[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Architecture and art](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art) › [Town Planning in Ancient India](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925) › c14 # Town Planning in Ancient India c14: Chapter X: Of Centres and Enclosed Places Town Planning in Ancient India c14 - **Language:** English ## Contents - [c14.s1 Temples](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.s1) — 3 parts - [c14.s2 The Āśrama, Maṭha and the College](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.s2) — 1 part - [c14.s3 Public Halls](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.s3) — 8 parts ### Chapter X: Of Centres and Enclosed Places ### [c14.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.1) In ancient towns, the importance of centres from the standpoint of citizenship and public life could not be overestimated. "So much more of that life was carried out in the open air, so much more of the intercourse and exchange of ideas was effected by speech in the market place, in the days when the printing and the newspaper were unknown, that it is very difficult for us who gather the news of all the world at our breakfast table and transact the main part of our business by letter or by telephone to realise, for instance, the importance of the agora in the life of a Greek city or of the forum in that of the Roman town."¹ This pregnant remark of Mr. Unwin aptly applies also to the pillared pavilion in the centre, the council-tree, the temple, or the royal palace so conspicuously bossed up in ancient Indian towns. It was their remarkably distinctive characteristic that in the central place of the town or village were grouped the shrine of the presiding deity, the royal house, the court, the council, the quarters of the ministers and the commanders of the army, the treasury and other important public buildings. Though this centralisation of public buildings was the outcome less of any town-planning principle than of the socio-political philosophy and the circumstances that were upperhand at the time, yet their indirect effect upon the plan of the towns or the villages was singularly happy. The effect of public buildings is lost if they are scattered indiscriminately throughout the city. Not only is public life disintegrated in some measure, but dissipation of corporate life and waste of useful time and energy on the part of the citizens are its inevitable consequences. On the other hand, an overzealous desire to concentrate civic life in the heart of the town, causing a sort of atrophy and stagnation in other quarters is too palpably suicidal to require any special comment. Subsidiary centres of public life, ensuring facilities for proper exercise of corporate functions in the different wards, should therefore be provided for in the city. It cannot be gainsaid that the town-plans elaborated in the Silpa Sastras and in the actual illustrations we come across in the old towns existing to this day, as well as in literature studded with pen-pictures of ancient towns, both these principal and secondary centres are found to have been carefully organised. Every Indo-Aryan city comprised many centres and enclosed places; they were their lungs and afforded open spaces of free and pure breathing, relieving the stuffy and congested life of the citizens. The following lines give succinct sketches of some of them. ### [c14.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.2) ¹ Town Planning in Practice. ### [c14.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.3) \*The royal palace and other public buildings\*¹ ### [c14.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.4) ¹ Vide Chapter VI in this connection. ### [c14.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.5) "The palace is to be in the midst of the council buildings, must have stables for elephants, horses and cattle, is to be well adorned with spacious tanks, wells and water pumps, is to have sides of equal length in all directions and is to be high southwards and low northwards. The palace is to have walls guarded by sentinels equipped with arms and weapons and defended by strong machines, should have three courtyards and four beautiful gates in four directions. The king should furnish the palace with various houses, tents, rooms and halls."² "In the central portion or \*akanakar\* was situated the palace of the king. Separate baths were improvised here for the exclusive use of the queen and other ladies of the household. Some of these baths were artificial reservoirs of water which could be filled and emptied at will. There were also artificial mounds of stone and sand where the members of the royal family spent some time. ### [c14.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.6) ² Vide the same Chapter for the location of other public buildings. Also see Śukranītisāra, Ch. 1, ll. 435-7, 440-1, 444. ### [c14.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.7) "The parks by the side of the palace contained deers and other games. Such parks were guarded by soldiers and were closed to the public. There were other tanks and flower gardens which were also reserved for the exclusive use of the queen and other princesses. Platforms were raised at convenient places in these parks and gardens. In making arrangement for the amenities of the royal household, the kings combined usefulness with beauty and taste. One of such artificial features planned near the palace in ancient times, is the Samudram, a beautiful sheet of water near Tanjore said to have been dug out to give an idea of the ocean to the ladies of the royal family."¹ Another such object of beauty was an artificial mound or hillock on which various flower plants and trees were carefully reared. Many gorgeous fancy birds, \*e.g.