Town Planning in Ancient India c7.7

c7.7

Sukrāchāryya recommended a locality like the following for a capital: "The capital should be set up in a place which abounds in various trees, plants and shrubs, and is rich in cattle, birds and other animals, endowed with good sources of water and supplies of grain, adorned with pleasant forests and vegetation, that is bestirred by the movements of boats up to the seas, and is not very remote from the hills, and that is an even grounded pictureque plain."¹ It has been a very common practice to fling out the sneering remark that ancient Indians, dominated by a Brahminical hierarchy preaching anti-social tenets of philosophy and religion, did not pay any heed to the social and mundane needs of men. The foregoing excerpt conclusively refutes a charge based on ignorance. It furnishes us with a magnificent account of the ideals of material existence that should be present in the mind of a ruler of state and gives us an insight into the secular and social life that the leaders of ancient Indian society could idealise as well as realise in practice. It is significant that Śukrāchāryya lays stress upon the presence of trees and creepers. It is only recently that his occidental compeers have come to recognise the climatic, sanitary, and economic importance of forests and the evils of deforestation. The land should be fertile. The place must be rich in game and replete with animal resources. The principal avocation of Indians being agriculture, the insistence upon water and grains indicates that there should be a splendid network of rivers and water-ways to facilitate irrigation of the country outside the town. The capital should not be too remote from the sea; at least it must be situated on or near a navigable river affording easy communication with the sea. The word ‘ākul’ points to the busy commercial life of the city, arrivals and departures of active vessels—here boats (nau)—plying in the river. Proximity to hills ensures ample supplies of minerals, fuel, and timber. According to Śukrāchāryya a capital should lie at the foot or by the side of a mountain, but the latter must not be included within the capital. These mountains would be overtopped with fastnesses to defend the capital below. Thus Jeypore is situated on a plain at the foot of a mountain ridge on the summit of which is situated the fort of the city. But there were exceptions to this rule. The utility of trees was also recognised by the author of the Mānasāra:—"The best sort of ground should abound with milky trees, full of fruits and flowers, e.g., 'khadira' (mimosa), 'kadamba' (naseclea), 'nimba' (margosa), 'champaka' (michelia), 'punnāga' (mesua), 'āmalaka' (emblica), pāṭala (bignonia), 'saptaparṇa' (echites of Linn), and some other varieties belonging to this species of trees."¹ Mayamuni suggests that it should be a plain planted with 'bilva', 'nimba', 'nirguṇḍi', 'piṇḍita' 'saptaparṇa', 'sahakāra' (mangoe). It is to be noted that many of the above kinds of trees have become holy in the eyes of the Indians by virtue of their medicinal properties, and breezes from their leaves are purifying and anti-maladial. It is a recent discovery that the breezes from the nimba tree are prophylactic of malaria. The author of the Matsya Purāṇa says that the locality should be such as does not depend on casual showers for cultivation and fertilisation; that is, it must be intersected with streams and canals, natural or artificial; it must be picturesque, free from reptiles, tigers, and free-booters.¹