Town Planning in Ancient India c12.s3: Kārmuka

Town Planning in Ancient India c12.s3

Language: English

Kārmuka

c12.s3.1

रथ्या चैकवेक (?) स्यात् पश्चिमोगतं तथा ॥
दक्षिणे पूर्वके रथ्या उत्तरे पूर्वकेऽपि वा ।
दक्षिणे पश्चिमे रथ्या चैवमग्राष्टुः ॥
तद्वै वीथो बाच्छेतुं कामुकं तकारवत् पृथक् ।

Kārmukha plan is generally suited to a riparian site or a sea-shore. There are two car-streets (both quadrangular ?) and one principal road. If the bow faces the west, one of the car-streets runs (along the circumference of the semi-circle) from south to east and the other from north to east. But if the village faces north then the former street runs from west to south. The other principal (straight) street runs from north to south (in the former case) or from east to west (in the latter case), thus the three streets forming the figure of a bow. The number of transverse streets may be one to five. Houses range on both sides of them. There may be additional radial roads. Divine edifices should be distributed as before. The gates of the village may be as many as desirable and its circumvallation is optional. The temple of Viṣṇu or Śiva should be raised at the juncture of its two cross streets. The temple of Īśa or Śaṅkara may be erected in the middle of the right side.

c12.s3.3

(8) Chaturmukha :—It is square or oblong

c12.s3.4

एतद्विषत्पञ्च वीथीरेवं प्रकल्पयेत् ॥ व्यासञ्च द्विपथं तिर्य्यङ्मार्गे यथेच्छया । चतुर्दिक्षु प्राक्प्राग्दैः येसपत् पदविन्यसेत् ॥ मानसार नवमोऽध्यायः ।

c12.s3.5

Here it is clearly directed that the streets should be oblique (तिर्य्यक्) and resemble the letter त like a bow.

c12.s3.6

lying east-to-west-wise, so that its walls are also of similar shape. There are four great car-streets on the four sides. Two large streets crossing at right angles in the centre divide the whole site into four square blocks or wards and the principal four gates are raised over the terminuses of these two highways and there may be constructed supplementary doors as in the former cases. Each of the four wards is again planted with four (comparatively) smaller roads crossed by the same number of them. Rudra and his attendant deities should be installed within the village. The Brāhmaṇs should be assigned sites as in the Padmaka plan. If the village be chiefly populated with the trading class, then it is called Kolakoṣṭha. According to some, the twice born class should fill up the four wards. The south-eastern ward is to be inhabited by the Brāhmaṇs; the south-western block by the ruling class; the north-western, even the north-eastern ward too, by the trading class. The Śūdras or the artisans and labourer class are relegated to the extreme borders, namely, the Paiśācha block. The shrines of Viṣṇu, Rudra, and other divinities should be planted as in the preceding ones. What has been omitted in this description should be supplemented from the plans of the foregoing villages. Residential

Linked texts (1)

Mānasāra — Sanskrit