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Town Planning in Ancient India c18: Appendix B: Camps

Town Planning in Ancient India c18

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English

Appendix B: Camps

c18.2

In a previous chapter I have traced the origin of the most famous Indian cities to the camp-life of the Aryans. It was round the royal seats that the important cities of India were planned and laid out. Now these royal capitals, in ages of hoary antiquity, nay even down to the Pathan period, were nothing but, and could not be but, imperial encampments, inasmuch the then state of the country was one of constant belligerency and consequently the boundaries of the dominions were bound to be singularly precarious and indefinite. Not unfrequently the warrior chief,—(for the king in ancient times was nothing more than a commander at the head of an army swaying his suzereinty over an area controlled by the over-awing might of his arms,)—had to move from place to place at the advance of a more puissant foe. Naturally therefore with the change of his kingdom his capital also changed and followed him to his temporary residence. The Samskrit synonym for the word camp is ‘śivira’: The Savdakalpadruma notes the following various imports of it:—(1) nibeśa i.e., settlement or encampment; (2) āgantuka-sainyā- bāsa, i.e., the temporary residence of an advancing or newly arrived army; (3) kaṭaka, i.e., a capital or a town, a fort, an army, a belt; (4) nṛpasya mulasthānam, i.e., the principal seat of the king. According to the Uṇādikosha, śivira means an encampment or military quarters in times of war. The foregoing synonyms imply a native affinity between a royal seat, a capital, and a camp. They refer to a period of history when all of them were more or less identified. The origin of the name of Cuttuck (written as Kaṭaka in Indian vernaculars) of the town of the same title also corroborates this. The Turkish word ‘urdu’ means a camp and the language Urdu originated in the camp-life of the first Muhammedan invaders of India when they had to make intercourse with the Indian kings who also lived in camp-like capitals. It is significant that Urdu was the court language of the time. Every Indologist who has ever cared to bestow any thought upon the the origin of the Indian towns supports the above theory. For example, Sir Henry S. Maine says in his “Village Communities” that “the most famous of all towns grew out of camps.” Mr. Havell also subscribes to this view.

c18.3

In support of the above theory, I give below a description of śivira or camp and also of skandhāvāra, i.e., an encampment in the neighbourhood of the town about to be beseiged. The 103rd chapter of Śrī Kṛṣṇajanmakhaṇḍa in the Brahmavaivarta Purāṇa deals with the following characteristics of a śivira or camp: “Camps have ditches with a girth of high walls furnished with twelve gates surmounted by lion-arches the doors of which exhibit variegated and fascinating painting and workmanship. No forbidden trees should be allowed to grow within them, while they should be rich with those trees which civic traditions have made them famous.”¹ The chapter then proceeds with the enumeration of the suitable or unsuitable trees and creepers in the encampment, deals with water supply and other food-resources, treats of domestic architecture, the height of walls both of the camp as well as of a citizen’s home, and the depth of the surrounding ditches.

c18.4

¹ शिविरं परिखायुक्तमुच्चे प्राकारवेष्टितम् । युक्ताद्वादशसारञ्च सिंहद्वारपुरस्कृतम् ॥ युक्तं चित्रविचित्रैश्च कविर्मैश्च कपाटकैः । निषिद्धवृक्षरहितं प्रसिद्धैश्च पुरस्कृतम् ॥

c18.5

The description of a skandhāvāra given in the Kāmandakīya Nītisāra is more minute :- “Having approached the vicinity of the enemy’s fort, after fully reconnoitring the locality and the ground by experienced scouts, military quarters should be pitched by persons who are adepts in the art. The encampment should be quadrangular in shape, equipped with four gates, should have not very wide lanes but must possess large streets and massive walls with a girdle of a broad trench. The residence (āgāra ; encampment ?) may be shaped like a square (cross-way), a semi-circle, a circle, or a rectangle (dīrgha) according as the nature of the locality permits. Spacious lodges should be symmetrically set up there separate from each other. The rooms should be well protected. All should be surrounded by a cloistered (? paṭākārai) boulevard. In the centre should be erected the royal palace charming to look at, the quarters of the premier standing hard by, and the treasury being located within the compound of the royal mansions. In the vicinity and in all directions should be quartered, in order of rank and position, the principal officials of the crown, the various trade-guilds, the loyal citizens, the twelve divisions of forces experienced in forest-fight. At the extremities should lie in a circle the butchers, the fowlers and other classes of low, abject occupations whose fidelity has been bought off with ample remunerations.”¹ It is to be noted here that this description of the camp comprises all the salient features of a town.

c18.6

¹ 1

c18.7

Kauṭilya’s planning of an encampment is different and more exact in particulars, as the astute deplomat always is. " On a site declared to be best according to the science of buildings, the leader (nāyaka),¹ carpenter (vardhaki), and the astrologer (mauhūrtika) should measure a circular, rectangular, or a square spot for the camp which should, in accordance with the available space, consist of four gates, six roads and nine divisions. Provided with ditches, parapets, walls, doors, and watch-towers for defence against fear, the quarters of the king hundred bows long and half as broad, should be situated in one of the nine divisions to the north from the centre, while to the west of it his harem, and at its extremity the army of the harem are to be situated. In his front, the place for worshipping gods; to his right the departments of finance and accounts²; and to his left the quarters of elephants and horses mounted by the king himself. Outside this and at a distance of hundred bows from each other there should be fixed four pillared walls as broad as a cart-pole.³

c18.8

¹ It seems so refer to the head mason who directs and supervises the work,

c18.9

² "The treasury and the court of justice" appears to give the more correct construction.

