India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s10.2

c8.s10.2

The most important parts of a city were its moat (*parikhā*), rampart (*prākāra*) and gates (*dvāra*), which served as the main defences. *Sūtras* V.1.17-18 envisage regular town-planning. For example, *Parikhāyā ḍhañ*, speaks of 'the space earmarked for a moat as *pārikheyī* (*bhūmi*).' The previous *sūtra*, *Tadasya tad-asmin syād-iti*, V.1.16, presupposes some sort of planning preceding the actual construction work. The marking out of the site of the moat, the rampart and the palace formed the preliminary part of such planning. The Vatthuvijjāchariyas or expert architects were requisitioned for testing sites (*Jāt.* I.297; IV.323), for the actual planning of cities (*cf.* *nagaraṁ Vedehena sumāpitaṁ*, *Mahāummaga Jāt.* VI.448). The *Arthaśāstra* mentions the construction of ditches (*parikhā*) as the first item in the construction of forts (*durga-vidhāna*). We read in the *Mahābhārata* that the site of Indraprastha was mapped out (*nagaraṁ māpayāmāsuḥ*) in the presence of Dvaipāyana Vyāsa and others and that work commenced with the digging of a series of moats (*parikhābhiḥ*), followed by the building of a high rampart (*prākāra*), numerous gateways (*dvāraiḥ*) and towers (*saudhaiḥ*) (Ādiparva., 209.29-32). Why the moat was built first can be understood from the fact that the earth so obtained was utilised for raising the mudrampart (*pāṁsu-prākāra*), or for moulding bricks for the city-wall (*prākārīyā ishṭakā*), or as Kauṭilya says, for ramming in the hollow masonry work (*pāṁsu-viśesheṇa vāstu-chhidraṁ vā pūrayet*, *Arth.* Text, II.3, p. 52).