\*, the peacock, used to perch there and the hill was used for pleasure walk. One has only to visit the cities starring the whole of Rajputana or the cities of Southern India to realise the almost fastidious grandeur and picturesqueness of this scientific combination of the garden of Government buildings and the gardens of trees and flowers, tanks or lakes, and mounds. In the capital of Bijapur, "the most interesting spot of all is the citadel; for within the small and almost circular enclosure, were the palaces and private apartments of the king and his family, various public buildings such as the civic and criminal courts, the military and revenue offices and treasury, interspersed with courts and gardens, fountains, cisterns and running water.”¹ To bring out prominently the personality of this charming centre, it was separated from the rest of the city by planting large wide streets around it and also radiating from it. Centres should be as widely visible as possible. This would suggest the choice of some hill-top, and undoubtedly it is desirable to choose the summit of some rising ground. It is for this reason that “as a rule, the palaces in Rajputana are situated on rocky eminences jutting into or overhanging lakes or artificial pieces of water, which are always pleasing accompaniment to buildings of any sort in that climate; and the way they are fitted into the rocks or seem to grow out of them leads to the most picturesque combinations. Sometimes their bases are fortified with round towers or bastions, on whose terraces the palace stands; ### [c14.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.8) ¹ Venkatarama Ayyar, p. 177—8. ### [c14.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.9) ¹ For richer and more varied descriptions, see Ferguson's History of Indian Architecture and also the History of Bijapur Architecture. I have also dwelt upon this subject on various occasions in this treatise to illustrate different topics. ### [c14.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.10) and even when this is not the case, the basement is generally built solid to a considerable height, in a manner that gives a most pleasing effect of the solidity to the whole.”¹ ### [c14.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.11) ¹ Ferguson, History etc. ### Temples ### [c14.s1.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.s1.1) The temple of the tutelary—hence the principal—deity of the city is another important centre. It is the Brahmapīṭha installed in the Brahma-sthāna, the square in the centre. The whole compound of the temple is divided into various courts. Mānasāra recommends five such: the innermost court is called antaramaṇḍala; the second antarnīhāra; the third madhyanīhāra; the fourth prākāra; the fifth and the last is known as mahā-maryādā or the extreme boundary where the gopuras are constructed. Around the shrine of the principal divinity the temples of the attendant deities are to be erected. “At the eight cardinal points of the innermost or the first court, the temples of a group of eight deities are built. Groups of sixteen and thirty-two deities are located in the second and third courts respectively.”² Even the temples of the Bauddhas and the Jainas were sometimes included in the compound. The compound bristled with numerous maṇḍapas for such purposes as bath, bed, assembly, horses, musicians, dancing girls, cows,¹ stores and the like. There were also tanks and gardens within the compound. Outside the walls of this temple-group were laid out on a rectangular plan, four broad streets to demarcate its individuality and other streets abutted on these, thus emphasising the importance of the centre. I have detailed on council-tree and pillared pavilion that were reared round it in various other connections. ### [c14.s1.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.s1.2) ² Mānasāra, Chs. 31 & 32, Dr. Acharyya's Summary. ### [c14.s1.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.s1.3) ¹ Mānasāra, Chs. 31 & 32, Dr. Acharyya's Summary. ### The Āśrama, Maṭha and the College ### [c14.s2.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.s2.1) The ‘āśrama’ (hermitage) or the ‘maṭha’ (monastery) was another important centre in the civic life of ancient India. Though sometimes it was relegated to a sequestered part of the forest lying in the outskirts of the city, yet in many cases it was accorded an honoured location within it. It consisted of many buildings constructed for various purposes such as the debating hall and reading rooms, the quarters of the students and the professoriate. There were also a tank, a flower garden and a shrine of the tutelary deity within the compound. It was a university of the modern type. The famous Nālandā Vihāra and the maṭha of Taxila are illustrations in point. Even the house of a Brāhmaṇ Paṇḍit was a college in miniature, because he had not only to coach his students free, but also to provide them with board and lodge in his house. ### Public Halls ### [c14.s3.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.s3.1) Other minor centres were the serais, the theatres, and the markets. The Mahābhārata (Ch. 69 of the Śāntiparva) cites the following centres—a market, a field for athletics, a hall of the nobility, a pleasure garden, a garden, the assembly of officials, and the council. I need not repeat that serais were placed at the cross-sections of highways. Tanks were attached to them. There were also special halls exclusively meant for ascetics. “The public rest-houses or choultries were constructed either by the state or by private citizens in the town. It was usual to construct a ‘chattram’ on some good locality with ample open space around it.”