Town Planning in Ancient India c9.14

c9.14

¹ M.M. Dr. Ganganath Jha (*Vide B.O.R.S.J.*, Vol. II, June, 1916) says : "The highways leading from one town to another were 100 feet wide and the village roads were 60 feet wide." By the former he seems to refer to 'deśamārga', while by the latter to 'grāmamārga'. By village roads he means roads laid out in villages. This leads to an anomaly, for within the town, the principal roads were 30 feet wide and were therefore half as much wide as the roads of villages. He gives a far fetched explanation of this. With due respect to him, my humble opinion is that all his troubles are due to his wrong interpretation of the word 'grāmamārga'. As the deśamārgas were nothing but the highways of the country like the Grand Trunk Road, leading from one kingdom or principality to another, *i.e.*, joining capitals, so the grāmamārgas were the roads connecting one village with another and ultimately abutting on the deśamārgas. It should be remembered that in those days of alternating settlement and unsettlement, clusters of villages flourishing side by side, as in modern times, were non-existent or scarce. If villages lie in close proximity to one another, then the grāmamārgas identify themselves with the sīmāmārgas or the boundary roads forming lines of demarcation between them. Their exceptionally vast widths were due to the political condition of ancient India. The roads were utilised every now and then by the king or his subordinate regents or his commander-in-chief for expedition and locomotion with a vast army and suite. Indeed the origin of many of these roads can be traced to this sort of military necessity. Traces of such wide roads are however nowhere found in modern India though the bases of some may be an approximation to such breadth. Even the famous Grand Trunk Road is not so wide. *Cf.* Śukranītisāra, Ch. I, ll. 528-30.