[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 # Town Planning in Ancient India c16: Chapter XII: City as the Expression of Civic Life—Interpretation of Civic Architecture : Cultural and Socio-Political Town Planning in Ancient India c16 - **Language:** English ## Contents - [c16.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.11) — 4 parts ### Chapter XII: City as the Expression of Civic Life—Interpretation of Civic Architecture : Cultural and Socio-Political ### [c16.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.1) CITY AS THE EXPRESSION OF CIVIC LIFE ### [c16.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.3) Art is expression. A true and great art is not a mere body; it shows a heart, a soul scintillating through the form. A national art not only expresses the matter, \*i.e.\*, the needs and interests of the nation, but also its spirit—its culture and ideals. Civic art therefore must express the needs, life and aspirations of the community in the outward form of their towns, portraying the community, as it were, on a gigantic canvas. "The city as a whole is but a visible symbol of this life behind it." I shall make here an attempt at an interpretation of Indian civic art, especially in its socio-political and cultural aspects; how Aryan master-builders not only attended to the needs of the community, but imparted to the city a permanent value and interest by embodying in its design the spiritual and cultural life of the race; how Indian cities are the most convincing records of the evolution and progress of India, more so than the edicts and the copper-plates. It is very difficult, if not altogether impossible, to do full justice to this vast and comprehensive subject; I have merely essayed to draw its bare outlines in this chapter. ### [c16.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.4) The most conspicuous characteristic of ancient Indian towns—in fact, of all ancient towns, Greek, Roman or Indian—that cannot fail to arrest the indifferent eyes of the most desultory tourist, is their fortification,—the girdle of walls and moats. It is not for nothing that these constitute an integral part of the discourses on town-planning in the Silpa Sāstras where their construction is treated in elaborate details. It is because they were indispensable bulwarks of defence, that their structure was consummated to a skilful science. In India, as in Europe, there was no vast empire under one suzerain extending all over the country, in which case Nature would have furnished the most formidable breastworks in the shape of encompassing seas and mountains. But like the old Greek city-states, India was a congeries of many small principalities which were often engaged in guerilla warfare with one another to gain overlordship. The life of citizens was necessarily insecure due to these internecine conflicts and this insecurity was further accentuated by the barbarian aborigines, called the Rākshasas who were driven by Aryan might into the jungles and who with their anthropophagous propensities were ever ready to fly at the throat of the intruders upon their native home and hitherto undisputed realm. Besides, the whole country was interspersed with thick jungles alive with wild animals who, every now and then, carried havoc into human habitations. These causes combined to impress upon the ancient civic architect the indispensibility of effective defence against the inroads of deadly foes, rational or irrational. ### [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. ### [c16.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.6) In very ancient times the king was nothing but a redoubtable warrior-chief at the head of a large following, a band of soldiers, leading them by dint of his transcendent military prowess. In those times of disturbance and insecurity, when everybody had to depend for safety and self-protection upon the artful manipulation of his sword, it was the fighting capacity which measured the worth of men. Hence anybody who excelled in the art of fighting and surpassed all in bravery and fortitude, was willingly obeyed and followed by all. The leader of the combatants was the king and his martial ability struck awe and reverence into his followers. In the absence of any administrative machinery in those unsettled times, the military, the executive, the judicial, nay all the important functions of the State combined and centred in him. Later on when peace and tranquillity prevailed in some measure in the territory and a sort of constitution was elaborated, still the old notion of the supremacy of the chief in all matters of importance and responsibility, did not undergo any material change. Facts sometimes change faster than ideas. The king still remained the State in miniature, the fountain-head of all justice, the head of the executive, \*parens parenti\*, Lord Paramount, the commander-in-chief of his valiant warriors. Hence it is that we find that the court, the treasury, the soldiers' barracks, the council-house and the minister's house were grouped round the royal castle, and formed part and parcel of it. Again in case of emergency the citadel was utilised as a fort, the ultimate resort.