Town Planning in Ancient India c5.5

c5.5

treated in separate treatises called Vāstu Śāstras. Thus the domain of Vāstu Vidyā narrowed down, and the existing Vāstu Śāstras seldom digress into discussions, except in a casual and sporadic way, on other topics contemplated in the definition. These and other cognate technics form the province of the generic subject, Śilpa Śāstra, which also has to undergo a corresponding restriction in application and significance. But, in the present work, our immediate object being a dissertation on town-planning, we are called upon only to deal with what is technically designated above as ‘dharā’ (ground) and incidentally with ‘harmya’ (building).