Kautilya describes the most rapid type of guard to be kept on women of a royal house hold. The twentieth chapter of the first book of the Artha Sastra opens with the directions for the construction of an Antahpura. 'On a site naturally best fitted for a dwelling place the king shall construct his harem consisting of many compartments, one within the other, enclosed by a parapet and a ditch, and provided with a door’. 15

The word Antahpura has been wrongly rendered as a harem. A careful reading of the chapter will prove that the word is here used to denote a citadel or palace situated in the heart (Antah) of the town (Pura). The special apartments for women formed only a part of this fortified palace and are denoted by the word Avarodha, which occurs at the end of the prose section of the chapter.

Directions are given showing where this has to be constructed in the palace. ‘On one side, in the rear there shall be made the residence of (Strinivesa) women’s compartments provided not only with all kinds of medicines useful in midwifery and diseases but also with well-known pot- herbs and a water-reservoir’.16