¹ ### [c16.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.7) ¹ The above by no means seek to establish that no form of Government except military absolutism or paternal monarchy was known to ancient India. The labour of modern Indologists have, indeed, proved beyond doubt that republican or democratic forms of Government, technically known as Saṅgha or Gaṇa were also not unknown in this land. The most typical examples of this political Saṅgha were the Lichchhavis or Vajjis of Videha and Kośala who had their capital at Vaiśālī and also the Mallas of Kuśinārā. In fact the observations I have made above are without any reference to the forms of government that obtained in ancient India. ### [c16.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.8) The very reasons which led to the elaborate fortifications of the city and its citadel and gave rise to the foregoing political theory, were responsible for the origin of communalism in ancient India. I have already observed that blocks of houses under different ownerships were erected round an open space in the middle so that their back-walls formed a continued enclosure. In the common ownership of the central open space lies the seed of communalism. The communalist sentiments engendered by combination of mutual vigil and protection were crystallized by the patriarchal rule. We find therefore in the village communities of ancient India common pasture and common fields or tenure. Communalism remarkably expressed itself in the planning of the ancient city or village in the shape of a public square or common tank in the middle of the village, or in the village rest-house, in the council tree planted at the crossing of two main roads of the village with a pedestal raised round it or in the temple of its tutelary deity with its spacious maṇḍapa.¹ At all these trysting places the village elders congregated after sunset to discuss village politics; and at all hours of the day rural folks repaired to these places and enjoyed friendly chats. "The essential condition for the development of strong civic spirit lies in the maintenance of the communal life and consciousness, and this condition is fulfilled nowhere else in the world than in the oriental countries. This is to a certain extent the result of climate. Life, in the clear air and under the cloudless skies of India, is necessarily passed much in the open air. That the street is a kind of club, the very architecture, with its verandahs and stone-couches, bears mute witness to. The family-homes stand ranged behind the great open air salon, like a row of convent cells, for the stricter members of the choir. Sometimes there are added evidences of a larger social grouping, visible to the eye. Bhuvaneśwar has its great tree in the midst of the parting of three roads, and at any hour one may see there knots of talkers of one sort or another, seated at ease beneath it. Conjeeveram is like a city out of the old Greek or Assyrian world, so wide is the road-way that leads to the temple entrance, and so splendid is the arch that spans it just before, eloquent both of communal worship and rejoicing. Nor are women in India altogether without their civic centres and gathering places, though these are necessarily concerned chiefly with the bathing ghat, the temple and the well.”¹ ### [c16.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.9) ¹ Note the temples in every street of Vijayanagara appertaining to the confraternities of all the craftsmen and merchants. ((Vide the preceding chapter.) ### [c16.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.10) ¹ Sister Nivedita. ### [c16.11.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.11.1) Patriarchism also accounts to some extent for trade-guilds, as the castes or their sub-divisions really were, inasmuch as any profession used to be handed down from generation to generation, i.e. sons in almost all cases followed the trade and crafts of their parents. This guild system no less than the division of social functions and theory of decentralisation of government made the village community an autonomous unit and gave rise to that peculiar social organism of the Hindus known as the Varṇāśram-adharma. This Hindu sociology, dividing the whole Hindu community into four principal castes which ultimately disintegrated into many more sub-castes, stamped the Aryan town or village-planning with indelible marks of its own. For, we find, in the town or village, different building-plots or wards were assigned to different castes or subcastes and the Śilpa Śāstras are very much particular in their distribution. In this stratification of the society also, com-munalism asserted itself, for every building-block or ward of a town was planned exactly in accordance with the same principles as were followed in village-planning and consequently such communal centres as the council tree and the square were necessarily provided for in the wards or the building-plots. ### [c16.11.