Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c39.8

c39.8

However interesting the plans and general arrangements of such early buildings were, the manner of their construction, and, above all, the character of their embellishment, were even more so. Three methods of building have been disclosed; the earliest, a curious and primitive process of walling consisted of embedding quantities of pebbles in masses of mud mortar. This was followed about A D. 300 by a process of reinforcing the wall of pebbles by the insertion at intervals of irregular blocks of stone, a system not unlike the large diaper masonry at Texila of the second century A.D., so that it has been designed "diaper pebble." Finally, about 500 A D., a third method appears resembling in some respects rubble masonry, the walls being composed of large untrimmed stones with the spaces between filled by smaller stones This has been called "diaper rubble." Such rough and rudimentary methods of construction naturally cried out for some system of surface treatment, and this took the form of a facing of terracotta tiles or panels, which were not only used to cover up the diaper pebble core of the walls, but also laid on the pavements of the courtyards, and applied so freely everywhere that as a stage in the development of the architecture of Kashmir, it may not inappropriately be referred to as the terracotta phase.