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Lord Mahavira and His Times
various machines. They made furniture for houses, such as seats, chairs, bed-steads, pegs, boxes, and toys. Wooden Sandals (padalehaņiyā) were made by clever artists from the wood of various trees,1 were set with vaidurya and excellent rishta and añjana (granite) and then ornamented with glittering and precious stones.2 Axe, hatchet, and other implements were known as the tools of a carpenter.3 HOUSE BUILDING
With the rise of cities and towns, the house-building activity greatly increased. For building a house the services of different artists were required. Among them, the architect was the foremost and indispensable. He was skilled in divining good sites4 and was well grounded in the science of constructing houses. Masons who worked with bricks (Itthakavaddhaki)5 and clod-hoppers (Gahapatisippakāra)6 were also required for the construction of buildings. Apart from wooden structures, houses were built of bricks and mud. Probably such houses were of durable nature. Most probably houses of bricks and mud had wooden ceilings and roofs.
In the Jatakas, the stone-cutter (Pashānakotįaka)? also figures as taking part in house-building. There is no direct evidence of stone architecture prior to the Mauryan age and the Jātakas in this respect may be regarded as referring to the Mauryan and post-Mauryan periods. Stone was used for laying the foundations of buildings in the pre-Mauryan age, but whether it was cut into specific sizes is doubtful.
The Jataka description of the construction and decoration of a play-hall8 suggests that the practice of decorating the walls of buildings with various paintings was in vogue. It was the painter Chittakāra who gave the finishing touch to the work of the architect, the carpenter, and the stonecutter. He pro1. Břih. Bhā, 3, 4097. 2. Kalpa, 1. 44. 3. Ullarā, 19. 66. 4. Jā, II. 297-98. 5. Ibid, VI. 333. 6. lbid, 438. 7. Ibid, I. 478. 3. Ibid, VI. 332-33.
