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NOTES
(Here are included words of rare usage or remarkable in some way.) Yantradhārāgrha ( यन्त्रधारागृह) P. 3.
-is a fountain-house to dispel the heat of the summer days. The complex mechanical contrivances speak of the progress of science in those days.
In the SS, Bhoja devotes the entire 31st chapter to 'Yantravidhānam'-the descriptions of the mechanical contrivances, their usages and benefits.
The word 'Yantra' is derived from the root 'Yam' to control or to restrain. God evolves the universe and also controls its movements:
भ्राम्यद्दिनेश शशिमण्डलचक्रश (त्स ? ) स्त ? मेतज्जगत्त्रितययन्त्रमलक्ष्यमध्यम् ।
भूतानि बीजमखिलान्यपि सम्प्रकल्पय
यः सन्ततं भ्रमयति स्मरजित् स वोऽव्यात् ॥ ( verse 1 )
There are two kinds of controls. The first is the self-control of human beings, the second is the control of the five elements of nature.
तस्य बीजं चतुर्धा स्यात् क्षितिरापोऽनलोऽनिलः । आश्रयत्वेन चैतेषां वियदप्युपयुज्यते ॥ So the control of the four primary elements namely earth, water, fire and wind (and ākāśa as their substratum) leads to the production of the mechanical contrivances. Different materials like metals, leather and cloth are then put to use and with the help of wheels, rods and the like, syringes (vs. 28), musical instruments (56), dramatic representations and scenes (59-72), moving animals (73), dancing and singing dolls (74) and various kinds of water machines (109 ff) can be made.
The details of the mechanical contrivances in the Yantradhārā. gṛha given in SMK are: dolls beating drums, dancing, playing instru ments and singing; ducks seated on blooming lotuses drinking the streams of water which looked like lotus fibres; bees humming in lotuses; cakorakas drinking water; cranes plunging in the pond after the sapharikā, tortoises swimming up and down in the tanks and mermaids afraid of crocodiles. Streams of water flowed out from the eyes of winged crocodiles, mouths of peahens, hair, breasts, palms and nails of women, mouths of a family of monkeys climbing atop a tree, lotuses, walls, grounds, pillars and pillartops. The whole
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