The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c8.39

c8.39

The King's Road, which ran from Pâtaliputra to the northwest frontier of India, was the main highway of commerce, linking together the hundreds of single villages planned on the principles of the Silpa-sâstras, which lay between the seat of the central government and the farthest confines of the empire. It was not the work of Chandragupta's government, but of the Indo-Aryan village communities. And there can hardly be any doubt that the construction of the great irrigation works of Chandragupta's time, and all the regulations for using them and keeping them in order, were natural developments of the traditional organisation of these communities, and not any new departure in the economic life of India.