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.11.2) The evil consequence upon city-corporate life of segregating people into detached wards where they could be liable to develop different habits and customs was provided against by the large composite wards, villages in themselves, of the big cities; or in small towns of simple residential blocks, by establishment of temples in the centre with magnificent maṇḍapas, debating halls, and rest-houses within the temple compound, where all sorts of people could freely congregate together irrespective of their caste. As in strictly religious matters there was no distinction of caste, so the holy ground of the temple was open to all. Varṇāśrama-dharma was a strictly a social institution and it could not stretch beyond the pale of social concerns. Every person belonging to any caste has his inherent right to make offerings and devotions to the tutelary deity of the city or village whose holy precincts can by no means be polluted by his sons. The influence of human organisation cannot enter and interfere with the equality and fraternity of devotees reigning in the consecrated compound. It is in this sense that it is said that Holy Benares is without the world. Inasmuches every institution or performance drew its inspiration from a religious creed which was supreme in all matters, the true national spirit of the Hindus as embodied in their common religious susceptibility, permeated all strata of the society, strengthening the bonds of corporate life. ### [c16.11.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.11.3) It was in periods of degeneration that caste distinctions were carried also within the holy precincts of the temple. It was for this reason and also because non-Aryan gods, such as the Dravidian deities, were not recognised by the proselytising Aryans who, though they took the non-Aryans within the pale of their society, did not in some cases find niches for their deities in the Hindu Pantheon, that we meet with arrangement for temples to exclusive caste-deities in the villages or towns. The dirty habits of the low classes might have accentuated this untenable and ugly phase of Hindu society. It may not be at all improbable that actual conversion of many aboriginal tribes never took place. Their living and constant contact with a higher civilisation might have done its work of slowly and silently influencing them, until they, largely innocent of any pronounced consciousness of the integrity and individuality of their own race that marks the modern civilised races, became Hinduised in their ideas and habits to a certain extent. They formed of their own accord the lowest strata of the Hindu society. The victors have in all ages and climes claimed such voluntary converts to their own creed. Perhaps the victorious Aryans could not shed their superior airs and treated the vanquished non-Aryans much in the same way as alien rulers treat the natives of a subject nation professing a different creed and civilisation and belonging to a different race. ### [c16.11.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.11.4) In India too at present there are many persons saturated with western civilisation who have imitated European manners and customs. They are more European than Indian and they glory in that and are highly gratified if they constantly come in contact with the European community. If at any time Indian civilisation decays down in its land of birth, then they will first form the Panchama class of the Christian community. This is what has happened in the Deccan with respect to the "untouchable" Hindus. ### [c16.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.12) Howbeit it cannot be gainsaid that caste-distinction prevented one thing; it did not make poverty a crime, a depressing disqualification. In the towns or villages building-blocks were not distributed exclusively on the basis of wealth, thus dividing the city into two parts like the East End and the West End of London. Though from the standpoint of city sanitation the difference mattered little, yet so far as corporate life and the building up of individual character and civic consciousness were concerned, it meant a good deal of difference. Freedom of religious belief, freedom of worshipping the tutelary deities, and communal instincts were the equilibrating and unifying forces that arrested the social disintegration that was likely to accrue out of social differences and consequent caste-acerbities. ### [c16.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.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. ### [c16.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.14) ¹ Vide Agni Purāṇam, Ch. 106, l. 11. ### [c16.