c18.10

³ "Śakaṭamedhī", i.e., axle of the cart. Though the above is an extract from Dr. Shamasastry's translation of Arthaśāstra, I have altered his translation in the above line because his rendering is based on an obviously erroneous construction. The original text being "चत्वारः शकटमेधीप्रततस्तम्भसप्तपरिक्षेपाः"; his endering is "four cart-poles, pillars, and walls."

c18.11

In the first (of these four divisions), the prime minister and the priest (should have their quarters); to its right the store house and the kitchen; to its left the store of raw products and weapons; in the second division the quarters of the hereditary army and of horses and chariots;¹ outside this, hunters and keepers of dogs with their trumpets and with fire; also spies and sentinel; also to prevent the attack of enemies, wells, mounds, and thorns should be arranged.² A comparison between this plan and the lay-out of sites within a fort detailed in Ch. VI will shew their striking similarity in the broad features.

c18.12

¹ An alternative reading adds the following lines after this: "सेनापतेश्च । तृतीये हस्तिनः श्रेण्याः प्रशास्ता च । चतुर्थे विष्टिनायकौ मित्रामित्राट- वबलं स्वपुरुषाधिष्ठितम् । वणिजा रूपाजीवाश्चानुमहापथम् ।" i. e., "and also the commander-in-chief. In the third division, the elephants and their controllers (trainers ?); in the fourth, mercenaries and their leaders, and forest-fighters of the mitrāmitra nature with their heads. The traders and the public women should be settled along the great road (boulevard ?)". This reading seems to be more faithful and appropriate.

c18.13

² Arthaśāstra, p. 437.

c18.14

The fact that Indian towns grew out of camps explains a peculiar phenomenon about them. Any antiquarian about ancient India, or any traveller who has traversed the vast expanse of this sub-continent cannot fail to notice and feel curious about the peculiar juxtaposition of many cities, some or all of which are to-day deserted and lie waste in ruins. Thus there are seven cities of the name of Delhi, some of which lie at present in débris, all in close proximity to one another. Again “ within the valley in which the remains of Taxila lie and within three and a half miles of each other are the remains of three distinct cities: (1) Bhir mound; (2) Sirkap; (3) Sirsukh.”¹ This phenomenon is at first sight quite inexplicable. One explanation I have sought to give elsewhere.² The genesis of Indian cities as partially formulated in the foregoing lines furnishes the clue to two other reasons. The mode of warfare and laying seige as disclosed by the above description of a skandhāvāra or military necessity accounts for one; for these military encampments projected and laid out in the light of the highest science of civic architecture were nothing short of miniature cities. These, more often than not in the event of victory, were turned into royal capitals to the rejection of the conquered city, or in case of reverses, were deserted to be utilised by the victorious adversaries as a suburban colony or extension of their own metropolis. Again the state of perpetual warfare which necessitated camp-life as the inevitable order of the time was responsible for many of these deserted cities. The fourth reason I have given in connection with the expansion and improvement of towns. There were some other minor reasons peculiar to the individual towns. Indian cities were not however always destroyed at the caprice of the monarch who had to abandon it, either chased from it by the enemy or led by a vain-glorious policy as well as suspecting diplomacy to found another. " Some peculiar manufactures had sometimes so firmly established as to survive desertion, and these manufacturing towns sometimes threw out colonies."¹

c18.15

¹ A Guide to Taxila by Sir John Marshall.

c18.16

² Chapter II, pp. 39-40.

c18.17

¹ Maine's Village Communities.

c18.18

This genetic peculiarity of Indian towns probably influenced domestic architecture, at least, in the towns or cities. Almost every house in some Indian cities had an underground chamber. Though internecine conflicts subsided with the progress of time and these underground chambers fell into desuetude, yet their characteristics did not entirely disappear from posterior domestic architecture. The first storeys of the houses had no windows often no doors opening either upon the streets or upon the quadrangular courtyard. " A remarkable feature of these houses is that, although in some cases there are no doors communicating between two or more rooms, there are no doors giving direct access from these rooms to the interior court or to the streets outside,—the practice having apparently been to enter these lower chambers by means of stairways or ladders descending from the room above.”¹ This had the effect of giving every ward in a town the appearance of a walled stronghold. The practice was done away with in later periods. Another feature of Indian towns due to the selfsame cause lay in the copious provisions and food-stuff stored up in the towns. “Nearly all the movable capital of the empire or kingdom was at once swept away to its temporary centre, which became the exclusive seat of skilled manufacture and decorative art. Every man who claimed to belong to the higher class of artificers took his loom or his tools and followed in the train of the king. This diversion of the forms of industry which depend on movable wealth to the seat of the court, had its first result in the splendour of oriental capitals. But at the same time it made it easier to change their site regarded as they continued to be in the light of the encampment of the sovereign for the time being.”²

c18.19

¹ A Guide to Taxila by Sir John Marshall, p. 71.

c18.20

² Maine’s Village Communities, p. 119.

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