[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Architecture and art](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art) › [Town Planning in Ancient India](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925) › c5.35 # Town Planning in Ancient India c5.35 Town Planning in Ancient India c5.35 - **Language:** English ### [c5.35](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c5.35) The expounders of the Vāstu Śāstras were venerable sages. The qualifications required for the different classes of architects, including knowledge of the Vedas and all other Śāstras, were very high and could only be expected of men occupying the front rank of the society. From the Mānasāra we learn that, in the ceremony of the plough and in the worship of the patron deities, the master-builders himself presented the offerings but hired Śūdras for the ploughing of the ground. The hiring of the Śūdras clearly proves that he at least belonged to a higher caste than the Śūdras; the personal presentation of the offerings, invocation and worship of the deity without the aid of the sacerdotal class, testifies to nobility of his lineage in former times. Mayamatam plainly avers that blue blood ran in his veins (abhijātavān). It was in later times that he descended in social estimation and came to occupy a low status even among the Śūdras. This degradation must have commenced at least in the age of the Mahābhārata, for we find there Yudhishṭhira requisitioned the services of Maya, a Dānava, possibly a non-Aryan, for the construction of his council house. This could not have been possible unless the science of architecture had deteriorated among the Aryans and there was already an absence of competent experts among them. And the non-Aryans, learning the science from the Aryans must have improved upon it. It may be that Maya represents the Southern School of Architecture. - [Previous: c5.34](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c5.34) - [Next: c5.36](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c5.36) - [Up: c5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c5) ## Linked texts (3) - [Mānasāra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.art.silpa.dravida.manasara) — Sanskrit - [Mayamata](https://indike.org/pramana/in.art.silpa.dravida.mayamata) — Maya, Sanskrit - [Mahābhārata](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c5.35](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c5.35) · Pramāṇa