Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c7.s1.9

c7.s1.9

THE GREAT BATH (*Mahā-kuṇḍa*, 39 ft. x 23 ft. x 8 ft.) formed part of a big hydropathic establishment (180' x 108'). This structure almost offers a commentary on the high standard of the Indus Valley people, so far as their religious and secular life is concerned. It was reached by flights of steps on two sides and surrounded by several rows of smaller double-storeyed rooms. It was supplied with fresh water taken from a nearby well, brick-lined with gypsum mortar. Its floor and wall have been made absolutely water-tight by three parallel vertical brick-walls on the four sides, the first is plastered on the outside and plugged on the inside by one inch thick coat of bitumen. The second and the third walls were connected to it by rammed mud and made compact as a single unit. The emptying outlet in one corner connects it with a big corbelled drain. On the terrace of the bath was a spacious corridor supported on pillars and having on three sides at its back various rooms and galleries serving as cloak rooms. [Fig. 10].