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Public Administration in Ancient India c20: Chapter XVII: Public Works

Public Administration in Ancient India c20

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Chapter XVII: Public Works

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THE construction and preservation of works of public utility engaged the attention of the State in India from very early times. The chief kinds of such public works were cities, public buildings, works of art, roads, and canals.

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At the time of Alexander's invasion, an appreciable proportion of the population lived in cities. Greek writers inform us that Alexander conquered more than 2,000 cities in the Punjab. In the extensive empire of Chandragupta there was at least one city in every district.¹ Most of these cities, however, were small, and, as might be expected, it was the capital city—the seat of sovereign authority—that received the greatest amount of attention.² The Rāmāyaṇa gives a beautiful description of the city of Ayodhyā.³ In the Mahābhārata we are told that Maya, the Dānava, who was an expert in architecture, constructed a beautiful palace for the Pāndavas at Khāndavaprastha. This city, it is said, was protected by a wide moat encircling it all round, above which rose a rampart many feet high, intersected by gates which were adorned with lofty towers. Within the city were fine buildings beautified by lovely flower and fruit gardens, artificial lakes, and tanks.¹ Arrian, speaking of the Indian cities, says: "It is said that the number is so great that it cannot be stated with precision, but that such cities as are situated on the banks of rivers or on the sea-coast are built of wood, for were they built of brick, they would not last long—so destructive are the rains; those cities, however, which stand on commanding situations and lofty eminences are built of brick and mud. The greatest city in India is that which is called Palimbothra in the dominions of the Prasians, where the streams of Erannoboas and Ganges unite. Megasthenes says further of this city that the inhabited part of it stretched on either side to an extreme length of eighty stadia (10 miles), and that its breadth was fifteen stadia (2 miles), and that a ditch compassed it all round, which was six plethra (600 ft.) in breadth and thirty cubits in depth, and that the wall was crowned with five hundred and seventy towers and had four and sixty gates."² When Fa Hian and Hiuen Tsiang visited Pāṭaliputra the town itself was in ruins, but the parapets of the walls were still standing.¹

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¹ Arthaśāstra, Bk. II. ch. 1.

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² Rāmāyaṇa, Bālakāṇḍa.

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³ The Mānasāra says: "In the centre of the kingdom should be the capital (rāja-nagarī) situated on the bank of a river, and inhabited by a large number of honest citizens"; and then goes on to describe in detail the structure of the city. Ch. XI.

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¹ Vide Ādi Parva, Sec. 207, sls. 27-51, and Sabhā Parva.

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² Vide Arrian (McCrindle), Indica, 10, and Megasthenes, Fragment XXVI.

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¹ Fa Hian, Ch. XXVII., and Life of Hiuen Tsiang, p. 101. The Buddhist books speak of Vaisālī as an opulent, prosperous town, populous, crowded with people, abundant with food; there were 7,707 storeyed buildings, 7,707 pinnacled buildings, and 7,707 pleasure grounds (aramas), and 7,707 lotus ponds. Vinaya Texts (Sacred Books of the East), VIII. 1.

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The greater writer, Bāṇa, gives a poetic description of the town of Ujjayinī as it existed in the seventh century A.D., from which we extract the following sentences: “There is a town by name Ujjayinī, the proudest gem of the three worlds . . . It is encompassed by a moat deep as hell . . . and surrounded by fences and walls, white with plaster like Kailāsa . . . It is adorned with large bazaars, like the oceans when their waters were drunk by Agastya, stretching far with gold-dust for sand, with conch and oyster pearls, corals and emeralds laid bare. The painted halls that deck it are filled with gods . . . Its crossways shine with temples like Mandara whitened by the milk raised up by the churning stick . . . Commons grey with Ketakī pollen, dark with green gardens, watered by buckets constantly at work, and having wells adorned with brick seats, lend their charm. Its groves are darkened by bees vocal with honey draughts, its breeze is laden with sweetness of creeper flowers, all trembling . . . It resounds with the cry of peacocks . . . It glitters with lakes, fair with open blue water-lilies . . . It is whitened with ivory turrets on all sides, endowed with plantain groves, white as flasks of ambrosial foam . . . It is girt with the river Siprā, which seems to purify the sky with its waves forming a ceaseless frown . . . The city seems possessed of rocks with its palaces; it stretches like a suburb with its long houses; it is like the tree that grants desires with its good citizens; it bears in its painted halls the mirror of all forms." ¹

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¹ Bāṇa's Kādambarī (Ridding's trans.), pp. 210-212.

