Town Planning in Ancient India c7.25

c7.25

ing an easterly declivity of a ground, because one obtains the full benefit of the morning sun. It is for this reason that the location of towns to the west of mountains is prohibited. For in that case the sun-rays will be obstructed by the mountains at sunrise.¹ But a northerly declivity cannot be so easily accounted for. India is situated to the north of the equator, and an inclination of the site towards the north, while lessening the incidence of the sunlight, exposes any building to the chill winds of winter. One should therefore expect that the site should be inclined towards the south. But that was not to be, say the Śilpa Śāstras. Is it to neutralise the southerly declivity of the whole of India with oceans to the south and the great Himalayas to the north? It may be remembered in this connection that to the Indians, situate as they are to the north of the equator, the north is the quarter of light, the region of the devas, the ‘shining ones’. One of the reasons can be sought in the fact that the south is the quarter over which Yama, the god of death, presides. It may be that, in a hot country like India, too much exposure to the sun’s rays, such as a southerly declivity would bring about, cannot be desirable, for it would make the buildings too hot and the soil too dry. The prevailing winds and rains in India are from the south and the west. Therefore if the ground slopes towards those directions, the houses will be dangerously exposed to every storm and shower.¹ It also may be that too much exposure to the northerly winds of the summer—which is the season of epidemics in India—would not be conducive to salubrity of the city. This apprehension of excessive exposure or the other hypotheses are so fantastic or far-fetched that they can hardly stand the test of reason. The ground of a town cannot be so slanting as to be distinctly perceptible to the eye. Sharp declivity is more or less the basis of the foregoing hypothetical explanations. Its absence in practice cuts the ground under them. Whatever the cause may be, it is patent that a declivity facilitates drainage and this has been clearly set forth in the word ‘purvodak-