In the northern hills the house assumes the type of the Swiss chalet, the walls of rubble masonry rising sometimes to as many as four stories to make up for the scantiness of the site on the hillside; the floors boarded, with on two sides strong verandahs ornamented with carved and painted woodwork. The roof is made of shingles of pine or of bamboo, laid over a framework of wood, and kept in their places with heavy stones to prevent damage from storms. Immediately under the roof is a store-room, the floor formed of clay rammed hard, which forms a second roof if a leak chance to occur in the outer roofing.[1]
It is hardly necessary to describe the type of house used in towns, occupied by landowners and wealthy merchants. Such are the fine houses of the Seth merchants at Ajmer and other cities in Rājputāna, Delhi, Agra, or Benares, marvels of decoration in wood or stone, or those of Poona, where from a stone plinth rises a series of stories with verandahs ornamented with woodwork decorated with geometrical figures and flowers in ivory or painted wood. You will generally notice that a bit of the house is left unfinished to avoid the Evil Eye.
When we come to the religious development of the hut, we recognise in the marriage shed or pavilion an ancient model preserved by the spirit of religious conservatism. At the epoch of the Atharvaveda the Indian house was merely a wooden structure. "Pillars, four in number, were erected in the solid ground, and stays were placed obliquely against them. The corner pillars and foundation pillars were fastened together by roof beams. On these were placed long bamboo rods, to act as spars for the lofty roof. Between the corner pillars various posts, according to the size of the house, were also erected. Straw or reeds were used in bundles to fill the interstices in the walls, and to a certain extent to line the whole. Nails, clamps,
- ↑ Sir R. Temple, Journals in Hyderabad, Kashmir, Sikkim, and Nepal, ii. 163.
