Essay name: Architectural data in the Puranas
Author:
Sharda Devi
Affiliation: Himachal Pradesh University / Department of History
This essay studies ancient Indian architectural science as found in technical treatises and the Puranas, with special reference to the Matsya, Garuda, Agni and Bhavishya Puranas. These texts detail ancient architectural practices, covering temple and domestic designs, dimensional specifications, and construction rules.
Chapter 6 - Houses
2 (of 37)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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The basic and essential needs of a man are food, clothing and
shelter. The shelter may be a cave of a mountain, a hollow of a tree, or a
thatched house or a building constructed with bricks, stones and cement.
A man has always protected himself from heat, cold, rain, wild animals by
taking shelter in some enclosure or in some kind of a house. People in a
civilized society always feel a need for a comfortable and cosy house.
Archaeology as well as literary sources have revealed that the art of
constructing houses was known in the remote past. The 峁歡veda the
contains references to g峁沨a, dh膩ma, harmya, all meaning 'a house'. In
Yajurveda and Atharvaveda there are references to doors, assembly halls,
pillars of different types, forts, various measurements used in a
construction. The AV throws more light on the methods of house
construction.
The 膧艣val膩ya峁嘺g峁沨yas奴tra suggests that the early building,
planned on the pattern of a tree, was one with a central post as a trunk,
and the thatches in all directions were like the outstretched branches of a
7 tree. The MP supports the view that the primitive house or the first house
on earth had tree as its model. S膩l膩 is stated to have been derived from
9 艣膩kh膩. Similar descriptions regarding the tree as the model of the
primitive house are available in the M膩rka峁囜笉eya Pur膩峁嘺 10 and V膩yu
笔耻谤腻峁嘺.11
