ANCIENT SCIENCES (ND ARCHAEOLOGY (Gournal of the Ancient Sciences and Archaeological Society of India) (Bharatiya Prachina Vaijiinika Puratatva Patri i) VOLUME III Executive Editor : Dr. M.D. Sampath Editors : Dr. (Smt.) N. Pankaja Smt. 8. Saroja Dr. (Smt.) S. Kayarkanni D San ANCIENT SCIENCES AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF INDIA Mysore and BP BHARATIYA KALA PRAKASHAN Delhi (India) 2010Houses of Common Men During Vijayanagara Period-Materials Used, Techniques Applied and Styles of Construction Priya Thakur This paper makes an attempt to study about the construction of houses of common population in Vijayanagara times. Ever since the concept of ‘house’ came into existence, the fundamental raw materials for the construction of house-stone, clay, wood efc. has remained unchanged. Almost all the materials used were natural, locally available and had no adverse effect on the health of the dwellers as well as, the builders. Consequently, we can term these structures as ‘eco-friendly’ or ‘environmental-friendly’ in the modern sense of terminology. Most of the monuments and structures still standing, point towards the permanence and the splendour of the bygone era, But regrettably, these are the remnants cither belonging to the religious sphere or the royalty and fail to represent position of the common men in the society. Man’s basic need after food and clothing has always been protection from weather, from scorching heat of sun, from torrential rain and chilling cold, The very first time man apprehended the concept of “house” when he took shelter in the natural caves and the gaps between the rocks. This gave birth to the idea of using stones as a protection from the rough weather. Later he attempted to provide windbreaks and screens of interwoven branches to his shelter. He slowly acquired by the trial and error method and his practical experiences, the knowledge of the elementary principles of building a house, provide stabilization to the structure. Through the ages man searched continuously for new and better materials with which he could build and decorate his home. These new materials often demanded new techniques of application. The rudimentary requirement of the domestic architecture are simple; a place to sleep, prepare food, a place that has some light and is protected from the harshness of weather and other natural inconveniences. A single room with sturdy walls and roof, a door, a window and a hearth are the necessities, all other else is luxury. In much of the world today, even where institutions have been in a continuous process of change, dwelling types of ancient or prehistoric are in use. The forces that produce a dynamic evolution of architectural style in religious building are usually inactive in the home and farm. The life of the average person may be unaltered by the most fundamental changes in this institution. He can be successively 2 slave, the subject of a monarchy and a voting citizen, without the means or the desire to change his ‘customs, techniques or surroundings. Lacking the resources of the group, the average individual is to restrict his demands to a level far below that which the technology of his time is capable of ing. Frequently he builds new structures with old techniques because experiment and innovation ‘costly than repetition." This kind of architecture constitute the vernacular style that be defined as the domestic architecture of a region, usually far simpler than what the technology of the time is154 Ancient Sciences and Archaeology capable of maintaining, These structures are characterized by inexpensive materials and straight utilitarian design. The general population had an identifiable impact of architecture, if not directly, its impact at many different levels, and its influence appears in individual sponsorship of architecture as 1 spiritual force behind the patrons. This population consisted mainly of merchants, farmets, servants, agricultural workers and so on. This explains the growth of temples and of whole pat of supporting institutions such as guesthouses, pilgrimages, kitchens for the poor, markets eft. social groups could be identified who had, no doubt, an impact on the architecture, but our is usually so scanty that the impact becomes difficult to evaluate. For instance, there are the artis architects, whose names we often know but whose precise impact on the monument has not fully determined. Mayamata? mentions the various types of settlements according to the respective varnas residents, A place where there are only brahmins is termed as marigala’; that inhabited by p merchants is a pura, the place inhabited by other people in this world is called grama; a place ascetics dwell is called matha, The Mélukate record of king Viripaksha registers the gift of ho sites given to Srivaishanavas.