Mayamatam (Vol. I & II): Sanskrit Text, Translation and Notes

The Mayamata is a Vastusastra, i.e. a treatise on dwelling and as such it deals with all the facets of gods and mens dwellings, from the choice of the site to the iconography of the temple walls. It contains numerous and precise descriptions of villages and towns as well as of the temples, houses, mansions and palaces. It gives indications for the selection of a proper orientation, right dimensions, and of appropriate materials. It intends to be a manual for the architect and a guidebook for the layman. Well-thought of by traditional architects (sthapatis) of South India, the treatise is of great interest at a time when technical traditions, in all fields, are being scrutinized for their possible modern application.

The present bilingual edition prepared by Dr. Bruno Dagens, contains critically edited Sanskrit text, which is an improvement over the earlier edition by the same scholar and published as No.40 of Publications de I'Institute Francais d'Indologie, Pondicherry. The English translation, also published earlier, has now been revised with copious notes. The usefulness of the edition has been further enhanced by adding an analytical table of contents and a comprehensive glossary.

About the Author

Dr. Bruno Dagens (b. 1953) is an eminent Sanskritist and archaeologist. He is a member of the Ecole Francais d'Estreme-Orient. Dr. Dagens taught Sanskrit at the University of Louvain (Belgium) and did archaeological research in Afghanistan and Cambodia. He also worked, since 1977, at the Institute Francais d'Indologie, Pondicherry for quite a few years.

Besides articles and research papers on the Archaeology and Iconography of monuments in Afghanistan and Cambodia, two earlier editions of the Mayamata and one edition of the Saivagamaparibhasamanjari (a compendium of Saiva doctrines and rituals), Dr. Dagens has authored Architecture in the Ajitagama and the Rauravagama (Sitaram Bharatia Institute of Scientific Research, New Delhi, 1984).

Preface

This is our third MAYAMATA and it owes a lot to the former Institute of Indology (now French Institute of Pondicherry) we have retained without any substantial change the Sanskrit text and, after revision and emendation, the material for many of the footnotes, which have been added to the translation. That last, as well as the Introduction, has been borrowed after revision from our second work published in 1985 by the Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Scientific Research; we have tried to clarify it on several points, without however being able to make more than little progress in the interpretation of the ones. From the first published in 1970-1976 by the French passages dealing with timber work (chapters 18 and 25). The drawings of that second edition too have been kept with slight corrections; it should be reminded that they are meant to be no more than tentative sketches. Lastly an Index-glossary and an Analytical table of contents have been prepared.

The helps received since 1964 when the late Professor Jean Filliozat introduced us for the first time to the MAYAMATA, have been too numerous to be acknowledged one by one; exception is to be made however for that brought by Pandit N.R. Bhatt, founder and former Head of the Sanskrit Department at the French Institute of Pondicherry; I owe him more than can be expressed.

Lastly we thank Mrs. Kapila Vatsyayana for having asked us some years ago to prepare that book for the I.G.N.C.A. series, and for having friendly stood for out endless delays.

Foreword

In the series of Kalamulasastra early texts on music, namely, Matralaksanam, Dattilam and Brhaddesi, have been published. The medieval texts on music, specially, the Sri hastamuktavali (No.3 in the series) and the Nartananirnaya (No.17 in the series), bring us upto the 15th and 16th century. In the case of architecture, despite the IGNCA's endeavour to publish portions of the Brhatsamhita, the Agnipurana and the Visnudharmottara-purana, first this has not been possible. Instead, our scholars wrere able to complete work first on a late but important text, namely, silparatnakosa. We hope that the sections on architecture in the Brhatsamhita, the Agnipurana and the Visnudharmottara-purana which predate the medieval texts, will be published soon, alongwith revised and re-edited texts of Manasollasa and Aparajitaprccha.

The Mayamatam is the fourteenth and fifteenth volumes in the Kalamulasastra series of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA).

