Of ancient and mediæval monasteries there are many rock-cut examples, and the ruins of Gandhāra present the exact details of their arrangement. The names and dates of many of the royal patrons or wealthy merchants who built and endowed them are recorded. The vast number of temples built or sculptured in successive centuries by Indian kings and princes is also evidenced by countless examples. But with the exception of Asoka's palace at Pātaliputra, the ruins of which have been brought to light recently, there is hardly anything left of architectural importance to show where the royal builders themselves and their retinue lived. The ancient monuments of India are rich in temples, monasteries, and memorials of Buddhist saints. We know fairly accurately the type of building in which the common people lived—it differed in no respect from the abode of the Indian villages of to-day. But one hardly finds a trace of a royal palace or mansion of a great nobleman before Muhammadan times. In early Indian painting and sculpture, when a king is shown in his own home, he is always seated under a mandapam, the Indian royal canopy and audience-hall; the inquisitive eye is not allowed to peer into the private life of the king and his ministers.
The Nītisāra of Sakrāchārya, however, in the first chapter dealing with the duties of princes, gives general directions for the planning of a royal palace. It was to be placed in the midst of the council buildings, to have sides of equal length, "be well adorned with spacious tanks, wells, and water-pumps," and surrounded by fortified walls with four beautiful gates at the cardinal points. The dining-rooms, chapels, baths, kitchens, and wash-houses were to be on the eastern side. Reception-rooms and sleeping apart-
