[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) › c6.22 # Town Planning in Ancient India c6.22 Town Planning in Ancient India c6.22 - **Language:** English ### [c6.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c6.22) Looking through the hazes of the long-gone past, we shall find a holy shrine or temple in lieu of a good many Indian cities of to-day. In India it is a truism to say that a temple was a city in the making. The word ‘mandira’, the Sanskrit equivalent of a shrine or temple, bears two other imports : a house, a town. “In this connection it is well worth noticing that ‘Nakar’, the Tamil word for the city, is used variously in ancient Tamil literature to mean a house, a temple, a palace or a castle, and a city....The word ‘Nakar’ which is thus used to indicate at once a house, a palace, a temple, and a city, contains in a nutshell the chief dynamic principle of ancient town-planning, that these separate items should be so co-ordinated and each assigned such an important place in the city that the arrangement conduces to the efficiency of town life.”¹ Incidentally it may be observed here that this remark of Mr. C. P. Venkatarama Ayar applies more appropriately to deliberately planned towns, than to temple cities most of which evolved unconsciously, until a king chose one to turn it into his royal seat as at Conjeeveram. More accurately interpreted, those synonyms will unfold the history of the growth of temple cities and the nature of their growth, which was always from within. - [Previous: c6.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c6.21) - [Next: c6.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c6.23) - [Up: c6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c6) ## Linked texts (1) - [Kanchipuram](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.kanchipuram) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c6.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c6.22) · Pramāṇa