Urban development and city planning was, undoubtedly, known to the Mohenjodaro, but its most outstanding survivals of the historical period are in South India. The layout of Tanjore and later, Madurai has been widely commented upon. Understandably, technical texts, which devote attention to village, city planning, house building and temple construction, should be expected. An outstanding example of a comprehensive text, comprising thirty-six chapters, is the Mayamatam, written sometime between 11th and 12th century. The text is, obviously, a deduction from existing practices and actual structures rather than an abstract theoretical treatise on architecture. Its contents are more systematic than those found in other comprehensive texts, such as, the Manasollasa or the Samaranganasutradhara. The latter two are encyclopaedic in nature but are not tightly structured. In contrast, Mayamatam is more definitive and coherent as it situates itself within the larger saiva tradition and even more particularly, the Saivagama tradition and takes into account actual town and village layouts and temple construction. While it would be debatable whether the text precedes or succeeds the construction of the Brhadisvara with architectural plans, techniques of construction and the modular approach in regard to the number of storeys. The text assumes importance not only for its detailed descriptions of temples, but also for its detailed descriptions of houses for different categories of inhabitants in a village and a city, entrances, exists, ventilations and much else. Equally revealing is the concern with examination of the site, the analysis of the soil, the preparation of the foundations, the materials to be used and the methods of construction. A comparative study of the valuable date in this text, with techniques, which survive with the traditional sthaptis and others, would be the next rewarding journey.

As we have observed elsewhere Vastu and the Agama traditions are complementary and often they overlap. This was evident in the Svayambhuvasutrasamgraha and this interdependence has been highlighted by Prof. Pierre Filliozat in his Introduction. The Mayamatam, likewise, complements material in the Kamikagama specially the section on the Purvakamikagama and the two should be seen together, because while the text on architecture details the techniques of construction, the Agama texts lay down the process by which the material is transubstantiated to a non-material plane.

The text of the Mayamatam also interlinks the IGNCA programmes of studying the area of Tanjore and the Brhadisvara Temple. In a related programme, precise measurements have been taken of the city, new layout plans have been made, the Tmple has been measured precisely and a new set of drawings of ground plans, elevation and sections, is ready. Alongside, a volume on sculpture of the Temple, not understood in isolation but in its aspect of a programmed orchestration of the outer and the inner, the lower and the higher is ready for publication. Inscriptions have been re-assessed from the point of view of their placement and the contents of these inscriptions, specially those that have been deciphered recently, throw a fund of information on the organization of temple architecture activity. Alongside, the temple rituals are being documented. Studies are being carried out in regard to adherence or departures in contemporary practice of these rituals from the Agamas- whether the Kamikagama or the Makutagama. A comparison of the material of Mayamatam and the studies in the Brhadisvara project will, undoubtedly, throw up a new set of issues for further study.

With the publication of a group of monographs relating to the Brhadisvara Temple, including the Isanasivagurudevapaddhati and the Makutagama, the architectural, sculptural, painting and epigraphical volumes, and the volume based on the socio-political and cultural aspects and the history of the period and region, and the Mayamatam the Institute will have, hopefully, provided a new or, certainly, an alternate medel for the study of cultural areas and regions. Here theory and practice-the textual and the oral, the historical and contemporary, the monument, the texts and the living traditions are being investigated as interpenetrative categories.

Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts is grateful to Dr. Bruno Dagens, Editor and Translator of this edition of the text. A French edition was published by the French Institute of Indology, Pondicherry, in 1970-76 and an English translation of the text from Sitaram Bharatia Institute of Scientific Research was published in 1985. The present edition is a revision of Dr. Bruno Dagen's critical text published as also a revision of the English translation. He has provided an insightful introduction and an exhaustive glossary of technical terms, which will be an invaluable source of understanding for future scholars. Dr. Bruno Dagens brings to this edition the sensitive understanding of an excavator and an archaeologist. Thus, many complex passages have been edited by him with a view not only of grammatical correctness but also from the point of view of comprehension as statements of architectural construction. The question of homogeneity of this text - whether it was all composed during Cola or the post Cola period is somewhat debatable. Dr. Bruno Dagens concedes that there may be some interpolations. However, the question of interpolations in the Indian textual tradition is itself a complex matter. The text was never considered to be a frozen text. Since at all times the text reflected actual practices, as and when actual practices went through modifications, these changes were reflected in the subsequent texts or incorporated into an already prevalent text. Elsewhere, we have taken up the question "What constitutes the authenticity of a text in the Indian tradition, other than the Vedic text under the category of Sruti?". The Mayamatam, like many other texts in different disciplines but particularly the arts, is also not a frozen text of a particular fixed date and time, but belongs much more to the stream of evolution and development of distinctive schools of architectural style.

I would like to take this occasion to thank Dr. Bruno Dagens for preparing the present text and thank my colleagues, especially Dr. N.D. Sharma who has assisted in proof-reading of the Sanskrit documents and publications, and Prof. Satkari Mukhopadhyaya, for supervision.

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