Town Planning in Ancient India c16.23

c16.23

Communal instincts of the Aryans were reflected not only in the great concourse of votaries in the temples irrespective of caste or rank, power or pelf, but were evident also in the common rejoicings on the occasion of any public worship. The conscious thought of the spiritual unity and kinship of all the citizens manifested itself in communal festivities. Every triumphal arch that surmounts the village gates or ‘ crowns a bathing ghat, on the banks of the Ganges’ testifies to that feeling. It was this feeling which led to the institution of the grand ceremonial processions along the principal roads of the towns or villages. “ Over and over again, in the Ṛg-Veda, the earth is referred to as the ‘ sacrifice ’ round which the path of light makes a friendly circle in the course of the year. It is one of the most beautiful and vigorous of similes. But it reminds us of the beautiful procession of the images which are so characteristic a feature of life in Indian towns. As the light encircles the earth, so verily do these ceremonial pilgrimages girdle our boroughs and villages; nay, it is not only the worshipper of Saraswatī or the commemorator of the Mohurrum who makes the circumambulation of communal home. The whole Indian idea of enjoyment is communal and even at a marriage, processions form the typical delight.”¹ These processions exercised a salutary effect upon town-planning. It was the grandeur of these processions which necessitated the great width of the highways of Indo-Aryan towns; so that the stupendous cars, as for example, the Jaganāth’s car at Purī, which were dragged by huge crowds gathered from far and near, could easily pass through them. This is why we come across description of fine broad streets in ancient Indian cities. These processions prevented the narrowing of streets by buildings encroaching upon them. Quite akin to this, there was another ceremony which prevented the germination of bacteria of diseases in the stagnant waters of the tanks of Indian towns. I mean the water festival. It consisted of a floating car as a counter-part of the land car. It was also pulled and propelled to and fro, hither and thither. This had the effect of killing water insects, mosquito larvæ, all germs of diseases that stagnant waters generally begot, destroyed the aquatic plants that over-grew the water and polluted it and purified as well as sanctified it. What a far happier way of maintaining the purity of water than the modern method of filling up and doing away with the tanks of the town. The ceremony thus combined in itself religion, civic spirit, social unity, and sanitation.