[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) › c7.40 # Town Planning in Ancient India c7.40 Town Planning in Ancient India c7.40 - **Language:** English ### [c7.40](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c7.40) The selection of the ground over, the Sthapati (the civic architect) now turns his attention to its purification and consecration. The rites to this end prescribed both by the Mānasāra and the Mayamata are almost identical and they are these:—"In an auspicious moment the Sthapati after pious ablutions, clad in fresh garments, and adorned with garlands of flowers, in the presence of the assembled people, makes an offering of fried paddy and white flowers to the deities¹ and with invocations for the welfare and prosperity of the builder (or of the architectural enterprise he is going to undertake), he sprinkles consecrated waters in all quarters, and drives away the evil spirits that may haunt the place. Then he, guiding the oxen, draws furrows across the ground towards the east or the west, the grass and the weeds having been plucked out in the first instance. Usually he turns the first furrow and thereafter the Śūdras hired for the purpose complete the ploughing of the ground.” A new plough was specially made for the occasion. The fourth chapter of the Mānasāra deals with the construction of a plough and with ploughing. The newly made plough was yoked to a pair of oxen, strong and without blemish, with gold and silver rings on their horns and hoofs. When the ploughing was finished, the oxen and the plough were presented to him as his perquisites, the people reverencing him as their guru. Then all kinds of seeds (generally sesasum seeds, pulse and kidney beans, i.e., sacrificial grains) mixed with cow dung are sown with incantations pronounced over them. When the crops have matured and flowers are in bloom, the cows, generally the cattle of the community, together with oxen and calves, are put to graze on them and they are allowed to remain there for one or two nights: for the ground is purified by the grazing of the cattle, consecrated by their exhalations, purged of impurity by the hilarious bellowing of the oxen, cleansed and sanctified by froth flowing from the mouths of the calves, laved by bovine urine, besmeared with their ordure and chequered with slipped cud and their foot-marks. The foregoing procedures of selecting and sanctifying the ground were followed in all cases of a village, a ward, a fortress, and the like. - [Previous: c7.39](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c7.39) - [Next: c7.41](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c7.41) - [Up: c7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c7) ## Linked texts (2) - [Mānasāra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.art.silpa.dravida.manasara) — Sanskrit - [Mayamata](https://indike.org/pramana/in.art.silpa.dravida.mayamata) — Maya, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c7.40](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c7.40) · Pramāṇa