104
TECHNIQUE
torrential monsoon rain. In Asoka's time the builders of Magadha were in demand all over India, and their traditions were incorporated with those of Rajputana, where the local red sandstone provided a building material almost as easily worked as wood and much more durable. In this excellent material slabs and beams of almost any dimensions can be obtained without difficulty, and wherever this was the case Indian stone construction naturally retained a good deal of the technique of timber-work; for only the modern paper architect, working pedantically according to an archæological "style," would design an arch of numerous small pieces jointed together when it could be constructed more easily and effectually with one or two.
