Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c78.s2.47

v2.c78.s2.47

Every palace and mansion described by Bāṇa is full of citraśālā or art gallery. Every city abounds in picture galleries. The big citraśālās were built in the style of Vimāna and this characteristic of a Citraśālā has a tradition in the Śilpa-texts. Narada śilpa (cf. first chapter and Dr. Raghavan’s observations on ‘Sanskrit Texts on Painting’), describes a citraśālā building as ornamented by a small gopura in the front and having Śikhara-kalaśas, etc., thus satisfying the description of ‘Vimāna’ given by Bāṇa (1). As regards the decorations of the palaces, reference is made in H. C. (2) to great Śilpis being invited from various countries to do the job before the marriage of Rajyaśri, and they also received the usual honours and rewards as per the time honoured tradition of the texts like Samarāṅgaṇa-Sūtradhāra (cf. H. S. A. Vol. I—Preliminaries before the building operations).