Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v1.c11.6

v1.c11.6

In the first Vasiṣṭha desired to have a three-storeyed dwelling (tridhātu-śaraṇam); in the second is the reference to a sovereign who sits down in his substantial and elegant hall built with a thousand-pillars and the third alludes to residential houses with such pillars and said to be vast comprehensive, and thousand-doored and lastly in the fifth Mitra and Varuṇa are represented as occupying a great palace with a thousand pillars and a thousand gates. These are evidently spacious halls, the chief characteristic of which is abundant pillars. There are several expressions (cf. the one in the above quotations — ‘tridhātu’) in the Ṛgveda which have been explained by Sāyaṇa as referring to many-storeyed houses. Śaraṇam’s is ‘Tridhātu’.