Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c8.9

c8.9

ARCHITECTURAL LAY-OUT—There are several names for the house *Dama*, *Griha*, *Pastya*, *Sadana*, *Durona*, *Harmya*. It had three main parts, a clear scheme which continued throughout as the basic lay-out of a house or palace in India. The first part was the door with its forecourt (*Dvara*), the second *Sadas*, corresponding to the *Asthana-mandapa*, *Sabha*, *Asthayika* of later literature. This was the male apartment or the room for receiving guests and holding public audiences in the royal palaces. The third element consisted of a female apartment called *Patni sadana*, same as *antahpura*. In Vedic times a fourth part of the house was *Agnisala* in which the sacred fires were kept. This later on became the *Devagriha* portion of a palace. A house was regularly planned and measured (*Nimita*, *Mita*, AV. 9. 3. 19). There were several kinds of houses both big and small, e. g. *Mana* and *Sala*, the former denoting a rich man's house or palace (*Brihat Mana*, RV. VII. 88. 5), and the latter a middleman's average house. We read of *Mahasala* in the Upanishads. The Rigveda refers to *Sahasra-sthuna*, a house on a thousand pillars, adorned with gold inlay (*Hiranya-rupa*) on a sheeting of copper (*Ayah-sthunam*, RV. V. 62. 5). A grandiose structure resting on a thousand columns is stated to be a *Sadas*, which could only be a public audience-hall (राजानौ ध्रुवे सदस्युत्तमे सहस्रस्थूणा आसाते, RV. II. 41. 5.). We know the place of *Sabha* and *Samiti* in Vedic polity, the latter forming an assembly of the people (*Visah*). It must have been to convene sessions of the *Samiti* that the need for a thousand-pillared hall with the king himself seated at one end was felt. There is also reference to a companion idea of a big house or palace having a thousand doors (*Sahsra-dvara-griha*) called *Brihanta Mana* (RV. VII. 88. 5), the main entrance being known as *Prathama Dvara*, which was the same as *dvara-koshtha* of later times. We find also reference to *Sata-bhuji* and *Sata-dvara*, a house with a hundred columns and a hundred doors. The ideal world was referred to as Thousand and real human life as Hundred. Houses had two, four, six, eight or ten walls (*Dvipaksha*, *Chatushpaksha*, *Shat-paksha*, *Dasapaksha*, AV. 9. 3. 21). The meaning of *paksha* seems to be the same as in the dialects today, namely, wall (*Pakkha*). A room was called *kulaya* and rooms within rooms were planned (*kulaye adhikulayam*), and a storey as *kosa* of which several were superimposed (*Kose-kosah samubjitah*, AV. 9. 3. 20.).