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.15) The predominantly religious nature of the Hindu life and culture also inspired and manifested itself in the Hindu civic architecture in the shape of a large number of Aryan and non-Aryan gods and their magnificent edifices which were distributed throughout the city. Every street of note, every building zone or every district of the town was sanctified by these religio-communal centres where the patron deities were installed radiating bliss and brightening their jurisdictions with a halo of holiness. Thus we read in the description of Vijayanagara by the Portuguese traveller, Domingo Pæs:—“There are temples in every street, for these appertain to institutions like the confraternities, you know of in our parts, of all craftsmen and merchants; but the principal and greatest pagodas are outside the city.” All the expenses of worshipping the deities and the upkeep of their edifices were met by local subscriptions and these communal traditions of public worship of gods are kept up to this day in every Indian city and village. ### [c16.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.16) In the village or the town the various gods were enshrined according to some scheme. The scheme of the Agni Purāṇa runs as follows:— "The phallic emblems belonging to the \*chala\* or removable class should be installed in temples situated at the eastern quarter of a city. The images of Lakshmī and Vaiśravaṇa should be established at each side of the eastern gate; and the temples of gods established on the western side of a city, should face the east, looking on the two above-said images. In the east or the south, the divine edifices should face the west and the north respectively. The images of Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Īśa and other gods should be installed in a city, for the protection of and as the guardian deities of the latter." The Agni Purāṇa then proceeds to cite the evil consequences accruing from absence of divine installations in the city: "A city, village, fortress, or a house not having tutelary deity of its own, is devoured by the Pićāśas, and becomes infested with fell diseases or pestilences." The blessings that are due to the divine images raised in the city are as follows: "A city or a village etc. protected by a deity, becomes thriving and prosperous; and ensures victory, enjoyments of earthly good and finally salvation to its inhabitants."¹ ### [c16.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.17) ¹ Vide Agni Purāṇam, Ch. 106, ll. 28-34. ### [c16.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.18) Mayamuni’s order is different, and more detailed and comprehensive. “Allocation of the gods is to begin from the east. The Aryan gods should all be set up within the compound of the village or city. The temple of Śiva may be established outside it. The Vināyaka is to occupy Bhṛṅgarāja or Pāvaka’s chamber. Śiva is to be enshrined in the chambers consecrated to Īśa or Soma, or in those adjoining Soma. Surrounding Śiva are to be measured the sites for the temples of his attendant deities. The Sun-god is to be quartered at the chamber held sacred to Āditya; the goddess Kālikā is to have her shrine installed at Agni’s plot. Viṣṇu’s edifice is to be erected at the plot presided over by Bhṛśa, and the image of Ṣaṇmukha (the six-faced god) is to be constructed at the Yāmya square. To the north (Mṛga quarter) or the south-east of Mṛsha’s chamber lies the temple of Keśava. The Lord of the gaṇas is set up at the chamber held sacred to Sugrīva or at the Pushpadanta’s portion. Aryaka has his edifice at the south-east corner of the village and Viṣṇu is assigned his shrine at the Varuṇa. The great Sugata (Buddha) should have his monastery at the Sugrīva, and at the Bhṛṅgarāja the deity of the Jainas should be located. The liquor-shop should be relegated to the north-west corner, and the goddess Kātyāyanī should occupy the Mukhya site. Kuvera (Dhanada) is to be stationed at Soma's chamber and the Mātṛs may also be assigned sites there too. Śaṅkara may possess temples either at the Īśa, the Parjanya, or the Jayanta. Kuvera must occupy either of the two sites, the Soma or the Sosha, and if he occupies the one, the other should be allocated to Gajānana. The Mātṛs may occupy shrines at the Aditi. The edifice of Viṣṇu should be erected at the centre of the village. To the south-east or the north-east of the Brahmā's site, the council-house is to be raised. To its north-west Hari should have his shrine. The dimensions and number of storeys of all the divine edifices should be commensurate with the size of the village or the city. If a divine edifice be too low for the village or the town, the men become also low-minded and the women acquire foul habits. Caṇḍeśwara, Kumāra, Dhanada, Kālī, Putanā, Kālī-suta and Khaḍgī are the divine porters of the city. Īśa should face either the east or the west and Viṣṇu can face towards all cardinal quarters. All should have their faces turned towards the village, or the city. All the gods barring Īśa and Viṣṇu should face the east and the Mātṛs are to have their faces turned towards the north. The Sun-god's shrine is to have its door in the west."¹ Generally Brahmā is placed at the crossing of the two principal highways meeting at the centre of the city, with His four faces turned towards the four cardinal directions as if looking down the street and watching the city in all quarters. All the gods are posed as facing the village or city which symbolises their tutelage over it. The non-Aryan gods or goddesses are stationed beyond the village or city. ### [c16.