Town Planning in Ancient India c12.14

c12.14

This brings us to the consideration of the classes that inhabited, and the fortifications that defended an Indo-Aryan village. Every devout Hindu must finish his daily ablutions and offer oblations to the deceased forefathers, before he can proceed with the day's work, at least, previous to his taking meals. Therefore a constant supply of pure water had to be secured in any locality before Hindus could settle there. It is for this reason that villages were laid out invariably in the vicinity of and round about tanks, lakes, or rivers which moreover ensured wholesome sanitation.¹ Like Kauṭilya, the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa also states that a village is a settlement of peasantry, mostly of the Śūdra caste, in the centre of arable lands,² so that they may till their holdings without any inconvenience of traversing a long distance to get to a tank. It will be erroneous however to suppose that all villages were exclusively or mostly inhabited by Śūdras. Villages there were in considerable number which were exclusively settled by each of the other three classes. Thus the Mayamata makes a detailed classification of the Brāhmaṇ villages in accordance with the numerical strength of their population:—