[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) › c16.5 # Town Planning in Ancient India c16.5 Town Planning in Ancient India c16.5 - **Language:** English ### [c16.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.5) To a student of history and sociology peering through the hazy past and groping for unmistakable milestones marking the various gradations of Aryan progress and civilisation, the mound—the most ancient and aboriginal abode of the uncivilized autochthones—, the subterranean rooms with superstructural houses walled round, with no windows or doors opening on the street, the quadrangular groups of houses all facing an open space in the middle and their back-walls forming a continued enclosure, with only small openings on the sides, the villages or the wards in the city with their girths of walls and moats; then the wards with a row of houses lined along the streets and opening on them; the city fenced round by similar ramparts, embattled parapets and wide ditches possessing but few gates; then the walled and ditched cities containing many arteries of communication with the country outside; finally the open city of the present day with no walls and ditches, all these are indelible landmarks and their comparative study opens up wonderful vistas of ancient Indian history. Let the student consider as well the following three types of cities—the fort capital; the capital with a citadel or fort in the centre containing within the fold all the important public buildings, to wit, the royal palace, the cantonment, the commander-in-chief's lodge, the court, the council house, the treasury, the minister's house, the city shrine; finally the capital with the fort at the side, some or all of the public buildings having been stationed without the fort. - [Previous: c16.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.4) - [Next: c16.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.6) - [Up: c16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.5) · Pramāṇa