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Stripped of poetical embellishments, this seems to be a correct description of a capital city of the ancient times. And we are confirmed in this opinion by the fact that Bāṇa's description agrees in the main with that given by Hiuen Tsiang. The Chinese traveller says: "The City (Kanyākubja or Kanauj) has a ditch round it, with strong and lofty towers facing one another. The flowers and woods, the lakes and ponds, bright and pure, and shining like mirrors (are seen on every side). Valuable merchandise is collected here in great quantities. The people are well-off and contented, the houses are rich and well formed. Flowers and fruits abound in every place." ²

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² Buddhist Records, Bk. V.

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In Hiuen Tsiang's time the city of Kanauj was three miles and a half long, and three-quarters of a mile broad. At the time of the invasion of Māhmūd of Ghaznī, its magnificence had greatly increased, it being then described as a city "which raised its head to the skies, and which in strength and structure might justly boast to have no equal.”

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The most imposing structure in a capital city was, of course, the Royal Palace. It was usually built on an eminence, and was well protected by walls and bastions, and consisted of numerous apartments.¹ Near the Royal Palace stood the Assembly Hall, and on different sides of it were the Royal Courts of Justice—the Government offices, the places of public worship, the School of Industries and Arts, the houses of the Ministers and other high officials, the armoury, and the soldiers’ quarters. Beyond these were the houses of the citizens.

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¹ Vide Arthaśāstra, and Sukranīti, Ch. I. sls. 216-217.

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The arrangements of other towns were similar to those of the capital city, but on a smaller scale. From the treatment of the subject in some of the ancient books, such as Chānakya’s Arthaśāstra, the Agni Purāna, and the Sukranīti, it appears that towns, and even villages, were constructed on definite plans.² The building of cities, mansions, and works of art formed the subject of a science known as Silpa Sāstra. There are many treatises which deal with this subject, the most well known of these being the Mānasāra. This work speaks of seven sorts of towns, namely, rājadhānī, nagara, pura, kheṭa, kharvaṭa, kubjaka, and paṭṭana. It also mentions eight kinds of villages, namely, Daṇḍaka (that which resembles a staff), Sarvato-bhadra (which is good in every respect), Nandyāvārtta (the abode of happiness), Padmaka (that which has the form of a lotus), Svastika (that which resembles a svastika), Prastara (built of stone), Kārmuka (that which resembles a bow), and Chaturmukha (that which has four faces).¹ Hiuen Tsiang, however, does not evidently think much of the ordinary towns and villages. He says: “The towns and villages have inner gates, the walls are wide and high; the streets and lanes are tortuous, and the roads winding, the thoroughfares are dirty . . . The towers on the walls are constructed of wood or bamboos; the houses have balconies and belvederes.”²

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² Vide Arthaśāstra, Bk. II. chs. 1-3; Agni Purāna, Ch. CCXXVII. and Sukranīti, Ch. IV.

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¹ Mānasāra, Ch. XI. Vide also Rām Rāz, Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus. Rām Rāz mentions many other books on Hindu Architecture besides the Mānasāra. The Mānasāra consists of about seventy chapters, and in it are described the measures used in architecture, sculpture, etc.; the different sites to be selected for building temples and houses; their mode of determining the different points of the compass; the several sorts of villages, towns, and cities, with directions for building them; the different parts of an edifice, its ornaments, pedestals, bases, pillars, entablatures; the various sorts of temples consisting of from one to twelve storeys high; the construction of mantapas, porticoes, gates, doorways, palaces, etc. Several MS. copies of this important work have been been found, and a Bengali scholar has now undertaken the work of editing and translating the book.

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² Buddhist Records (Beal), Bk. II. p. 73.

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Not only public buildings but even private dwelling-houses in the cities and villages were usually constructed in accordance with definite rules. A comparatively modern work on architecture says: “Woe to them who dwell in a house not built according to the proportions of symmetry. In building an edifice, therefore, let all its parts, from the basement to the roof, be fully considered."¹ The builders were often men well trained in the scientific principles of architecture. They were of four descriptions, namely, sthapatis (architects), sūtragrāhīs (those who studied the measurements and were skilled in Mathematics), takshakas (those who prepared the rough wood), and vardhakis (skilled carpenters).

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¹ Manushyālaya Chandrikā, quoted by Rām Rāz in his Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus, p. 15. In regard to mansions, the Sukraniti says: "A building with one thousand pillars is good, others are middling or inferior." Ch. IV. sec. 4, sl. 1.

