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Town Planning in Ancient India c12.s1: Dandaka

Town Planning in Ancient India c12.s1

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Dandaka

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cipal (central) streets are lined with a double row of houses, i.e., by one on each side. Each house should be three daṇḍas broad or four or five daṇḍas broad according to reasons and suitability, and their length may be twice or thrice their breadth. The village is to be girt round by a wall or a ditch. There should be four large gates in the four cardinal directions; as many smaller ones at the several corners. To the west without the village, or in the same direction in the part presided over by Varuṇa (the king of water) or by Mitra, should be erected a shrine to Viṣṇu. At the north-east quarter, either within or without the village wall, on or near the chambers held sacred to Parjjanya or Aditi, a temple should be established to Śiva. ‘A shrine to Chāmuṇḍā should be built near the north gate without the wall. There should be two principal reservoirs one towards the south-west and the other towards the north-east.’¹ This is called the village Daṇḍaka especially suited to Brāhmaṇs. It may contain 12, 24, 50, 108, or 300 Brāhmaṇ families. That which is inhabited by twelve cottages of sages (munis) and is situated in the midst of forests and mountains is called āśrama or hermitage. The village situate on the bank of a river, accommodating twenty-four houses of yatis or holy mendicants, is technically termed puram. A village which contains fifty residences of those who have performed holy sacrifices (dīkshita) is a praiseworthy vāstuka or habitat. The village where there are 108 householders is called ‘maṅgala.’ A village possessing one hundred houses of Vikāries (Buddhists ?) is called a ‘koṭa.’ Or the number of Brāhmaṇ houses may be arbitrary. What is omitted in this description should be supplemented according to the Śāstras.”¹ According to Kāmikāgama, the offices of the village officers and of the village Pañchāyats should be located in the eastern portion of the town.

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¹ The lines within the inverted commas do not occur in my MSS; I have extracted them from Rāmrāz.

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¹ Mānasāra, Ch. 9.

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(2) Sarvatobhadra :—It is oblong or square. The village may be divided into interlineal chambers after Maṇḍuka or Sthaṇḍila. In the centre should be located the temple dedicated to the Triad—Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Śiva. This may be fittingly inhabited by Brāhmaṇs, Tapasvis or those who observe austerities and perform sacrifices accompanied by great corporal sufferings (i.e., anchorites), yatis or religious mendicants, Buddhists (pāṣaṇḍāśramis), Brahmachāries (celebate

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