[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) › c6.21 # Town Planning in Ancient India c6.21 Town Planning in Ancient India c6.21 - **Language:** English ### [c6.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c6.21) River sites, sea coasts, especially the mouths of rivers offer the best facilities for the origin and growth of cities, because a river is not only a means of communication with the interior of the country, a way of transport and locomotion, but it also offers an outlet unto the outer world, thus fostering and encouraging commerce. Rivers are national assets of no mean importance. Even in times of antiquity when the itinerant Aryans were spreading their civilisation and modern commercialism was out of the question, the great rivers of India offered the best routes for their spread and advance. Hence the first Indo-Aryan colonies were planted on the valleys of the Indus and the Ganges. Āryyāvarta was the country where Aryan civilisation was promulgated first and this is the part of India which was watered by the above two great river systems, viz., the Indus and the Ganges. Besides, a coast belt, a river side, or a mountain valley is as easy of defence in times of war as of access in times of peace. These have also a never-failing sanitary importance. To these reasons combined with local advantages we owe the evolution of a great many Indo-Aryan settlements in the shape of riparian towns. It should be observed here that the orthodox treatises make it a rule to establish towns on the right bank of a river. Consequently all Hindu towns in India that are situated on the river lie on its right side. Hence any town in India whose location violates this rule, e.g. Calcutta, may be presumed to have grown up or been established under non-Hindu influence. - [Previous: c6.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c6.20) - [Next: c6.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c6.22) - [Up: c6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c6) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c6.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c6.21) · Pramāṇa