Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v1.c50.s3.2

v1.c50.s3.2

There is however a great gulf between the canons of village-planning as given in the ancient texts of architecture and town-planning like Mayamata, Mānasāra etc. and the universal practice in India in regard to the most fundamental of the canons of town-planning namely the fortification. All the Śilpa texts unanimously suggest the fortification of villages as well. This is a bit over-doing. Some of the most selected villages may have some kind of fortification around them, otherwise the general practice, as the history also bears to the testimony, is that the villages never had fortification. When M. M. Dr. Ganga Nath Jha wrote—“The points of difference between a town and a village were that the town was protected by a ditch and a wall while the village was not so protected, the town was inhabited mostly by trades-people, in addition to the king and his appertenances, while the village was inhabited by agricultural people”—House-building and Sanitation in Ancient India, J. B. O. R. S. Volume I—he was not only simply echoing the practical and historical truth; but also Bharata’s definition of a village which is an abode of many people such as Brāhmaṇas and others without any wall or ditch.