Town Planning in Ancient India c9.38

c9.38

All these towns can be generalised into one representative type of a rectangular enclosure—only the Kārmuka and the Padmaka have different forms—with four sides facing four quarters of the heaven. The town was generally divided into four wards or sections by two large streets crossing each other at right angles at the centre.¹ These streets terminated at each end at four principal gates and the town possessed four other supplementary gates at the corners. The town was encircled within by a wide path which intervened between the walls and the outer blocks. This path went by the name of Maṅgalavīthī or the path of blessing or auspiciousness, for through this street the chariot of the presiding deity Viṣṇu or Brahmā was drawn and along this path the Hindu population of the town circumambulated the town after the immemorial rite of ‘pradakṣiṇa’. Hence this boulevard was also known as Janavīthikā, literally the path of men.