Page:A Handbook of Indian Art.djvu/101

Rh Siva's Himālayan paradise, where the Ganges has its source.

The organisation of handicraftsmen into co-operative societies, or guilds, was known even before Asoka's time. Like the village communities, these craft-guilds regulated their own affairs without much interference from the royal courts of law. It is extremely likely that the Sangha of the masons working at Ellora had its own Assembly-hall, for the king's craftsmen, like the king himself, performed priestly functions, and as temple architects designed the dwelling-places of the gods. The great temples had their own hereditary craftsmen, who served as architects for the village communities, a custom which has helped to keep alive the traditions of Indian craftsmanship even to the present day.

The design of the façade of the Visvakarma stūpa-house is somewhat original, perhaps, as Fergusson suggests, owing to the architects' endeavour to diminish the glare of sunshine in the interior, due to the western orientation of the hall, by dividing the great sun-window of the nave. But as this result could have been secured in the usual way by hanging screens over the opening, and as the pediments over the shrines on either side of the window also show a departure from the traditional types, it is possible that the novelty of design is due to a school of craftsmen with traditions different from those of Bedsā, Kārlē, Kanheri, Ajantā, and elsewhere. The structural stūpa-house of the sixth or seventh century at Ter has a gable divided in a similar fashion.