Manasara Series (I. A Dictionary of Hindu Architecture; II. Indian Architecture according to Manasara-Shilpashastra; III. Manasara on Architecture and Sculpture: Sanskrit Text; IV. Architecture of Manasara: Translation; V. Architecture of Manasara: Illustrations; VI. Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad; VII. An Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture) v6.c40.s1.29

v6.c40.s1.29

The largest are on a scale that entitles them to be ranked almost as palaces or temples. One of the upper class houses has a frontage of 85 feet and a depth of 97 feet. Its surrounding walls are 4 to 5 feet in thickness and have a slight batter on the outside. Against its east and west sides other houses have been built. The front of the house was towards a quiet lane, and the entrance on this side measured nearly 10 feet across, afterwards narrowed to 76 inches by the insertion of an extra pier against the east jamb. Opposite the entrance is the porter's lodge, which is connected with an outside courtyard by a doorway almost as wide as the chamber itself, so that there might be no possibility of the occupant being hidden from view. To the right of the porter's lodge, a short passage led to the central courtyard of the house, which was open to the sky and provided light and air to the rooms grouped about it on both the ground and upper floors. The courtyard measures approximately 32 feet square, but the square is not a true one. Like other open courtyards it was paved with brick and provided with a covered drain. Of the rooms which encompass the courtyard, the one at the south-west corner contains a well and is entered up three steps from the passage near the vestibule. There is an apperture between it and the bathroom for conveying the well water direct into the bathroom. These bath- and the well-rooms are situated on the south side of the courtyard. Small rooms of irregular shape, numbering four, run along the east side of the courtyard. On the west side of the courtyard there is a curious chamber with a narrow exterior passage and having four niches in the inside walls. On the north of the courtyard there are three chambers which appear to be a northern projection of the house. The living- and the sleeping-rooms of the family were all on the upper floor, which was reached from the courtyard by way of the staircase. One of them and the passageways are raised up on a solid basement (in order to provide against the menace of floods, the idea being to have at least one fair-sized room where the family could find refuge if the rest of the house collapsed). The remainder of the upstairs rooms were disposed round about the central courtyard, following no doubt the same plan as the rooms below, but with a projecting balcony overhanging the courtyard from which the several rooms could be entered. The roof of this, as of most other buildings, was probably flat, and served as a terrace whereon the inmates of the house could sleep or take the evening air.¹ Another similar house² has a more elaborate plan. ‘On its ground floor are four fair-sized courts, ten smaller rooms, three staircases, a porter’s lodge, and a well-chamber. The front is towards First Street and here there are three entrances side by side, the principal one being in the middle. Besides these three front entrances, there is a small doorway alongside the well at the rear of the house, which seems to have been originally open, but was subsequently bricked up. Entering the house by the main door one finds oneself in a small vestibule, with the porter’s lodge on the left and a second doorway directly opposite leading to the open court.³ On the west side of it one of the three flights of steps ascends to the upper storey. On its south side is a broad brick pier, evidently intended for the support of the upper floor. On the north side of the court are three ornamental panels or recesses.’⁴