रूपमण्डन एवं देवमूर्त्ति-प्रकरणम् (मण्डन सूत्रधार - प्राचीन मूर्तिकला एवं देव-प्रतिमा लक्षण सटीक)

( 4 ) and possessed knowledge in all departments of Sanskrit. He was rich, healthy and beautiful. After finishing studies he took to Sannyāsa, thus showing his indifference to the world. On his demise his invaluable library was dispersed. Many of the texts by the Sūtradhāra Maṇḍana had titles ending in Maṇḍana ‘in the sense of decoration’ and it is not impossible, that all his works had originally such titles. On the other hand, the learned Kavīndrācārya knew the Rājavallabha and the Rājavallabha-śilpa to be two separate works ; perhaps, the one was on Vāstu (architecture), while the other was on Śilpa (sculpture). The Rājavallabha-maṇḍana and some other texts by Maṇḍana, seem to have been very popular. Within two centuries, after compilation, we find copies of his texts deposited in the invaluable library of Kavīndrācārya From Mewar, the works of Maṇḍana found their way to Benares, the great nerve-centre (Marma-sthāna) of Indian culture. From Benares, Maṇḍana’s works probably spread to other places westwards¹³ as well as eastwards¹⁴. Mss. of his works are also met with in the South¹⁵, where they might have been easily carried from the Central India. Thus it is evident that Maṇḍana’s handbooks on architecture and sculpture, enjoyed considerable popularity with artists and craftsmen. 13. Apparently one of Maṇḍana’s works as published with diagrams by Bhāratī at Baroda, 1891, see P. K. Acharya : Op. cit., p. 103. 14. The Rājavallabha-maṇḍana was published by Rājā Rādhākānta Deva in his Encyclopaedic Dictionary, शब्दकल्पद्रुम Śabda-kalpa-druma. See under Śilpa-śāstram शिल्पशास्त्रम्. 15. Copious extracts from the Rūpa-maṇḍana have been made in T A Gopinatha Rao : Elements of Hindu Iconography. Madras.