The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c17.59

v1.c17.59

All the evidence points to the absence of city life among the tribes. The village probably consisted of a certain number of houses built near each other for purposes of mutual defence, perhaps surrounded by a hedge or other protection against wild beasts or enemies. The *pur*, which is often referred to and which in later days denotes a ‘town,’ was, as we have seen, probably no more than a mere earthwork fortification which may in some cases at least have been part of the village. In certain passages these *puras* are called autumnal, and by far the most probable explanation of this epithet is that it refers to the flooding of the plains by the rising of the rivers in the autumn, when the cultivators and herdsmen had to take refuge within the earthworks which at other times served as defences against human foes. Of the construction of the Vedic house we learn little, but the bamboo seems to have been largely used for the beams which borrowed their name from it. In the midst of each house burned the domestic fire, which served the Indian both for practical and sacrificial uses.