Town Planning in Ancient India c5.2

c5.2

THE subject of Indo-Aryan town-planning is treated particularly in the Śilpa Śāstras and incidentally in the Purāṇas, the two great Epics of India, treatises on Astronomy and Astrology, the Nīti Śāstras and Smṛti Śāstras, i.e., works of Sociology in its widest sense. The Śilpa Śāstras that have survived the ravages of time and vandalism of tyrants, leaving out the not inconsiderable number of the extinct ones that live only in references in the extant treatises, may be computed at hundreds. Vāstu Vidyā or Vāstu Śāstra—the science of residence or abode, strictly speaking,—forms a subdivision of the Śilpa Śāstra. The radical connotation of the word ‘vāstu’ is very wide and the range of discourses in the Vāstu Śāstra is so comprehensive that Vāstu Vidyā is almost coextensive with the Śilpa Śāstra. Mānasāra defines: “The place where men and gods reside is called Vāstu” (from the Sanskrit root, ‘vas’, to reside, to sit). This includes ground (dharā), building (harmya), conveyance (yāna), and couch (paryaṅka). Of these, the ground is the principal subject; for, nothing can be built without ground as a support. The building (harmya) includes ‘prāsāda’, ‘maṇḍapa’, ‘sabhā’, ‘śālā’, ‘prapā’, and ‘araṅga’.¹ That is to say, Vāstu Vidyā contains within its category the science of civil and military engineering, architecture, building, construction of carriages, cots, chairs, and couches, and sometimes sculpture and iconography too. Notwithstanding the absence of direct reference to town-planning in the above list, since town-planning concerns only ‘dharā’, and ‘harmya’, it certainly falls under Vāstu Vidyā. But the universal importance of building architecture is so great that domestic engineering formed a distinct subject by itself