Town Planning in Ancient India c9.9

c9.9

While on the subject of width of streets, it will not be inapt if the different widths of streets advocated by several authorities of town-planning are discussed here. Kauṭilya lays down:—“Chariot roads, royal roads, and roads leading to ‘droṇamukha’, ‘sthānīya’, country parts, and pasture grounds shall each be four daṇḍas (24 feet or 16 cubits) in width. Roads leading to ‘śayonīya’ (?), military stations (vyūha), burial or cremation grounds, and to villages shall be eight daṇḍas in width.”¹ This great width is due to the large number of people necessarily passing at the same time through these streets. “Roads to gardens, groves, and forests shall be four daṇḍas. Roads leading to elephant forests shall be two daṇḍas. Roads for chariots shall be five ‘aratnis’ (7½ feet). Roads for cattle shall measure four aratnis (six feet); and roads for minor quadrupeds and men two aratnis.”² Śukrāchāryya’s roads are wider: “The best royal roads (rājamārgāḥ) are 30 cubits wide, the average 20 cubits, while the worst royal roads are 15 cubits wide.”³ These are the main roads of towns and villages. Since the largest volume of traffic circulates through them, they are the widest: “these are used for the conveyance of marketable commodities……The ‘padyā’ or footpath is three cubits wide, the ‘vīthi’ (or shopping lanes) is five cubits wide and the ‘mārga’ or ordinary road is ten cubits wide whether in a town or in a village.”⁴ The authors of the Devī Purāṇa and the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa have put down exactly the same slokas (neglecting slight variations of readings) dealing with the measurements of roads and lanes. One must have copied the passage from another or both quote from the same authority :—" The 'deśamārgāḥ' (according to Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇam, 'diśāṃ mār-gāḥ') *i.e.*, country roads should be as wide as 30 dhanus. The 'grāmamārgāḥ'¹ (literally village roads or roads leading to villages) should be 20 dhanus wide and the 'sīmāmārgāḥ'(boundary roads) ten dhanus wide. The 'rājapathāḥ' or royal roads should be as wide, while the branch roads (śākhārathyāḥ) should be four dhanus or 16 cubits wide. The breadths of lanes (uparathyāḥ) are three cubits, while those of bye-lanes (uparathyikā) are two cubits. The ‘jaṅghāpatha’¹ (ghamṭāpatha, according to Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇam) is four feet in breadth, and the intervening space between two houses is three feet. The drains for receiving and washing off or scouring off offals and riff-raffs are one foot wide.”² The drains that are still extant in the ruins of Sārnāth, I may observe here, are exactly one foot wide. It is to be noted here that, according to the Devī Purāṇa, a dhanu is four cubits, while the dhanu of the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa measures seventeen cubits