Town Planning in Ancient India c9.57

c9.57

It is not definitely known whether the streets were lined with foot-paths like the streets of a modern town. The word padyā (noticed above), literally meaning foot-fath, seems to have had a different significance and referred to only narrow roads, too narrow for vehicles plying through them. In his commentary on Āpasthambha’s direction about the particular passage to be given to a murderer of a Brāhmaṇ, Horadatta, however, writes, “Some say that his passage lies along one of the two paths that border a large street (rathyā) on both sides.”¹