Chapter 11 - Concluding Remarks

The over gratification in our spiritual civilization has done, a great harm. In matters mundane or material, our planners have always looked to the West for light and guidance. We have altogether shut our eyes to our technical heritage. Though we have an important section of the Technical Sciences, in the All India Oriental Conference, what impact has it left on our National Reconstruction, especially State-craft and the Engineering and Architectural policy is not very difficult to see. Our Sthāpatya was very scientific. It has lost its tradition. The present writer has done some thing towards the study of this most fascinating branch of Indology by his humble pursuits—vide Vāstuśāstra-research-publications in about six volumes—Canons of Hindu Architecture, Sculpture and Painting etc. etc. The climatic conditions and so many other agelong modes and habits woven in the very texture of Indian life demand that our houses should be so planned as to give us cool shelter, in order to live comfortably and enjoy longevity. Nine-feet ten-feet high houses are a curse these days. Such low-roofed tenaments are basically wrong for this hot climate of India. They may be good for cold countries. Accordingly a few suggestions in a popular language are being put before the lovers of Indian architecture, who may take up the question with the Planning Commission for a re-orientation in our Engineering and Architectural policy. My ‘Bhāratīya Vāstuśāstra’ (Hindi work) and Vāstuśāstra Vol, I and II are pointer to advocate this reorientation in our national policy not only for the good of our cultural heritage but also for the good of living and longivity.

Modern House-Planning and what it can gain from Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra. From the previous pages a tangible picture of the House Architecture, as presented by Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra has already emerged. This picture is one of the sublimest heritages of our forefathers. It is upto us to appreciate its beauty and utility. We need a discipline of our senses to make them a fit apparatus for the perfect perception.

All the vital considerations necessary to make a living healthy and peaceful are bestowed upon the house plans. If material equipments such as furniture, mozaic floors, ingenious door-shutters, beautiful designs of windows, attached bath rooms, curtains and the like are not included in them, we shall not allow that to deter us from having a look at them. The fundamental basis of these plans is purity. This purity includes sanitation, ventilation and lighting—the prime necessities of life. The modern spacious and open varandahas, the sky-clear lawns and compounds, the gardens, the bed, the reception room, the study-room, the worship-room, the store-room, the kitchen and the bath-room, all these can be well provided in the house plans as prescribed by the Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra.

The planning of the house and building is one of the finest traits of human civilisation. We know the story of a house—from its origin, the tree-branch structures to the fullest of development, the ostentatious mansions—the palaces of kings and temples of Gods together with the intermediary phases of evolutions, the manifold structures along with their component parts and mouldings, decoration and joinery, masonry and material in their successive stages. What light does it throw on the broad outlook of culture and the humanity at large? The human civilisation, though it has reached its zenith, has not yet attained its crowning glory—the glory of self-realization. It is still far far from its destination. The direction of the journey too, has changed. The struggle, therefore, is keener. Where are we going? Should we lose our soul altogether in our material pursuits. The spirit of man needs to be rediscoverd. “Mortal in the company or the Immortal” is a very old story! How to regain that company? The answer is not far to seek. We have to get rid of the unnaturalness about us. We have to change our direction from the unnatural parapherenalia of life establishment to the simple environments of Nature. For this, let the beginning be made in our living conditions. We should now choose the natural surroundings for our habitation—employ the natural materials in our houses, lead a life of simplicity and austerity. This is only possible when a new orientation is made in our house-planning. Śālā-models as prescribed by the texts like the Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra can very well serve this end.

It does not mean that we should bid goodbye to all the advancement that our fore-fathers and the modern engineers and the architects have made in the art of building. The outlook needs a change. As the ancients reserved the superb art-craft man ship only to the buildings, devotional, and memorial, similar consideration should prevail with us. The public buildings, the temples, the town-halls may have edifices of large and sublime structures, but the dwelling houses, unless simple and cheap and laid in the surrounding of Nature, can neither be conducive to health nor to the peace mind—the two essentials of good living.

House planning was never left to the caprice of the individuals in India. It was the responsibility of the state or the ruler to see that a certain minimum standard was adhered to by every house holder in matters of building his house. They were so rigid that they were codified and were given a sanctity of a religious character, so that they may never be violated. What is the present state of affairs? The building byelaws are there. Every house-builder has to get his plan sanctioned by the Municipal Board or the similar other corporation. Despite all this, the results so far, have been simply monstrous. The congestion, lack of sanitation, lack of symmetry and beauty as well as of religiousity (purity) etc. are every where to be seen abundantly. It is a matter of gratification that in these days the town planning departments arc a bit more awakened, but the task facing them is so enormous that, the absence of a clear-cut vision, must work havoc to any fitting solution of the house problem. Now, people have begun to talk of such materials as cost less. Nobody is, now, after the aforesaid grandeur or beauty or comforts. A small place to meet ordinary vital wants is enough. This consciousness, this awakening, this realization of the grim realities is the most suitable time when we can turn our eyes to the past.

The Samarāṅgaṇa-Sūtradhāra’s śālā-houses can solve our house problem. The material to be used is within the easy reach of all and the accommodation is just to satisfy the essential wants. The śāla-bhavanas can serve any variety of tenement. They can be built, also on a large scale. Some of the modern materials like cement, concrete, if employed, will make the houses last longer. They are best suited to the climate of India. The roofing should never be of reinforced concrete slab, instead the ṣaḍdāruka, tree timber planks obtained from such trees as mango, Mahuva or Neem abounding in every corner of the land should be employed. Walls, for security reasons may be made of brick and lime or brick, sand or cement. If the new townships or suburbs, the branch towns, the Śākhā-nagaras (vide the Town-Planning, the last part of the study) are planned, the houses therein should be planned in rows of śālā-houses, consisting of symmetrical, frontal varandahs, the Alindas together with porticos, the Bhadrās and hind portions the Parisaras. The central spaces arc open and arc large enough for plantation and vegetation etc.

Any housing scheme on a large scale is a great burden on the State Exchequer. How to raise the money in crores for a handful of houses on the modern models? This problem can be solved if coordinated and cooperative efforts are made in which the State gives subsidy and the individuals and cooperative-societies also contribute their mite with a zeal and enthusiasm worthy of a great nation to build houses, establish new townships, rejuvenate the villages, re-orientate the living and revolutionize the character of the country. This is the essence of a planning, be it a house-planning, town-planning or any other planning—the individual, the society and the State, all contributing their shares

N.B.—This dissertation was submitted about six years ago when in the National Planning no sufficient vigour for building houses and founding new towns was seen. Happily during the 2nd Planning period there has been a marked tendency to encourage building operations and raising new townships. This phase as anticipated by the writer does not however meet his advocacy wherein the National Building Policy should be more in keeping with the past rather than with the present foreign evolutions. Many a town in India today is planned out entirely on foreign pattern. The celebrated capital of the newly emergent Panjab (after partition) Chandigarh is a pointer to it. It is entirely against the genius of the land. Chandigarh has its own architectural pattern which, to the students of Indian architecture, does not appeal. From the practical considerations it may be all right to bid good-bye to the ornamental style of the old, but from the standpoint of cultural considerations we can not afford to forget our past altogether.