Town Planning in Ancient India c16.13

c16.13

It was the great Vivekananda who said in one of his speeches at Ramnad: "The secret of a true Hindu's character lies in the subordination of his knowldege of European science and learning, of his wealth, position and name to that one principal theme which is inborn in every Hindu child—the spirituality and purity of the race." At every stage of town-planning the master-builder's duties as laid down in the Silpa Sāstras bring home to us the validity of this dictum. The religious predilections of the Hindus led the authors of the Silpa Sāstras to enjoin some ritualistic and sacrificial observances in the selection, exorcisement and purification of site, We have seen how the whole site was divided into a number of plots; how each plot was held sacred to and named after a god. Then a presiding deity of the vāstu was conceived, his various limbs occupying certain fixed chambers and then offerings were made to him. Some religious rites were also performed when laying the foundation of a city or of a building: "The gods such as Viṣṇu, Hara, the Sun-god, etc., should be worshipped before founding a city and offerings should be made at the instances of the founder.”¹ The assignment of causeways on the city-walls to sentinel-deities, the denomination of the various plans and gates of the villages, the annular strips demarcating the city-ground and their appellations were the notable characteristics which the pre-eminently religious character of the Hindus impressed upon the civic art.