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Architecture began to attract the attention of the Hindus from very early times. As Fergusson points out, the Hindus "possessed palaces and halls of assembly, perhaps even temples, of great magnificence and splendour, long anterior to Asoka's accession."² But as these ancient structures were usually constructed of wood, stone being employed only for the foundations of buildings or in engineering works, no examples of such buildings have survived the depredations of time. Stone architecture began to be common only from the time of Asoka; most of the ancient monuments, therefore, that are known to us, are Buddhistic. Fa Hian, speaking of Asoka's palace at Pātaliputra, says: "In the middle of the city is the royal palace, the different parts of which he commissioned the genii to construct. The massive stones of which the walls are made are no human work. The ruins of the palace still exist.” ¹ Asoka spent enormous sums of money for the erection of buildings in aid of Buddhism. He built a great temple at Bodh-Gayā, and enlarged and beautified the famous topes at Sanchi. He is also said to have erected eighty-four thousand stūpas in different parts of his vast empire, besides many pillars and columns on which his edicts were inscribed. As Mr. Vincent Smith remarks: “The arts in the age of Asoka undoubtedly had attained to a high standard of excellence.” “The royal engineers and architects,” adds Mr. Smith, “were capable of designing and executing spacious and lofty edifices in brick, wood, and stone, of constructing massive embankments equipped with convenient sluices and other appliances, of extracting, chiselling and handling enormous monoliths, and of excavating commodious chambers with burnished interiors in the most refractory rock. Sculpture was the handmaid of architecture, and all buildings of importance were lavishly decorated with a profusion of ornamental patterns, an infinite variety of spirited bas-reliefs, and meritorious statues of men and animals.” ² Asoka’s great work was continued by his successors and by other Buddhist rulers.

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² Indian and Eastern Architecture.

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¹ Fa Hian (Buddhist Records), Ch. XXVII.

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² V. A. Smith, Asoka, p. 135.

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The objects of the Buddhist art, according to Mr. Fergusson, fall under the following five heads: (1) Stambhas or Lāts, which were always among¹ the most original, and frequently the most elegant, productions of Indian art; (2) Stūpas, containing either the relics of Buddha or of some Buddhist saint, or erected to commemorate some event or mark some sacred spot dear to the followers of Buddhism; (3) Rails, which were works of exquisite beauty; (4) Chaityas or Assembly Halls were the Buddhist temples of religion, corresponding to the Churches of the Christians; (5) Vihāras and Sanghārāmas, or monasteries, which were the residences of monks and centres of educational and charitable establishments.

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¹ With the Buddhists they were employed to bear inscriptions on their shafts; with the Jainas they are generally dip-danas, or lamp-bearing pillars, but sometimes supporting figures of Jinas; with the Vaishnavas or Saivas, they bore statues or flag-staffs.

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The most extensive, and perhaps the most interesting, group of topes is that known as the Bhilsa topes. Of this group the most magnificent is the great tope at Sānchī, which has a base 14 ft. high and a dome 42 ft. high and 106 ft. in diameter. But it is believed that there once existed stūpas which were far more magnificent than these. Fergusson says: "If we could now see the topes that once adorned any of the great Buddhist sites in the Doāb, or in Behār, the Bhilsā group might sink into insignificance."² Of Chaityas, some thirty are known still to exist. But the most famous, and architecturally the most wonderful, are the rock-cut caves in Western India, of which not less than twelve hundred are to be found. Three hundred of these are of Brahmanical or Jaina origin, and the remaining nine hundred are Buddhistic. The Kārli, the Ajantā, and the Ellora caves are the finest specimens of this kind of architecture. As Mrs. Manning points out, this form of architecture “has the signal advantage of protecting the work of architect and sculptor from the threefold destruction caused by insects, rain and vegetation.” ¹

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² Fergusson and Burgess, Indian and Eastern Architecture (1910), Vol. I. p. 66.

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¹ Ancient and Mediaeval India, p. 396.

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Sanghārāmas were innumerable and found in every part of India during the Buddhist period. Hiuen Tsiang described them in these words: “The Sanghārāmas are constructed with extraordinary skill. A three-storeyed tower is erected at each of the four angles. The beams and the projecting heads are carved with great skill in different shapes. The doors, windows, and the low walls are painted profusely; the monks' cells are ornamental on the inside and plain on the outside. In the very middle of the building is the hall, high and wide. There are various storeyed chambers and turrets of different height and shape, without any fixed rule. The doors open towards the east; the royal throne also faces the east.” ²

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² Buddhist Records, Bk. II. pp. 73-74.

