Town Planning in Ancient India c10.s2.33

c10.s2.33

Bhoja does not make an exhaustive treatment of this subject but touches only a few salient features: The central sites, according to him, should be reserved for the nobility, the physicians, astrologers, and the pious. The extreme sites are to be apportioned to the Mlecchas or foreigners, the low class people, cruel professions, and the soldiers and the sentinels. The latter's barracks should be pitched by the side of the town-gates; the ministers counsellors should also be relegated to quarters adjoining them, for a king should not live in close proximity of his ministers, because, in that case, he runs the risk of being poisoned with sinister counsels. The quarters of the officers should be systematically distributed throughout the city. The elephant should not be stationed towards the centre nor the horse in the outskirts. Neither the infantry nor the nobility and the ministers should have their quarters very far off from the royal palace. Lest enemy spies find scope for their work, Bhoja is against installing theatres or libraries (colleges ?) within the compound of the royal buildings.