समराङ्गणसूत्रधार : Samaranganasutradhar

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

The Samarangana-Siutradhara of Bhoja_ was _ first published (1924 and 1925 A.D.) as the G.O. Series nos. 25 and 32 in Two Volumes edited by Mm. T. Ganpati Shastri. For many years the work was out of stock.

Dr. V.S. Agrawala expressed his desire to re-edit the whole text and add another volume containing his long Introduction (discussing the contents) and notes with an index of technical terms. He was preparing this additional volume but unfortunately he died on the 27 July, 1966 before he could complete the same. At his suggestion the text originally published in two volumes is now re-edited and published in one volume containing Introduction, notes and Index to the text, on the basis of Dr. Agrawala's notes etc. Dr. Agrawala has given a small Introduction to this text volume.

We are thankful to the university Grants Commission and the Government of the Gujarat State for their financial assistance in publishing these volume.

We are also thankful to Shri R.J.Patel, Manager, M.S. University of Baroda Press, for this earnest co-operation in printing this volume.

This, the second volume completes the work of Samarangana which runs up to a portion of the 83rd Adhyaya. It contains descriptions of Prasadas pertaining, 8 and of to be delineated in pictures and images, 64 kind of (Hasta) beginning with Pataka and similar other topics, a detailed mention of which may be found in the contents attached.

Great difficulty had to be experienced in bringing out this edition as no other manuscript was available than the one referred to in the preface to the first volume, which contains several errors and is in many places not legible. Proper substitutes for the errors have been proposed with in interrogations and new readings for impure words and phrases suggested as far as possible by means of foot notes.

The subject matter being Silpa, the work need not possess the characteristics of a literary work. Nevertheless it is remarkable for its sweet and simple Kavya style. It is for this reason that I said in the first volume that the author of the work is the same King Bhoja of Dhara who wrote Sringaraprakasa and other works and to whom is assigned a high place in the domain of Sahitya.

It may be said that, because the various machines such as the elephant machine, door keeper machine, flying machine etc. mentioned in the work, have not been either, seen or heard of before, they are only products of imagination and not actual machines made and put into practical use. That is not so, for, even things which ones existed might, in the long run, come to be considered as unreal on account of their disuse and things involving much labour, time and money may also get out of use very easily.

It may be asked next why the poet has not described the method of constructing the machine. The poet himself answers thus (31.79-80)

The meaning of the line is, in case the methods are revealed in the work, then every one not initiated in the art by the preceptor will try to construct the machines and the attempt made by such a person may not only not achieve success but bring about troubles and difficulties. The following Sloka contains the qualifications necessary for constructing the machines (31.87)

It is also not uncommon, in the case of highly useful machines, to keep unraveled the methods of constructing them.