Samarangana Sutradhara (IAST: Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra) is an 11th-century poetic treatise on classical Indian architecture (vastu shastra) written in the Sanskrit language attributed to Paramara King Bhoja of Dhar.
[4] The Samarangana Sutradhara is among the few important texts that have survived on the theory and practice of Hindu temple architecture in the north, central and western Indian subcontinent (chapters 52–67).
Its chapters also include discussions on town planning, house architecture, iconography, painting (chitra), and sculpture arts (shilpa).
[8] The text is significant in its discussion about Nagara, Dravida,[9] Bhumija and other diversified styles of Hindu temples.
Samarangana Sutradhara includes chapters about the decoration of palaces, which describes the construction of mechanical contrivances (automata), including mechanical bees and birds, fountains shaped like humans and animals, and male and female dolls that refilled oil lamps, danced, played instruments, and re-enacted scenes from Hindu mythology.