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.19) ¹ \*Vide\* Mayamatam, Ch. 10, pp. 31-33. ### [c16.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.20) The above in a way is indicative of idealisation or deification of the abode. "The ground on which a city stands is in truth a great hearth-place of human love, a veritable altar of spiritual fire." As for instances of idealising the abode, "What of Benares, built about the Vedic hearth, that to-day is the golden grating of Biśweśwar? What of Allahabad with her thousands of pilgrims bathing in the sacred waters of the Gaṅgā-Jamunā? Kālikā—Kāṅgrā Rānī, Queen of the Battlements? What of Calcutta, where appears Nakuleśwar, as guardian of the ghat of Kālī? From end to end of the peopled earth, we shall find wherever we look, that man makes his home of a surpassing sanctity to himself and others, and the divine mingles with the domestic fire on every hearth."¹ ### [c16.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.21) ¹ \*Vide\* Sister Nivedita, Civic and National Ideals. ### [c16.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.22) I have already remarked that religion is the be-all and end-all of a Hindu's life. Spirituality is the fountain-head from which flowed his national currents. Hence the temples—embodiments of spirituality—were the centres where culture and education were fostered and promulgated. Again the same sages who were the custodians of sacred lore and expounders of Hindu theology, holding holy communion in meditation with God, were also the professors and propounders of Hindu sociology. Generally the wise and sagacious hermits, belonging to the sacerdotal class were also the persons who directed the legislation of society. A sequestered cloister away from the hustle and bustle of the city was the one most suited to their contemplative life and to the training of the young hopefuls of the race. And their hermitages took the place of modern colleges where students congregated from all parts of the country. The temples, hermitages or monasteries of ancient India formed the nucleuses of the university towns of later ages, such as Taxila or Nālandā, Naimishāraṇya or Benares. ### [c16.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.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. ### [c16.24](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.24) ¹ Vide Sister Nivedita, Civic and National Ideals. ### [c16.25](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16.25) The massive architecture of the public buildings and their fascinating details of ornamental decorations bear eloquent testimony to the high level of artistic skill reached by the Indian schools of architecture as also it speaks of the affluent economic condition of the citizens, their happy life and jubilant nature. The Indian town-planners were alive to the importance of the public buildings. They were not constructed in a perfunctory fashion. Their civic utility is too great for such indifferent treatment. Art is nothing if not an expression of culture and a method of inculcating and propagating culture. These public buildings offered therefore one of the most effective means of educating the citizens, training their eyes, inspiring them with religious and national ideals. The bas-reliefs sculptured on the walls, aisles, cornices, corridors, ceilings, capitals, and domes of the public buildings and shrines, also on the colonnaded pillars give pictorial illustrations of the soul-stirring achievements of the religio-national heroes like Rāma, Buddha, Hanumāna, Kṛṣṇa, Viṣṇu, and of other divine or deified heroes. The fresco paintings on the walls exhibited brilliant portraits, group-pictures illustrating scenes depicted in the Epics, the Purāṇas, folk-lore and the like national literature. They blazoned forth and inculcated humanising and ennobling sentiments, in a pleasing manner, all bearing upon religious and national culture. A more pleasing and effective method than the one through art and æsthetics, of disseminating national culture, preserving and encouraging art, emphasising glory and fulness of civic life, cannot be concieved. Cities are thereby turned into great schools of nationalism, in its most liberal and comprehensive sense. India's cities, maṭhas, and caves possess such admirable specimens of sculpture and fresco paintings without number as no other nation does and they will ever continue to excite wonder and admiration of the world. ## Linked texts (4) - [Agnipurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.agni.106.11) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Mayamata](https://indike.org/pramana/in.art.silpa.dravida.mayamata) — Maya, Sanskrit - [Ṛgvedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.rg) — Sanskrit - [Vijayanagara](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.vijayanagara) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c16) · Pramāṇa