[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Architecture and art](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art) › [Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D.](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.agrawala-1965) › c8.9 # Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c8.9 Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c8.9 - **Language:** English ### [c8.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.agrawala-1965.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.). - [Previous: c8.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.agrawala-1965.c8.8) - [Next: c8.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.agrawala-1965.c8.10) - [Up: c8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.agrawala-1965.c8) ## Cites (2) - [Ṛgvedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.rg.7.88.5) — Sanskrit - [Atharvavedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.atharva.9.3.19) — Atharvan & Aṅgiras, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.agrawala-1965.c8.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.agrawala-1965.c8.9) · Pramāṇa