Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c7.s1.11

c7.s1.11

From the monuments described above, we are in a position to form an idea of the political and economic organisation established in the citedal. For example, the defended town was the *Pur* or Royal Fort, the Granary the *Koṣṭhāgāra*, the Assembly Hall the *Sabhā* or *Samthāgāra* serving as the Hall of Public Audience (*Asthāna-maṇḍapa* of later literature), and last of all the so called "College" the Royal Palace (*Prāsāda*), and the Great Bath corresponding to the *Maṅgala-Puṣkariṇī* in which the members of the consecrated aristocracy called *Rājānaḥ* took their sacramental bath as amongst the Lichchhavis of Vaiśālī. To this may be added four other components, namely, the Broad Road (*Mahāpatha*), Rampart (*Prākāra*), Rammed Foundation (*Vapra*) and Gateway (*Gopura Dvāra*) with bastions (*Aṭṭālaka*). The argument from this contingent of ten buildings and architectural parts throws up links between the proto-historic and historic cultures of India. A capital city in later times was also of the same lay-out. What remains to complete the picture was a religious shrine which perhaps lies concealed under the Buddhist Stūpa.