[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) › c15.49 # Town Planning in Ancient India c15.49 Town Planning in Ancient India c15.49 - **Language:** English ### [c15.49](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c15.49) In ancient India when congestion such as we notice in modern towns was out of question, tanks, parks or squares and even gardens were laid out in large numbers in every city. It must be remembered that modern water-taps were not then in vogue. Hence the large tanks or wells were necessary accompaniments to towns and were evenly distributed throughout the city. And their number could not consequently be small. We come across in the Śilpa Śāstras emphatic directions for excavation of tanks. Every tank with its high embankment overgrown with mighty trees affording shady rest to passers-by corresponded to the modern square or what is technically called ‘place’ in town-planning. Again Indian communalism required that there must be rendezvouses where citizens could assemble and discourse together. For this purpose there were the council trees with their spreading branches shading a large area. These grew into groves. There were gardens as well; and even orchards were not wanting. In Northern India reminiscences of these tanks and gardens can still be marked in Gaya, while they are still abundantly found in Southern India. It was the practice with the Aryan town-planners to dress the faubourgs of the city into fine gardens and orchards. This bespeaks sound economy and sanitation, let alone æsthetic propriety. Again the holy bæl (\*ægle marmelos\*), the shady baṭ (\*ficus bengalensis\*), the sublime kadamaba (\*anthocephalus cadumba\*), the febrifuge neem (\*azadirachta indica\*), the sacred aswatha (\*ficus relegosa\*), the flowering champaka or bakul (\*plumerica acuminata\* or \*mimuspos elengi\*), and other plants whose flowers were offered in daily worship of deities, were copiously planted in the city so that Indo-Aryan cities partook much of rural aspect and wore a sylvan air. The Portuguese and Italian travellers who visited the kingdom of Vijayanagara in the early twenties of the 15th and 16th centuries have left detailed accounts of its capital. They called it a garden-city and their descriptions leave no room for doubt. From the stand-point of town-planning and town-expansion, the graphic description of the town of Vijayanagara, as left by them in their books of travels, presents a very interesting study. I think I need not apologise for quoting at length their description of the city at this place. - [Previous: c15.48](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c15.48) - [Next: c15.50](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c15.50) - [Up: c15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c15) ## Linked texts (1) - [Viśvakarmaśilpa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.art.silpa.visvakarman.visvakarmasilpa) — Viśvakarman, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c15.49](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c15.49) · Pramāṇa