Town Planning in Ancient India c9.50

c9.50

The broad central streets, the Brahmavīthī and the Mahākālavīthī constituted the principal arteries of communication of the town with other towns and villages, thus linking them together. They were the military and commercial routes, because Indian towns and villages were generally planted at the meeting points of such high-ways. These crossings were the trysting places of caravans of traders and offered a market for disposal of their merchandise. It should be borne in mind in this connection that the towns served also as fastnesses to defend the surrounding villages under their ægis and jurisdiction. This net-work of main routes knitting together the towns and villages of the kingdom and affording easy access to them augmented the administrative efficiency of the state. Their manifold utility was patent to all and they were maintained by the co-operation of groups of villages which furnishes another example of their civic consciousness. Only the most important routes, such as the military ones, were repaired and maintained by the state, for the state was more interested in their upkeep than the villages.