Town Planning in Ancient India c2.2

c2.2

Hence the value and significance of this book, as bringing out—not for the first time, but more clearly and extensively than heretofore—the evidence of a planned, organised and orderly life for all the people, in village, town and city alike. What better test, and proof, of true and general civilisation ? Given such ordered communitary life—and with adequate homes, as we also know, —we cannot but see that the conditions of health and well-being have of old been realised; and these not only long before our present mingled dilapidation of the past and confusion of the present, but on a level ahead of our present practical endeavours. We understand better too how such communities have been truly educated, in religion and philosophy, in literature and art, and these with many and varied flowers, of which the few that remain are evidence of the many that have been lost. The historical value of this scholarly book is thus manifest and real.