A History of Assam c12.174

c12.174

The palace. “The Raja’s audience hall, called *solang*, is 120 cubits long and 30 cubits broad, measured on the inside. It stands on 66 pillars, each of them about four cubits round. They have smoothed these huge pillars so well, that at first sight they seemed to have been turned on a lathe. Though the people pretended to have the art of turning on lathes, yet reason refuses to believe it. My pen fails to describe in detail the other arts and rare inventions employed in decorating the woodwork of this palace. Probably nowhere else in the whole world can wooden houses be built with such decoration and figure-carving as by the people of this country. The sides of this palace have been partitioned into wooden lattices of various designs carved in relief, and adorned, both within and outside, with mirrors of brass, polished so finely that when the sunbeams fall on then, the eye is dazzled by the flashing back of light. This mansion was completed by 12,000 men working for one year. At one end of this palace, on four pillars facing each other, rings have been fixed, nine rings on each pillar. Whenever the Raja wished to live in this house, a throne was placed between the four pillars, and nine canopies, each of a different stuff, were fastened to the rings above the throne. The Raja sat on the throne under the canopies; the drumme-rs beat their drums and *dands*. The *dand* is a circular fat instrument of brass like our gongs. When the Raja holds court or rides out, or the nobles set out for the places to which they have been newly appointed, the drums and dands are beaten. As for the many other wooden mansions—carved, decorated, strong, broad and long, which were inside the palace enclosure, their elegance and peculiar features can better be seen than described. But may not even an infidel be fated to behold these houses unless this country is annexed to the Imperial dominions, so that he might not be involved in the calamities that overwhelmed us.