[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) › c7.39 # Town Planning in Ancient India c7.39 Town Planning in Ancient India c7.39 - **Language:** English ### [c7.39](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c7.39) Some authors of the Śilpa Śāstras have gone so far as to forbid the lower class from occupying the ground suited to the higher and vice versa, on pain of incurring the severest vengeance of heavens. But the principles which worked up these punctilious and superstitious distinctions were more recommendatory than mandatory. In practice, it signified little whether the ground designed for the residence of a Brāhmaṇ was square or oblong, white or red, sweet or sour, provided that the situation was convenient, the soil was fertile, and the ground was firm enough not to sink down under the weight of a superstructure. Again it is not easy to find in a single piece of land all the qualifications prescribed in the foregoing paragraphs. Indeed no place on earth is endowed with the ideal contributions of geology and physiography, and no capital or city in the world has ever been traced to possess all the gifts of hills, rivers, seas, and forests in the manner described above and also to command the vegetable and mineral resources of the country. It was enough if there was nothing to be said against the sanitation and the economic self-sufficiency of the city. - [Previous: c7.38](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c7.38) - [Next: c7.40](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c7.40) - [Up: c7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c7) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c7.39](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c7.39) · Pramāṇa