Town Planning in Ancient India c15.4

c15.4

Local building materials endowed the ancient towns with certain peculiarities of colour and workmanship. In these days of superabundant facilities for carriage and transport building materials can be easily conveyed from one end of the country to the other and blind uniformity is often the result. In the city of Sirkap, the walls of the buildings were constructed either of rough rubble or of diaper masonry which came into fashion at the beginning of the Kushan period; and both the inner and outer faces were covered with lime and plaster to which traces of painting are still found adhering. In the city of Conjeeveram red bricks were used in the building of houses. None can fail to notice the reddish or white stone walls and floors of the buildings in the towns of Rajputana such as Jaipur, whereas the houses in Southern India were generally made of wood and those in Burma made of teak and bamboo. "In earlier times, the superstructure at least of the dwellings was either of wood-work or brick-work. In either case it was often covered, both internally and externally, with fine chunam plaster work, and brilliantly painted, in fresco, with figures or patterns."¹ I have myself marked such picturesque paintings on the walls of the buildings ranging on the streets of Jaipur. Certain special characteristics also arise from the nature of the local natural scenery, life of the citizens, as well as from the character of the industries prevalent in the locality.