Barpeta Sattra

The Shostro is one hundred and eighty feet long by sixty in breadth supported on fourteen rows of posts. The altar, covered over with red silk, on which the Bhagavat and other sacred books are deposited under square frames of talc, is placed in the centre aisle in the south portion of the building; and receives light from the open gable above it.There are two entrances, one from the east near the altar, the other from the north facing it, besides which and the glebe there is no opening for the admission of light except from spaces cut out in the ornamental carving of a cornice of wood which encircles three sides of the building under the verandah, and through which spaces the portion of the congregation, who not being admitted into the interior of the building, are obliged to confine themselves to the verandah, can see what is going on inside. [...] To give me a better view of the interior of the building they were all lighted for me in the day time, the morning service was then being celebrated and the vista of these pyramids of light with numerous white draped figures to assist in distributing it through the vast gloomy building had a most imposing effect...