Town Planning in Ancient India c19.4

c19.4

All authorities on Silpa Sāstra agree that four principal gates (Mahādvāra) should be constructed on the four sides of the town. The Eastern gate should be located at the Mahendra (i.e., at the chamber dedicated to Mahendra); the Southern gate at the Rākshasa; the Western gate at the Pushpadanta; and the Northern gate at the Bhallāṭa. The Mahendra gate is said to be conducive to prestige and glory (māhātmya); the Rākshasa gate is conducive to wealth and prosperity (sampad); the Pushpadanta gate to all good qualities (guṇa); and the Bhallāṭa gate to the singularity of the king and his citizen. It should be noticed that the site of a principal gate is one pada or chamber removed to the left from the central one. The gates are therefore not situated in the middle of the sides, so that the two principal roads of the town that run through its centre east to west and north to south are confronted by the walls of the city.¹ It is difficult to surmise the reasons which weighed with the civic architects to enjoin this deviation of the gates from the central position and to have the principal roads blockaded at their extremities by walls. This also detracted from the beauty and splendour of the roads as well as of the gates which, under this peculiar arrangement could not have over-arched, like many magnificent crowns, the stately streets lying before them. The arrangement also spoiled the splendid vista that would have otherwise spread out before an on-coming visitor. The arrangement, in all probablity, was an institution of those unsettled times when the necessity of defence preponderated over æsthetic needs or the requirements of naturalness and convenience and impressed upon the city its fortificatory character. The conservative habit of the Indian may have preserved and handed down this quaint practice from generation to generation. This is the only plausible explanation about the recommendation of a system that one meets with in almost all the Silpa Sastras. It may be observed here that this rule of establishing the gates a little removed from the middle of the sides extended to the doors of houses and also gates or entrances to the compound¹ of a homestead.