Devta Murti Prakaran

Author(s): Vinaysagar, Bhagvandas Jain, Rima Jain
Publisher: Prakrit Bharati Academy

Page 14

(Twelve)
bulk of this manuscript was translated. Then, and subsequently, they have also put up patiently with information on iconography, Mandan's text, and/ or Sanskrit and linguistics being flung at them at odd hours and places especially meal-times! Portions of chapters 6 and 7 were translated amidst the warm hospitality of Dr. Chandra Sayal (Chandra Bua) and Mrs. E.V.V. Ebdon (Vivienne Masi), at their respective homes - 'Dera' in Derby' and 'Sheeshnag' in Melksham, for which I thank them. Thanks are also due to Shri Rajesh Agarwal of Compu Prints (Jaipur) for the. computer-type-setting (D.T.P.) of this text for publication. On my part, it has been a conscious decision to use a somewhat ornate style and language to convey and approximate the flavour, richness, flamboyance and imagery present in the original Sanskrit text of Mandan's Devata-Murti-Prakarnam.
Unlike Mandan's better known Rupa-Mandan (a work.in six chapters), the Devata-Murti-Prakaram has attracted lesser attention from contemporary 20th century scholars - perhaps due to the fact that it is not easily available in translation at present. In fact, besides this present translation of the Devata-Murti-Prakarnam no other English translation of this work is known. It may be noted that in 1936 Upendra Mohan Sankhyatirtha brought out a printed edition of the original Sanskrit manuscripts of Devata-Murti-Prakarnam and Rupa-Mandan, with a commentary in Sanskrit and a short introduction in English, entitled
Devatamurtiprakaranam and Rupamandanam (Manuals of Indian Iconography and Iconometry), Metropolitan Printing and Publishing House Ltd., Calcutta, 1936. The work was No. XII in the Calcutta Sanskrit Series, under the General Editor-ship of Narendra Chandra Vedantatirtha, and used an original manuscript Cat. no.1.G.89 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.2
2.
Discussions of other texts by Mandan include Pandit Bhagwandas Jain's 'Mandan Sutradhar ke vastu-shilpa granth'. Rajasthan Bharati, vol. 8, 1963-65; R. C. Agrawala's Rupa-Mandan tatha Kumbhalgarh se prapt mahatvapurna prastar pratimayen', Shodhpatrika, vol. 8, no. 3, March 1957; and Balram Srivastava's Hindi translation of Rupamandana published by Motilal Banarasidass, Varanasi, 1964.