Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c24.24

c24.24

**Its Inner Chambers.** We shall now go into the interior of these Vihāras. The privacy of the inmates was maintained by the provision of "inner chambers" for sleeping purposes which were to be of three kinds—"chambers in shape like a palankeen, or like a quart measure, or chambers on an upper storey.” They would be “at one side of the small Vihāras and in the middle of large ones”. In imitation of the arrangements in the Vihāras of the Titthiya sects, the sleeping rooms were whitewashed, the floors were coloured black, and the walls coloured with red chalk [*Chullav.*, vi, 3]. Some Vihāras were thatched and thus cold in winter and hot in summer whence it was arranged “to cover them with skins and plaster them within and without” [ib., vi, 2, 2]. To prevent rain leaking through, recourse was had to “a protecting arrangement and cement” [ib., vi, 3, 4], while a ceiling-cloth was used as a protection against snakes falling from the roof [ib.].