¹ In the markets lanes were carefully laid out. No carriage, even that of the king, was allowed admission into them. Mr. Ayyar furnishes us with a description of the market of Kaveripumpattinam; “The central market was situated in a wide open area between the two important divisions of the city. Each stall floated a flag bearing the name of the article sold therein. The stumps of freshly cut trees were planted in front of these stalls, that they might afford a cool shade and breeze. The sun-shade in front of these stalls was raised on these stumps so that they served the double purpose of serving as support for the roof in front of the stalls while providing fresh air in a busy place. As each stall had thus a tree in front of it, the market presented the lively appearance of a park. In the centre of the area set apart for the market and where the main streets intersected, there was a temple dedicated to the Guardian Deity of the city. Here was a temple with a tree and a shrine.¹ There were also town-halls (sabhā or nagara-mandira). These centres and places are signified by the word \*manram\* in Tamil literature, which means " a public hall, a public place of worship, a place of public resort, public walk or maidan, a law-court with the guardian deity of Justice installed therein, a public bath or park." Any ward allotted to men of a particular caste or profession contained a hall where the confraternity or the guild of these persons periodically met to debate and transact corporate business. These constituted supplementary local centres. ### [c14.s3.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.s3.2) ¹ Venkatarama Ayyar, p. 140. ### [c14.s3.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.s3.3) ¹ Venkatarama Ayyar, p. 90. ### [c14.s3.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.s3.4) Of what are called technically ‘places’ or ‘enclosed places’ in the modern town-planning science, there were many in ancient towns not only in India but also in other countries as well, inasmuch congestion of cities was not so intense then as at present and tanks had to be provided for to supply water. Much attention was paid to their maintenance and distribution. It has already been noticed that each shrine of the city was associated with ‘tīrthams’ or bathing tanks. “There should be at least two tanks or reservoirs in a city or a village, one of which would be in the south-west.”¹ According to the Silparatna,² there should be abundance of tanks and reservoirs judiciously distributed in all the wards, whereas pleasure-gardens should be allocated in the north. Gardens were laid out on their banks; and lily, lotus and other flowering plants were reared up in the water, thus enhancing the charm of the place. A small alley called khsudra-vāhya-vīthi was planted round the tank so that people could breathe fresh air and enjoy a pleasant walk in the morning and evening. In many villages and towns large tanks for the purpose of fresh drinking water were excavated in their centre. Besides public tanks, there were private tanks too. Moreover deep wells were sunk here and there with flights of steps leading into them. Over and above the gardens trimmed as adjuncts to the tanks, there were also gardens and parks, all excellent open spaces, with no tanks attached to them. The remarkable features of these gardens and the enclosed tanks were the cool ‘gūḍhagṛha’ or ‘samudra-gṛha’ (used in summer) i.e., a secluded or shaded room, may be subterranean, a shower-bath room (called dhārā-gṛha or dhārā-yantra-gṛha), a fountain, a bower, a cradle (dolā) swinging from the branch of a tree.” There were also constructed vedikās or pīṭhikās, that is, altars or raised pedestals where the walkers could take their seat and enjoy rest and friendly chats. There were also raised water-sheds (prapā) for distribution of pure drinking water and they were placed at the junctions of roads. It is interesting to note that in ancient cities sites were also assigned for ladies’ parks.¹ There were also public play grounds (krīḍā-sthāna). There were open spaces where horses and elephants were trained for military purposes. The cross-sections of roads were widened and arranged into triangular plots and quadrangular squares. ### [c14.s3.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.s3.5) ¹ Rāmrāz, Essay on Architecture, p. 41. ### [c14.s3.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.s3.6) ² Vide Ch. 5, l. 140. ततस्सर्वत्र वाप्यादि उत्तरे पुष्पवाटिका । ### [c14.s3.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.s3.7) ¹ The Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Canto 71, verse 22. ### [c14.s3.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14.s3.8) These centres and enclosed places were evenly distributed. Every ward or residential quarter was endowed with them to relieve congestion and to ensure ventilation of fresh air and proper light. So much importance was attached to these centres and places and so much attention was devoted to their proper management, that hardly any city is met with in ancient Indian literature, e.g., the Purāṇas and the two Epics, which fails to glorify them. A description of the city is identified with the description of these. Indeed the authors seem to take pride in their prominent edification and this bears testimony to appreciation of their civic importance. ## Linked texts (7) - [Mānasāra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.art.silpa.dravida.manasara) — Sanskrit - [Mahābhārata](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.ramayana.valmiki) — Vālmīki, Sanskrit - [Nālandā](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.nalanda) - [Bijâpur](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.bijapur) - [Tanjore](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.tanjore) - [Śilparatna](https://indike.org/pramana/in.art.silpa.dravida.silparatna) — Śrīkumāra (Śilparatna) 1500, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c14) · Pramāṇa