Town Planning in Ancient India c19.12

c19.12

"The gates constructed in the Mahendra and the Gṛhakshata (Rākshasa) are respected by the Brāhmaṇs (Brāhmaṇapūjitam); the gates raised in the Gṛhakshata and the Pushpadanta by the royal class; the gates set up at the Pushpadanta and the Bhallāṭa by the Vaiśyas; and the gates located in the Bhallāṭa and the Mahendra by the Śūdras." It should be noted that the same gate obviously does credit to two castes. For example, the eastern gate situated at the Mahendra befits both the Brāhmaṇ and the Śūdra. This is an anomaly. A plausible explanation seems to be that the assignment of the gates to the various castes is a metaphorical way of classifying and arranging them according to their rank, determined by their magnitudes and grandeur, the rank of the caste attached to a gate only pointing to the rank of the gate.¹ Hence the cyclical order of the four principal gates according to their rank may either begin in the east at the Mahendra or in the south at the Gṛhakshata.