Town Planning in Ancient India c8.86

c8.86

Kauṭilya gives the minute particulars of fortification :—" In the intermediate space measuring thirty daṇḍas between two towers, there shall be formed a broad street in two compartments covered with a roof and two and a half times as long as it is broad."¹ This street seems to be intended for patrol of the sentinels, protected overhead by the roofs. The bifurcation of the street is for facilitating the double movements, forward and backward, of the guards. He goes on : "Between the tower and the broad street there shall be constructed an Indrakosha which is made up of covering pieces of wooden planks affording seats for three archers. There shall also be made a road for gods which shall measure two hastas inside (the towers ? but I think it should be Indrakosha), four times as much by the sides, and eight hastas along the parapet." The practical utility of this injunction, coming as it does from such a shrewd practical politician like Chāṇakya, is not quite clear. It only shows the religiosity of a Hindu mind which seeks some divine motive for every mundane transaction. Hence these roads appear to be meant for the presiding deities of the city who, according to the faith of their votaries, are no less wary in guarding it. There were ‘charyāḥ’ or paths to ascend the parapets (as the radical meaning connotes) which were as broad as one daṇḍa or two.