Town Planning in Ancient India c12.30

c12.30

According to their shape, and method of street-planning, folk-planning, and temple-planning, Mānasāra classifies the villages into eight types,² called Daṇḍaka, Sarvatobhadra, Nandyāvarta, Padmaka, Swastika, Prastara, Kārmuka, and Chaturmukha. Mayamuni bases his classification mainly upon planning of streets and his divisions are named Daṇḍaka, Swastika, Prastara, Prakīrṇaka, Nandyāvarta, Parāga, Padma, and Śrīpratishṭhita.³ Kāmikāgama divides the villages into fifteen classes and after enumerating all the varieties named by Mānasāra and Mayamuni, cites four more, to wit, Sampatkara, Kumbhaka, Śrīvatsa, and Vaidika. I shall describe the villages now one after another by free translations from the originals as recorded in the above books. It is impossible tó render all the lines into English, because in addition to their ‘most barbarous Sanskrit’, there are legions of incorrigible errors owing to ignorant amanuenses and false readings.