A PEEK INTO THE HARAPPAN CIVILISATION
Indus valley civilization or Harappan civilization is the earliest known urban culture of the Indian subcontinent. A major hallmark of the Harrapan civilisation was the advanced and well-planned drainage system in place. Main street drains were covered with bricks and stones, and there were tertiary drains. Second storeys had drains built inside walls that ended just above the street drains. There were man-holes and soak pits with covers for removing solid waste.
Harappan era houses were of different sizes; had many rooms for different purposes; a courtyard; were sometimes double storeyed with staircases leading to the second floor; the floors were either tiled, or plastered, or covered with clay and sand. The Harappans had provisions for a separate bathroom and toilet in each house. Sometimes a group of houses would have a separate common bathroom. Bathrooms had bathing platforms with sloping floors to drain off the water into the drain. Toilets in Harappan sites would generally be a hole over a cesspit.
Harappan sites show an elaborate system of water management for collection and distribution of potable and bathing water. There were separate channels for freshwaters, rainwater collection, and wastewater drainage. They also had systems for collecting/harvesting rain waters as evident from the numerous reservoirs, cisterns, and wells.
THE ANCIENT INDIAN ARCHITECTURAL TEXTS
In the Indian context, the term architecture is included within the realms of Silpasastra; a treatise. Indian architecture, known as Vastu Sastra, is seen as a part of a subdivision of the Silpasastras. Vastu-sastra would include, besides the basic architecture, all kinds of buildings being built it would also cover laying of parks and gardens; town planning; marketplace designing; digging drains, sewers, wells, and tanks; building dams, bathing ghats, walls and embankments.
Furthermore, it would also be a part of designing furniture suitable for the houses built. Besides these, Vastu Sastra also includes designing of clothing and accessories, such as headgear and various ornaments. Carving of sculptures of deities and famous people are also a part of Vastu Sastra. Even basics, such as selecting a site, testing the soil of the site, and ascertaining the cardinal directions of the site are all part of this ancient science of architecture better known as Vastu Sastra. Vastu Vidya or Vastu Sastra is so comprehensive and broad in its discourses that it is almost co-extensive with the Silpasastras.
ARCHITECTURE IN BUDDHIST TEXTS
In Buddhist literature, there are plenty of references to high walls, ramparts and buttresses, gates, watchtowers and moats alluding to the fortification of towns and cities. Mentions are made of houses opening directly to the streets, thus hinting at a lack of enclosed spaces like gardens in front. These mostly talk of a large group of houses clumped together around narrow lanes, of sacred groves, and vast expanses of rice fields beyond. The Jataka talks of individual houses that remain separate from villages and towns.
There are detailed descriptions of arama griha (rest houses) for people who liked to lead a quiet life and stay a little away from the hustle-bustle of the towns. As per the books, such houses should be located not too far or too close to the towns, the compounds are to be surrounded by three types of walls (stone, brick, and wooden fencing), and further surrounded by bamboo fences, thorn hedges, and moat-like ditches.
Houses should have living rooms, resting rooms, storerooms, halls for services, halls attached to bathrooms, closet rooms, cloisters, open-faced mandapas, and ponds. The inner chambers are to be divided into three parts: square halls (Sivika garbha), rectangular halls (Nalika garbha) and dining halls (Harmya garbha). Verandas or alindas were essential for these houses, and were also present in prasada or storeyed houses, which were referred to as a veranda supported on pillars with elephant heads (Chullavagga, VI). Details of doors, windows, stairs, rooms and jaalis on them, and seven storeyed buildings (satta-bhumika-prasada) are frequently found in various Buddhist texts. There is another very interesting structure mentioned in the Vinaya texts.
These are the hot-air baths, which are described in great details; structures similar to the later period Turkish baths. Digha Niyaka also speaks of ornamented open-air bathing tanks. Such ancient baths have been found in fairly preserved conditions among the Anuradhapura (Sri Lanka) ruins.
ARCHITECTURE IN EPICS AND PURANAS
The Epics abound in the descriptions of cities, large palatial mansions, storeyed buildings, verandas, porches, victory arches, tanks with masonry stairs, prakara or walls, and various other structures which are all indicative of a well developed and flourishing architecture. The city plan of Ayodhya as given in the Ramayana, is found to be similar to the town-plan guidelines as laid down in the Manasara, which included beautiful devayatana (temples), gardens, alms-houses, assembly halls, and mansions.
Ramayana also gives a detailed description of the beautiful city of Lanka in its Lanka-kanda. Mahabharata provides us with short but vivid descriptions of the cities of Mithila, Indraprastha, Dwaraka, among many others. Sabha-parvan provides us with a detailed description of different assembly halls, using examples of Indra sabha, and halls of Varuna, Kubera, Yama, and the Pandavas. In both the epics there are details of lofty buildings (mostly painted in white) and large balconies; windows with lattices; comfortable rooms; king’s palaces; separate mansions for princes, ministers, army officers, and chief priests; smaller houses for common people; assembly halls; courts; and shops.
The Puranas deal with the topic of architecture in a more serious manner than the casual descriptions as found in the epics. Matsyapurana has 8 chapters with detailed discussion on architecture and sculptures. Skanda purana has three extensive chapters that discuss the planning of laying of a large city.
The other Puranas that extensively talk on architectural science are the GarudaPurana, Agnipurana, NaradaPaurna, VayuPurana, and BhavisyaPurana. Brihat-samhita composed by Varahamihira also devotes 5 chapters to architecture and sculpture and gives the subject a thorough and masterly treatment. From a definition of the science of architecture to choosing sites, soil testing, plan of buildings, to elaborate and comparative measurements of storeys and doors, carvings. etc., all are dealt with great details in this treatise. Kautilya Artha-sastra has 7 chapters on the science of architecture, with a focus on structural details. Interestingly, this book gives detailed descriptions of forts and fortified cities, palaces with underground tunnels or surang, military and residential buildings within the scope of town planning.
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