Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c9.s1.5

c9.s1.5

In the *Nāyādhamma Kahā* is a description of the sleeping chamber of a queen which had an outer courtyard, an Assembly Hall polished (*Ghaṭṭa-maṭṭha*) and well set with pillars, endowed with statues (*Śāla-bhañjiyā*), latticed windows, moon-stone at the foot of the stairways (*Ardha-chandra*), projecting ledges (*Nijjuha*), and a room on the roof called *Chanda-sālikā*. Its inside was decorated with paintings (*Chitta-kamma*); the floor (*Kuṭṭima-tala*) was studded with semi-precious stones (*maṇi*) and the ceiling had a painted canopy (*ulloyachittiya*) with lotus flowers and creepers (*Paumalayā*). There is reference also to a Summer-House (*Siyahara*) built for a Chakravartī king, which name occurs in the *Niśītha-chūrṇi* and therefore must be of later times corresponding to the *Hima-gṛha* in the *Kādambarī* (para 208 of P. L. Vaidya’s edition), of which the architectural layout had already been perfected in the Kushāṇa period.