Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c8.s3.11

c8.s3.11

Large and magnificent houses *harmyas* and *prāsādas*, were known to Vātsyāyana; the nāgaraka sometimes might enjoy moonlight on the terrace of a palace and examine the stars and planets with his beloved.⁴ The walls of the houses were sometimes beautifully polished so as to reflect the image of a girl, and not infrequently the roof of the house stood on pillars, *stambhas*.⁵ The *Buddhacarita* mentions an iron pillar and the *Saundarananda Kāvya* speaks of a pillar of gold and also of a minor support or *upastambha*.⁶ The floor of a palace was sometimes decorated with mosaic work, being inlaid with coral or with precious stones. In the palace-gardens there were *samudra-gṛhas* or cool summer-houses surrounded by water, washed as it were, by the sea, and also rooms in the walls of which there were secret passages for water to circulate and take away the heat.¹ Bhāsa's *Svapna-Vāsavadattam* (Act V) has such a *samudra-grha*, and in later dramas also it is not rare; the *Viṣṇu-Smṛti* (V. 117) prescribes punishment for a *samudragṛha-bhedaka*. Secret pleasure-houses standing amidst the waters of garden tanks are referred to by Kālidāsa.² Besides the garden, Vātsyāyana has not given much detailed description of the *antaḥpura* or the inner sanctum of the ladies. Bhāsa designates it as the inner court with apartments or houses on four sides (*abhyantara-catuḥśālā*), which suggests the plan of construction of the inner apartments of an Indian house from very ancient times.³ This plan combined the advantages of seclusion and privacy together with provision for light and air.