Vastu-shastra (4): Palace Architecture

by D. N. Shukla | 1960 | 13,158 words | ISBN-10: 8121506115 | ISBN-13: 9788121506113

This page describes Introductory of the study on Vastu-Shastra (Indian architecture) fourth part (Palace architecture). This part deals with (1) the construction of Royal establishments, (2) Accessory Buildings, (3) Palace pleasure-devices such as yantras (mechanical devices), etc. and (4) Other public buildings.

Introductory

We have already pointed out that the buildings in India had at least three broad categories—the residential houses for common people and the middle class people, the palaces and other gorgeous and magnificent structures and the temples. Accordingly we have devoted three separate parts to these three distinct architectural traditions of our land. We have already treated, howsoever meagrely, the common residential houses, the śāla-bhavanas in the previous part. Let us now proceed with the palaces and other gorgeous buildings. In Indian tradition the king was as high as a god. He was considered as the fifth Lokapāla. Accordingly the Vimāna buildings or Prāsādas as treated in the texts like Mānasāra, Mayamata and Śilparatna do not make any distinction between the residences of the ‘Taitilas’, the gods and those of the Bhūdevas and Nṛdevas, the Brāhmaṇas and the kings. This is really a loop-hole in the treatment of House-architecture as has been treated in the aforesaid texts. The North Indian texts like the Samarāṅgaṇa and the Aparājita however are credited to rehabilitate the tradition on proper lines by drawing a line of demarcation between the secular buildings, the residential houses of men including the lords of men, the kings and the gods. Even in the former category, both these texts are univocal in bestowing the separate attention to both the kinds of planning namely the popular residential houses and the abodes of kings and nobles. In India or for the matter of any other ancient country, the kings had very high privileges and positions, in accordance to which, their abodes could never be conceived to be simple structures. The citedals [citadels?], the castles, the gorgeous mansions, the fortified huge establishments—all these comprised the making of a king’s palace. Later on when times were more peaceful and prosperous, these palaces further ramified into two distinct establishments, the residential-cum-administrative set-ups, the Nivāsa-bhavanāni and the pleasure-palaces, the Vilāsa-bhavānani.

A very unique feature of the planning of palaces is its stereotyped canon of courts, the Kakṣyās, which has been in vogue from the times of Rāmāyaṇa, the Epic age and fully adhered even in such modern palaces as those of Mughals in the medieval architectural history of our land. This point would be more amplified in its proper place. Further again, the palace-planning is a composite-planning which consists not only of the residential quarters of the king and his retinue, but a vast paraphernalia of huge establishments where the Council-Chamber, the Sabhā, the stables for housing the elephants and other royal animals along with the pleasure-gardens dhārāgṛhas, etc., etc., are also given a proper attention. All this will be detailed ahead—vide Section B. These palaces of old were not only the residential houses of ruling sovereigns and kings but also the national museums and public places where manifold structures of imposing grandeur were built to add to the beauty of the Capital. This was not enough as there was a very high tradition of Palace pleasures in which the mechanical contrivances, the Yantras in their manifold varieties, used to be housed for not only the pleasures of the kings but also for amusement of the public. Accordingly this side-branch of Palace accessories—the Yantras etc, will also be treated here and now—vide the Section C.

This is about the broad indication of Palace-architecture—both in its main buildings and accessory components as well as the accessory pleasures. We have however to give some attention to the public buildings gorgeous and magnificent in character and useful from the stand-point of civic amenities like library, picture-gallery, the courts (rural and urban), the rest-houses, etc., etc., as provided by the state, which in ancient India was centred in the ruling chief. Hence a brief notice of these cognate buildings also forms the subject-matter of this part—the Section D.

These buildings, therefore, all fall under the domain of Palace-architecture as their genesis and character rest on the fine architecture rather on popular architecture, the Śālās.

Further, under the Public Buildings, according to the charcteristic of the age, the public wells and tanks, the water reservoirs also are worthy of notice. Hence some space would be allotted to these most vital and useful establishments of the town, fully adhering to out scheme of the Vāstulakṣaṇa in the matter of Buildings as Jana-niveśa, Rāja-niveśa and Nagara-niveśa, the last of which illustrates this category of buildings.

N.B.—All these sections may be arranged in single chapter in this part.

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