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) v7.c49.77

v7.c49.77

Here as elsewhere in the domain of Hindu history it is difficult to determine how far the theoretical descriptions in literature correspond with the practical realities of life. A close comparison of architectural precepts with the details of archaeological finds and the narratives of foreign visitors like Yuan Chaung (seventh century A.D.) suggests that the former, while not literally true to facts, are largely based on practice. It is interesting to infer that in ancient India in spite of all the other worldliness of philosophers and spiritualists, those who could afford maintained a high standard of living. Thus from a passage in the Buddhist work *Chullavagga*, VI, 4, 10, we learn that houses comprised dwelling-rooms, retiring-rooms, store-rooms, service-halls, halls with fire-places, closets and cloisters, halls for exercise, wells and ponds, sheds for wells and open-roofed sheds, bath-rooms and halls attached to them. Of hot-air baths the following description was given by the late T.W. Rhys Davids on the basis of the Vinaya Texts III, 105–110, 297. 'They were built on an elevated basement faced with brick or stone with stone stairs leading up to it, and a railing round the verandah. The roof and walls were of wood, covered first with skins and then with plaster, the lower part only of the wall being faced with bricks. There was an ante-chamber and a hot-room and a pool to bathe in. Seats were arranged round a fire-place in the middle of the hot-room and to induce perspiration hot water was poured from the leathers.' Again, as we learn from the *Dīgha Nikāya*, there were open air bathing tanks, with flights of steps leading to the water, faced entirely with stone and ornamented with flowers and carvings. It is needless here to enter into the details of domestic furniture but it is interesting to note, *inter alia*, that benches were made long enough to accommodate three persons, that couches were covered with canopies, and that there were several types of Asandis, such as sofas, armed chairs and cushioned chairs.