Town Planning in Ancient India c3.50

c3.50

The town-planning art, its function and mission, and its historical importance—The fortificatory character of ancient towns—The gradual evolution of human abode from the mound to an open city and its etiological explanation—Reason of public buildings being centralised round the royal castle or citadel—The origin of communalism—Patriarchism and trade-guildism—Varṇāśramadharma and its influence upon town-planning—Social rank, *i.e.*, caste and profession (not wealth) the basis of site-planning and folk-planning—Religiosity of the Hindu mind and its influence upon Indian civic art and architecture—Street-temples and ward-deities—Distribution of gods—The scheme of Agni Purāṇa—Mayamuni's order—Idealisation of abode—Temples as cultural centres—Some communal festivities and their effect upon town-planning and civic life—Ornamental and pictorial decorations of public buildings and their value as agency of disseminating national culture 299