Town Planning in Ancient India c11.46

c11.46

In a large number of cases the method was impracticable. The majority of ancient Indian towns were situated on the banks of a river or on the sea-shore so that their expansion in all directions was out of question. I am inclined to think that it was due to this peculiar position that the idea originated of planting a new city in the shape of a large ward or muhalla, by the side of the old one, one of its side-moats coming in between the two and forming the one extremity of the new city. This sort of a supplementary faubourg by the side of a principal city, as illustrated in Babarkhana described below, was technically known as a Dāmaḍa. The city of Purī is supposed by competent observers to have once possessed such a sub-town the ruins of which are still traceable. In some instances the interposing moats and walls were levelled to the ground leaving an open space between the cities which were brought within the same walls and moats and the two cities looked like two detached portions of the same city. V. Kanaksavai gives extracts from the description of such a city given by the Tamil poets.¹ "Kaveripaddinam or Pukar was built on the northern bank of the Kaveri river (near its mouth) which was then a broad and deep stream into which heavily laden ships entered from the sea without slackening sail. The town was divided into two parts, one of which was called Maruvur Pakkam and adjoined the sea-coast, and the other which was situated to the west of it was called Paddini Pakkam. Between these two portions of the city was a large area of open ground, planted with trees at regular intervals, where the great market was held.” The same author informs us that Paddini Pakkam contained the royal palace. Indeed it had all the elements of a complete city where all classes of people lived. Maruvur Pakkam was nothing but an emporium, a centre of trade and commerce, frequented by foreigners such as the Yavan merchants. The character of the difference between the population of the two parts shows that one was an appendage or supplement to the other, by way of an extension. The modern prototype of this ancient town may be found in Chittagong where the Double Moorings side near the mouth of the river Karnafuli constitutes the harbour of the town. It has already developed into an emporium of note. It lies to the south-west of the old town separated by a large tract of land interspersed with villages and paddy fields. These will, in course of a few years, with the growth of trade and accentuation of urban tendencies, be closetted into a single whole.