Medieval India: Bhoja's Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra and the Bhojpur Line Drawings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oADrgEACAAJ |year=2015|publisher=Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts|isbn=978-93-81406-41-0|pages=22–23}}{{refn|group=note|Though Bhoja is the attributed author in the colophon, it is unclear if he actually wrote this text. The reasons for doubts are several: (1) Bhoja is the attributed author in the colophons of 33 major Sanskrit texts in diverse subjects; given his political and administrative responsibilities, this is suspect; (2) a philological analysis suggests that the verse style and quality of Sanskrit varies in these texts, as well as within the chapters of Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra; this may be because of different authors and the text being a compilation. According to Felix Otter, some of these texts and possibly portions of a few others are likely the work of one author – Bhoja.{{cite book|author=Felix Otter|title=Residential Architecture in Bhoja's Samaranganasutradhara: Introduction, Text, Translation and Notes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zYDvDwAAQBAJ |year=2009|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-3447-7|pages=6–14}}}} The title Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra is a compound word that literally means "architect of human dwellings", but can also be decomposed to an alternate meaning as "stage manager for battlefields" – possibly a play of words to recognize its royal author.

Three manuscripts of Samarangana Sutradhara were discovered in early 20th century, while others were found later. They vary somewhat and all survive in an incomplete form. The most complete version is one likely copied and recompiled in the 15th century.{{cite book|author=Felix Otter|title=Residential Architecture in Bhoja's Samaranganasutradhara: Introduction, Text, Translation and Notes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zYDvDwAAQBAJ |year=2009|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-3447-7|pages=1–5}} This manuscript has 7,430 shlokas (verses) set in 83 adhyayas (chapters). A notable aspect of each adhyaya is that it starts with a verse composed in anustubh meter (chanda in Hindu texts) and ends with a verse in a longer meter, typically upajati or vasantatilaka.{{cite book|author=Felix Otter|title=Residential Architecture in Bhoja's Samaranganasutradhara: Introduction, Text, Translation and Notes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zYDvDwAAQBAJ |year=2009|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-3447-7|pages=5–7}}

The Samarangana Sutradhara is among the few important texts that have survived on the theory and practice of Hindu temple architecture in the north, central and western Indian subcontinent (chapters 52–67). Its chapters also include discussions on town planning, house architecture, iconography, painting (chitra), and sculpture arts (shilpa). Some chapters include Hindu legends such as of sleeping Vishnu as it explains its ideas, as well as verses on Hindu philosophies such as Samkhya and Vedanta. It includes a discussion of vastu mandalas (chapters 11–15). Others are practical manuals on architecture and construction; for example, house (chapter 37), soil preparation (chapter 8), wood and timber for carpentry (chapter 16), laying bricks (chapter 41) and others. Later chapters (70–83) are dedicated to sculpture and painting.{{cite book|author=Adam Hardy|title=Theory and Practice of Temple Architecture in Medieval India: Bhoja's Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra and the Bhojpur Line Drawings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oADrgEACAAJ |year=2015|publisher=Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts|isbn=978-93-81406-41-0|pages=23–26}}{{refn|group=note|This is not step by step manual in the modern sense, as are found globally in the contemporary cultural practice, states Mattia Salvini; yet, they are useful guidelines "given in a context and manner" suited to its age.Mattia Salvini (2012), The Samarāṅganasūtradhāra: Themes and Context for the Science of Vāstu, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Cambridge University Press, Vol. 22, No. 1, pages 43–44, {{JSTOR|41490373}}}}

The Samarangana Sutradhara acknowledges and builds upon older Indian texts on temple architecture, and vastu in general, states Adam Hardy – a scholar of Hindu temple architecture and related historic texts. It provides one of the most complete list and descriptions of 64 designs of Indian temples as they existed by the 11th century.{{cite book|author=Adam Hardy|title=Theory and Practice of Temple Architecture in Medieval India: Bhoja's Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra and the Bhojpur Line Drawings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oADrgEACAAJ |year=2015|publisher=Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts|isbn=978-93-81406-41-0|pages=22–29, chapter 3}} The text also influenced later Indian treatises such as the 12th-century Aparajitaprccha.M.A. Dhaky (1961), The influence of the Samaranganasutradhara on Aparajitaprccha, Journal of the Oriental Institute, Volume 10, Number 3, pages 226-234 The text is significant in its discussion about Nagara, Dravida,{{cite journal | last=Hardy | first=Adam | title=Drāvida Temples in the Samarānganasūtradhāra | journal=South Asian Studies | volume=25 | issue=1 | year=2009 | doi=10.1080/02666030.2009.9628698 | pages=41–62| s2cid=15290721 | url=https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/13911/1/Dravida%20Temples%20in%20the%20Samarangana.pdf }} Bhumija and other diversified styles of Hindu temples.{{cite book|author=Adam Hardy|title=Theory and Practice of Temple Architecture in Medieval India: Bhoja's Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra and the Bhojpur Line Drawings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oADrgEACAAJ |year=2015|publisher=Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts|isbn=978-93-81406-41-0|page=Chapters 3–5}} It is particularly notable for the sections that match with the unfinished 11th-century temple in Bhojpur (Madhya Pradesh) and the earliest known architectural drawings of a Hindu temple engraved on the surrounding rocks.{{cite book|author=Adam Hardy|title=Theory and Practice of Temple Architecture in Medieval India: Bhoja's Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra and the Bhojpur Line Drawings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oADrgEACAAJ |year=2015|publisher=Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts|isbn=978-93-81406-41-0|pages=255–269, chapter 6}}M.N. Deshpande (1983), The Siva Temple at Bhojpur: Application of Samaranganasutradhara,

Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bombay, Vol 54-55, pp 35-39

The Samarangana Sutradhara has a chapter on the art of mechanical contrivances, the yantras (chapter 31). Samarangana Sutradhara includes chapters about the decoration of palaces, which describes the construction of mechanical contrivances (automata), including mechanical bees and birds, fountains shaped like humans and animals, and male and female dolls that refilled oil lamps, danced, played instruments, and re-enacted scenes from Hindu mythology.{{cite book|last=Varadpande|first=Manohar Laxman|year=1987|title=History of Indian Theatre, Volume 1|page=68|publisher=Abhinav Publications |isbn=9788170172215|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SyxOHOCVcVkC&pg=PA68}}{{cite book|last= Wujastyk|first=Dominik|year=2003|title=The Roots of Ayurveda: Selections from Sanskrit Medical Writings|page=222|publisher=Penguin |isbn=9780140448245|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TaZCwjtmzZYC&dq=automata&pg=PA222}}{{cite book|last=Needham|first=Joseph|year=1965|title=Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology Part 2, Mechanical Engineering|page=164|isbn=9780521058032|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SeGyrCfYs2AC&dq=bhoja+automata&pg=PA164}}

It has some visionary verses as well, such as envisioning machines that could fly.{{cite book|author=Adam Hardy|title=Theory and Practice of Temple Architecture in Medieval India: Bhoja's Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra and the Bhojpur Line Drawings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oADrgEACAAJ |year=2015|publisher=Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts|isbn=978-93-81406-41-0|page=24}} However, the author states that he will "not explain how to construct such machines, for the sake of secrecy, and not due to lack of knowledge."Mattia Salvini (2012), The Samarāṅganasūtradhāra: Themes and Context for the Science of Vāstu, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Cambridge University Press, Vol. 22, No. 1, page 41 (context: pp. 35-55), {{JSTOR|41490373}}