Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v1.c53.2

v1.c53.2

This brief dessertation on the town planning art as promulgated by the ancient Acharyas and practised by the master architects—the town-planners especially as it is hinted in the succint but brief exposition by the Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra, a medieval treatise on the science of architecture, is evidence of the cultural life of the age in which these norms were propounded. A town or a city is the embodiment of the culture of the townsmen and citizens who shape it, build it and beautify it (or make it ugly as the case these days is). Hence a study of the past is an asset for the present. No doubt the present is an outcome of the past, nevertheless the spirit of the age, the influences of the times together with the political, social, religious and spiritual transformations representing the broad cultural waves fostered in a particular age, all these have their deep and abiding influence on any activity, be it an artistic activity or a literary activity. If the literature is the mirror of society, the art can not remain aloof. This is a general dictum and exceptions prove the rule. Because sometimes a Vālmīki or a Vyāsa or a Tulsidas, instead of mirroring the society presents a mirror to it. The basic norms of the Art as founded by the ancient Acharyas of great renown have this characteristic. They are never swayed by the petty urges and petty patterns of new situation affecting the society. What of the measurements, shapes, mouldings, decorations, (paintings) etc. in the art of town-planning all these indicate that a town or a city is not only a symbolic expression of the National culture, a gigantic canvas on which the comunity life is portrayed, but also one of the finest methods of inculcating and propagating culture. The stupendous ostentatious and ornamental buildings with their inspiring arches, ennobling domes, religiousity and spirituality, nationality all round, in the shape of pictorial representations and illustrations of the great soul-inspiring achievements of the heroes of old, the mythology, the poetry and the aesthetics all imbued with harmonising and enobling sentiments. All these have intrinsic value and we can not bid good-bye to them. It is our sublime heritage. To put it in a nut-shell the three words—city, citizen and citizenship are a trinity round which the rising of the cities, there planning and construction and housing habitation should revolve. Therefore, any national planning-scheme sponsored by the State must have these basic considerations for a true synthesis of the cultural background on the one hand; the spirit of the age with its manifold demands on the other, together with the purpose the evolving of a beautiful, truthful and beneficial life.