Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v1.c52.5

v1.c52.5

This topic of fortification is common, both to the towns and the forts. Ancient cities were fortified towns. There was not much difference between the laying out of a town and a fort. There are two broad classifications of forts—the natural and artificial. The S. S. in its 45th Chapter entitled ‘The eigtfold Architecture’—*Aṣṭāṅga-lakṣaṇa*, (also vide the Yuktikalpataru) divides the first category of the forts, i.e. natural ones as sixfold, water fort, mud fort, forest fort, desert fort, mountain fort (on the top) and cave fort (Guhādurga—cf. F. N. verse 39). That is, a natural fort is one which is rendered inaccessible to hostile encroachments by its advantageous situation secured by natural defences, like mountains, rivers, marshy lands, deserts and forests. The use of Natural forts is evidence of the skill of the ancient town planners in utilising local natural barriers and in turning them into best fortifications by slight manipulations and modifications. As per the second classification, forts like Śibira, Vāhinīmukha, Sthānīya, Droṇaka, Saṃviddha or Vardhaka, Kolaka, Nigama and Skandhāvāra form the varieties of the artificial forts described by Mānasāra (Ch. X) and also by Mayamata (Ch. X). This Śibira variety of forts, which includes Skandhāvāra is, according to the S S., a different architectural object altogether, (vide eight limbs of the body of architecture, Ch. 45.6) where the construction of the forts and the planning of the royal camps (Śibira) are two distinct things.