[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Architecture and art](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art) › [Town Planning in Ancient India](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925) › c9.6 # Town Planning in Ancient India c9.6 Town Planning in Ancient India c9.6 - **Language:** English ### [c9.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c9.6) They seem to have had a clear grasp of one principle, namely, that of adjusting the width of streets to the volume of traffic through them so as to reduce the probability of congestion. Thus we read in the Devī Purāṇa :² "The royal street or highway should be made as wide as ten dhanus, i.e., forty cubits, so that men, horses, elephants, and vehicles can have free movement without interference and collision." Sukrāchāryya prohibits construction of small lanes such as 'vīthis' (small shopping alleys) and 'padyās' (foot-ways) in the metropolis or large cities, for they are unsuited to the place not only because they augment insanitation, but also because they are ill able to accommodate the density of passage through them. To the same end are the segregation of the slow and the quick traffic and their confinement to distinct channels of progress ; for, congestion of street traffic is principally due to mixture of the two. In Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra, Book II, Chapter IV, dealing with buildings within the fort, we find mention of roads for chariots, roads for cattle, roads for elephants, and roads for minor quadrupeds as well as for men¹ which bears testimony to appreciation and recognition of the above principle by the town-planners of ancient India. It will be too bold and presumptuous to hold that this segregation was carried out in the same thoroughfare by its longitudinal subdivision into strips allotted to different kinds of traffic as is being done in some of the more advanced capitals of the modern age. In all probability the roads were different and separate for the varying speeds classified into groups. - [Previous: c9.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c9.5) - [Next: c9.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c9.7) - [Up: c9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c9) ## Linked texts (2) - [Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.artha.kautilya) — Kauṭilya, Sanskrit - [Devīpurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.upa.sakta.devi) — Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c9.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.dutt-1925.c9.6) · Pramāṇa