Devta Murtiprakaranam tatha Rupmandanam

Author(s): Upendramohan Sankhyatirtha
Publisher: Metropolitan Printing and Publishing House Limited

Page 14

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the Sangita-mimamsa and the Sangita-raja. He also wrote the Pathyaratnakosa. Mahārāņa Kumbha is said to have constructed the celebrated Tower of Victory at Chitore*.
It, therefore, stands to reason that Mahārāṇā Kumbhakarna should be a patron of architects and sculptors, just like King Bhoja of Dhārā धारानगरीपति- महाराजाधिराज श्रीभोजदेव ( 11th C.) who compiled the Samarānganasutradhara", a work on architecture and 'to whom are ascribed many other important works, such as, the Śringāraprakāśa (Alankara) and the Sarasvati-kanthabharaṇa ; or like Somesvaradeva, the Calukya King (12th C.), the author for the patron of the scholar) who compiled the encyclopædic work-the Mānasollāsa or the Abhilaṣitārthacintamanie.
Sutradhara Maṇḍana or simply Mandana seems to have been a prolific writer of treatises on architecture and sculpture. The
3. See T. Aufrecht: Catalogus Catalogorum Vol. I, p. 111 ff.
(a). K-(F. Kielhorn: A Catalogue of Sanskrit Mss. existing in the Central Provinces.) 96.
(b). P-(F. Kielhorn: Lists of the Sanskrit manuscripts purchased for government during the years 1877-78 & 1869-78, and a list of the manuscripts purchased from May to November 1881) 15.
4. Some scholars have doubts regarding the original purpose of the structure, namely, if it was really a tower raised to commemorate a victory at all. See D. R. Bhandarkar : The Kirttistambha of Mahārānā Kumbha. Journal of the Indian Soc. of Oriental Art. Cal., Vol. I, 1.
Regarding this magnificent structure, Fergusson says:
"It has no plain parts, this mass of decoration is so subdued that it in no way interferes either with the outline or the general effect of the pillar. ...It is infinitely better taste than the victory pillar of Trajan."
5. Samaranganasutradhara, edited by Mahamahopadhyaya T. Ganapati Sastri. GOS. XXV & XXXII, 2 Vols. (1924, 25), Baroda.
6. Mánasollāsa, edited by G. K. Shrigondekar, GOS. XXVIII ff, 2 Vols (1925 ff); Abhilaṣitārthacintamani, edited by Dr. R. Shama Sastry. MSS. 69. (1926), Mysore,