The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c7.32

c7.32

Four cottages combined into a single habitation, with its own inner courtyard, was the next step in the evolution of the Indian house-plan. Such a house might belong to the chief herdsman, who was an important personage in the Aryan village communities, or to the headman of the village, both of which positions were hereditary. This was the derivation of a house-plan, eminently practical and suitable for a tropical climate, which is still universal in India for all classes, from the well-to-do ryot to the Maharajah, except when Indians prefer to make their surroundings uncomfortable and insanitary by adopting building fashions appropriate only for European climatic and social conditions.