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A CULTURAL STUDY OR THE NISITHA CURNI
cularly situated inside a garden. Bhinnagaras and suņņā garas were the same as suņnagihas. 2 Kūdagaras were the houses constructed on the top of a hill or houses with a conical shape. Dhanna garas and kottha gāras, as mentioned earlier, were the granaries meant for storing the food-grains.* Besides these buildings, there were sabha and Ayatana which were the assembly halls ( samavayațțhāņa ) for nobles or for public gather
ing.
Essential Features of House-Construction- Elucidating the various rules for the proper vasati ( dwelling ) required by the Jaina monks during their rain-retreat, the author elaborates the various features of house-construction which had great importance from the architectural point of view. These features have been divided into two groups-principal (malaguņa.). and subsidiary ( uttaraguna ). The principal features numbering seven in all were indispensable for an architectural structure. These were four mūlavelis or cross-beams, two dhūraņas or wooden columns or pillars and one patthivaṁsa or the beam which was the base of the whole inner-structure.' On the basis of their importance the subsidiary features. have been subdivided into two groups. Features having more importance were-(i) varsaga, (ii) kadana, (iii) okam paņa, (iv) chāvana, (v) levana, (vi) duvära and (vii) bhumikamma. S
1. NC. 2, p. 199. 2. NO. 2, p. 433. 3. 3 faari 597afe safety FEM NC. 2, p. 433. Yoqtif graftH TË AUTHENTITNG. 3, p. 344. Kūdāgāra or 'gabled mansion
is explained as self-contained separately roofed pavilion on any story of palace. According to Coomaraswamy, Kütāgāra was a chamber with walls analogus to uttamāgära of a dvārakoshaka and having a ridged, barrel-vaulted or doomed roof.- Early Indian Architecture,
p. 143; Motichandra, op. cit., pp. 177-78. 4. NC. 2, P. 433; NC, 3, p. 344. 5. FCHT: TYTT FH- ITAHIRITTOY T N C. 3, p. 344. 6. NC. 2, p. 65. 7. Ibid. 8. Ibid.; Bịh. Vr. 1., p. 169.
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