Town Planning in Ancient India c19.14

c19.14

The natural plan of locating the gates was always emphasised upon in the northern school of Indian town-planning, if the author of the Purāṇas may be said to form such a school. I have already had occasion to notice that according to the Matsya Purāṇa, the two central cross-roads should terminate at four stately structures. The Agni Purāṇa’s instructions are more definite on this point. It lays down that the eastern gate should be raised at the chamber of Sūryya (Āditya); the southern gate at the Gandharva;¹ the western gate at the Varuṇa and the northern gate at the Soma.² That this was the oldest scheme in northern India will be evident from the directions about the distribution of gates given in the Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra.³ Kauṭilya would place the southern gate at the Yama and this was a necessity inasmuch as its location in the other chamber would clash with other gates.