[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) › c6.7 # Town Planning in Ancient India c6.7 Town Planning in Ancient India c6.7 - **Language:** English ### [c6.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c6.7) It should be noticed that the origin of those towns which grew independently of any deliberate planning from the beginning, can be traced to a house, a temple, a village (if it contains a market or a manufactory), or a market and to natural advantages of the locality such as an island, a river-bend, a sea-coast, a mountain valley and the like. A house, rather a patriarchal family, is the nucleus round which developed a village as the word ‘ekabhogam’ (denoting a village exclusively inhabited by a single patriarch with his family and retinue) clearly demonstrates.¹ The ‘pārās’ of Bengal, e.g., the ‘pārās’ of the Ghoses, the ‘pārās’ of the Dattas, of the Banerjees, or Mukherjees of a modern complex village, which are genealogically derived from the same patriarch, are nothing short of a village-unit. A modern village is nothing but a conglomeration of such units of different ‘gotras’ or primitive stocks. Similarly an Indo-Aryan city was a market-village grown to greatness. It consisted of several villages or wards, each ward being set apart for a single community exactly like a ‘pārā’ in a village. Like their western counterparts which “were originally nothing more than the township-mark of a Teutonic village-community”, the large majority of Indian towns had their origin in villages. This is corroborated by the different grades of respective measurements of a town and of a village.² It will be observed that some grades of city-area more or less tally with the highest grades of a village-area. It goes to prove that - [Previous: c6.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c6.6) - [Next: c6.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c6.8) - [Up: c6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c6) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c6.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c6.7) · Pramāṇa