India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c12.s1.19

c12.s1.19

426). The example *Chandragupta-sabhā* although certainly post-Pāṇinian denoted both the assembly or Great Synod of that emperor and the magnificent pillared hall which has been discovered in the excavations at Pāṭaliputra. The pillared assembly hall was a Vedic model as the word *Sabhā-sthāṇu* (*Vedic Index*, II.426) shows. Chandragupta built his *sabhā* with stone pillars. In this connection we may refer to the expression *Kāshṭha-sabhā* indicative of wooden architecture of earlier times. *Chandra* and *Kāśikā* cite it as a counter-example. It is known that the earliest Indian architecture in stone was preceded by that in wood, from which the technical patterns and ornamentation of early Indian art were certainly derived. Therefore, an assembly hall made of wood (*kāshṭha-sabhā*) was a fact of the pre-Maurya period.