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Lord Mahävira and His Times
dug-up yellow and black clays to form a thick wall, with a gentle slope on the inner side and a less pronounced on the interior.
The rampart was surrounded on the west, and distantly on the north, by the river Siprā, while a moat on the eastern side, formed to be filled with greenish water-borne silt, added to it a line of defence in that direction, and presumably on the south side as well, completing the circuit of a waterbarrier. . The moat was found to have been at least eighty feet wide and twenty-two feet deep. The fortification on the riverside was breached by floods on at least three occasions during this period but it was repaired from time to time. (b) Building Architecture.
The actual remains of the buildings of this period are few because of the frail or perishable nature of the material used. In order to get information on the building activity during this period, we must depend upon literary works, both Jaina and Buddhist, some of which have preserved a record of traditional forms as current in memory and folk-lore. Somctimes the description given of these buildings in these litcrary works is exaggerated, but still after critical examination and sifting the evidence, we can infer some of the general features of art during this period. These literary works mention a number of architectural terms and various forms of particular structures which show the extensive development of this science in those days. The main types of building found in those days were royal buildings, lofty mansions for rich and well-to-do people, houses of the ordinary people, huts of thic poor, and religious buildings.
The palaces were known as Pasāda and Vimūna to distinguish them from ordinary dwellings. In the Jaina Agama literature, the most illustrative example of palacc architecturc occurs in the Rūrapaseniya Suttal in an account of the Vimana of Suryabha Deva. It was surrounded on all sides by a rampart, and cmbellished with beautiful cornices. There were gates with cupola opening on all sides. Gates, pillars and doors were decorated with various kinds of figurcs and motiss. 1. Dez. S:,97.
