Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c9.7

c9.7

Apart from the fortifications and city of Pataliputra there has also survived one concrete record of the wooden construction of the palace, of such a high standard of workmanship that it is a definite proof of the Mauryan artificers' accumulated experience in working in timber. This consists of a number of massive teakwood platforms each thirty feet in length, found buried deep in the silt and apparently introduced as a kind of raft to support the foundations of the facade or propylaeum of the palace. Composed of beams jointed together "with a precision and reasoned care that could not possibly be excelled," they illustrate "the absolute perfection of such work and those who executed them would find little indeed to learn in the field of their own art, could they return to earth to-day."¹