Town Planning in Ancient India c9.4

c9.4

It is difficult to say with any degree of certainty whether the town-planners of India had any idea of the importance of light and air in street-planning and orientated their streets accordingly, they having always enjoined the setting of streets to the four cardinal directions of the heavens. All the Smṛti Śāstras however lay down: "The purity of streets is due to wind and light of the sun and the moon."¹