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EDUCATION AND ARCHITECTURE ply. The mārgas were the streets and lanes. There is a reference to perhaps the regular cleaning of the roads and streets of Lanka (13.5).
Catvars and Trikās:- These were places where four and three roads or streets intercepted respectively. Catvaras and Trikas were generally teeming with various kinds of spectacles and performances relating to dance, music, song and acrobatics (2.13).
Narendrapatha:- It is variously called as Rājamārga, (76.3), Narendramărga (16.38), Nệpatimārga (79.19). This was the main road of the town. It was the royal road which led from the main gate to the palace. It extended outside the city and connected other towns of the country.
Houses and mansions could be seen lined on both the sides of the road. They were equipped with windows wherefrom house-wives peeped out to look at the occasional processions (8.276-282;70.19-25).
Types of Buildings:--Ghara=Gșha denoted the common house for residence (3 57). In the PCV the terms Ghara, Bhavana and Pasāya are used indicriminately (23.17;77.23-25). Elsewhere it is explained that Bhavana belonged to kings and Prāsāda to gods. The former's height was less than its width while the latter's height was greater than its width Bhavana is also called as a kind of rectangular building 3 and Prāsāda as a religious or residential building or a royal palace. 4 Attālaka was the apartment on the rool or an upper storeys. Thus the PCV mentions that Ayodhyā (80.1-14; 78.49), Daśapura (33.19), Kiskindhipura (6.45), Laikā (53.85), Mahendranagara (15.10), and Rājagặha (2-9) abounded in these types of buildings. Buildings of seven and eight storeys are mentioned. Daśapura abounded in white buildings of seven storeys (sattataladhavalesu ya päsāyasaesu 33.19). Dasaratha's palace had seven storeys (sattatale bhavanap sãe 23.17). A general reference to eight-storeyed buildings is made in the PCV (102. 116). In Laikā buildings having turrets or spires (sūrei Pavapaputto aneyapāsāyasiharāim 53.85) and having artistic designs carved on them have been referred to (ațțālayavivihacittatungāim).
The roof of the building was generally supported on raised walls. Besides that, pillars (colu i ns) were also constructed to support the
1. Samma jjovalitiā, kāūņa mahi imāe nayarie/
Kusumehi acciyavvā surahisugandhehi divvehim//. 2. Bhag. Su, (Abhaya-5.7); Abhidhunarājen dra-Koşa. 3. EHA, p. 380. 4. Ibid, p. 364. 5. Ibid, p. 12. 6. See 15.61.