* It appears that selected sites were used for building houses. An of 1496 A.D. says that the donors would point out the sites for building the houses for the Barbosa says that, “... the other houses are covered with thatch, but nonetheless very well built ‘arranged according to occupations.” Recent agricultural development has destroyed the evidences: settlements or other use of lands outside the fortification walls to cast, south or west of the city: House-plan ‘The planning of the residential houses was also done on the basis of Jatis or Varnas, that depending on the various professions. In those times, considerations of productiveness in corporate and the principle of the Varndsrama-dharma developing in a social stratification of the people goncral and of the functionaries of the state, led to a segregation of the classes following diffe pursuits. The Sastras mention that the dimensions of length, breadth as well as height of the varied according to varied social status in Indian society of the house owner. Various sub measurements have been mentioned in relation to the different structures of the different occup according to their different positions in the social hierarchy®, This has been the time-honoured tradi and virtually all the texts on the Vastu Sastras have hold on to this rule. ‘To understand the plan of the dwelling places of the people of Vijayanagera times, we have to lo at the ground plan of temples of that period. Looking at the temples, it is not very easy to discem & they are composed of one repeating unit-the square, For God’s own abode, the form had to be perf ‘and this limited the choice of shapes to the circle-a form without beginning and end, and the squa for its symmetry. The circle had already been extensively used by the Buddhists in their Stapas moreover, was perceived to be too dynamic a form for the resting-place of the gods. For the Hind their gods had to be installed in buildings symbolizing unity, inertia and permanence. The square, t was chosen for these qualities. Thus, having acquired magical and theological properties, Vastu-purusha-mandala was fit to be the basis of temple construction, with many permutations combinations being used to achieve the final form. Very simply, the central square could be used the garbhagriha, while the surrounding grid formed the pradakshind-patha and outer wall, and soHouses of Common Men During Vijayanagara Period 185 ‘The plans of houses were all based on the same principle. The unit of their design is the open ngle surrounded by chambers (salas) and this unit is repeated more times according to the needs the accommodation of the occupants. “From the palatial halls of the ruling princes to the humble ons of the majority of their subjects is a considerable step. But the ordinary people took as much in the artistic character of their dwellings as those of royal birth did.”’ The evidences of domestic are provided by the mortar stones and quemns scattered all over the site; some even carved on rock. An inscription of 1328 A.D. mentions the various sizes of the houses. It records that houses were ‘wide and 20 cubits long and some were 12 cubits wide and 20 cubits long and others, 12 cubits -and 30 cubits long,* Similarly another record of 1515 A.D. registers an interesting official transaction. arikanas of house site belonging to a person named Doddanna-Setti, were taken over for the palace the was given a different house of the same size in licu.” Along with the inscriptional evidences, the s of foreign travellers also throw some light on the house belonging to the general populace. Portuguese traveller, Paes, who visited the Vijayanagara capital in 1520 A.D., described the houses general population residing in the capital city in the following words, “Of the city of Bisnaga they ‘that there are more than a hundred thousand dwelling houses in it, all one storeyed and flat-roofed, ch of which there is a low surrounding wall.”"” A record on a boulder southwest of Hémakiita, c. 15" century characters, near an old pond mentions ¢ site of Saralakavi i.e. poet." It indicates the naming of the houses according to the profession of Some houses had more than one storey which were called malige (upstairs cription, dated Saka 1479 (1557 A.D.), records that one Chikkaviranarasanna constructed a seven ‘of storeyed building and donated it." Details of the boundary of the area of a house are in an inscription that records the sale of a house for six vardha.'* hhave not come across any residential remain which can be strictly classified as a house of ‘man. Nevertheless one can notice isolated single room structures scattered in and around the ‘of the capital city of Vijayanagara, “These structures might have served residential purpose, ly or temporarily. These may be the semi-permanent habitations of the agriculturists or ‘as present-day farmers erect shelters in their field."!> It is also possible that these are the ‘of the houses of people belonging to the lower strata of the Vijayanagara society. These hhave few associated artifacts and are especially difficult to date. of Houses no physical evidences are available which can help us to understand the pattem on the residence of common men. It seems that the domestic dwellings and private houses must ‘the poorest description as no trace of them other than the structures in the ruined bazaars ‘are some buildings of stone and mortar, with a first floor, still extant in the Virapaksha ‘They provide us an idea of how the first floor could have been. The upper stories seem largely of stone slabs, the roof being flat and built of stout beams covered with planks 4 top dressing of beaten earth. The openings were generally spanned by stone lintels. dwellings were undoubtedly similar to those, which are found in the villages of India houses with wooden construction of the roofs and the masonry of mud walls (alinda) in front and the kashthas (Salas) all round the court. These houses are an -of adapting to local conditions and intuitively producing architecture eminently suited