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The Jainas and Hindus also, like the Buddhists, excavated cave-dwellings (Bhikshu-gṛihas) for their recluses. Later on, Hindu temples began to be constructed in large numbers, many of which are still standing. Some of them, specially those of Orissa and of South India, possess splendour and magnificence in an eminent degree.

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The more important public buildings, as a rule, were constructed by order of the monarchs, but very often guilds of merchants and, occasionally, rich individuals also constructed works of public utility. In the inscriptions we often read of temples and almshouses being constructed by order of guilds.¹

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¹ Cf. for instance, the Mandasor Inscription of Kumāragupta and Bandhuvarman, Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol. III.

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After the time of Asoka, the most flourishing period of Indian architecture was that of the Guptas. As Mr. V. A. Smith points out, " in India the establishment of a vigorous dynasty ruling over wide dominions has invariably resulted in the application of a strong stimulus to the development of man's intellectual and artistic powers. Such a dynasty, exercising its administrative duties effectively, fostering commerce, maintaining active intercourse, commercial and diplomatic, with foreign states, displaying the pomp of a magnificent court, both encourages the desire to do great things and provides the material patronage without which authors and artists cannot live."²

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² Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 1914, Vol. I.

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According to Mr. E. B. Havell, the eighth century saw the complete artistic realisation of both the Buddhist and the Hindu ideals, and it was also about this epoch that the ideals of Indian art and the highest culture expressed in that art found their widest geographical expansion.¹

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¹ Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 1912, Vol. I.

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The means of communication received considerable attention from the rulers. Roads were constructed in all towns and villages. Chānakya says that each city should have six main roads—three running from east to west, and three from north to south. Besides these principal roads, which were to be 32 cubits wide, there were many other roads which were less broad. There were also roads which connected the different parts of the country with the capital and with one another. The main roads were called King's ways (Rāja-mārga), and the other roads were known as mārgas, vīthīs, or padyas.² Pillars were set up on the main roads to mark distances and to show the by-roads.³ Trees were planted along the roads and, for convenience of travellers, rest houses (pāntha-śālās) were erected at suitable places.⁴

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² Sukranīti, Ch. I. Strabo, on the authority of Megasthenes, says: "They construct roads and at every ten stadia set up a pillar to show the by-roads and distances." Fragment XXXIV. The Sukranīti says that these roads should be like the back of a tortoise, and there should be drains on both sides of a road. The Mānasāra mentions maṇḍala-vīthī, rājapatha, sandhi-patha, and mahā-kāla as the four kinds of roads in a town or village. In the Rig-Veda we find mention of 'mahā-patha' (highway).

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³ Megasthenes, Fragment XXXIV.

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⁴ Vide Edicts of Asoka and Sukranīti, Ch. IV. sec. 4.

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Permanent masonry or wooden bridges were constructed over rivulets and small streams, while bridges of boats were placed for the crossing of large rivers.¹

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¹ The Sukranīti says : “ Bridges should be constructed over rivers of various sorts and of beautiful structure. There should be boats and other conveyances for crossing the rivers.” Ch. IV. sec. 4, sl. 61.

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Irrigation was practised in India from very early times. In the Rig-Veda we find mention of canals. In the Mahābhārata, Nārada, enquiring about the state of the kingdom, is made to ask Yudhishthira : “ Are large tanks and lakes established all over the kingdom at proper distances, in order that agriculture may not be entirely dependent on the showers of heaven ?”² So Manu advises the King to build tanks, wells, cisterns, and fountains.³ The larger irrigational works were undertaken by the State, while the smaller ones were often constructed by private enterprise. In order to encourage private enterprise in this direction, rents and taxes were remitted for a certain number of years for the construction of new tanks and for the repair of old works. The village communities, and sometimes private individuals, were held responsible for the keeping of irrigational works in repair, and punishments were inflicted on people who destroyed them or neglected to maintain them.⁴ In the Purānas, the construction of irrigation works is regarded as an act of great merit.

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² Sabhā Parva, Sec. V.

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³ VIII. 248.

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⁴ Arthasāstra.

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According to the Agni Purāṇa, the merit acquired by the gift of water is equal to that acquired by all other gifts combined.¹

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¹ Agni Purāṇa, Ch. 64.

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There was an important department of government which controlled the construction and maintenance of canals, lakes and tanks. Megasthenes says: “Some Officers-of-State superintend the rivers, measure the lands, as is done in Egypt, and inspect the sluices by which water is let out from the main canals into their branches, so that everyone may have an equal supply of it.”² The Irrigation Officers of Chandragupta built a dam at Girnār, and thus formed the great Sudarsana lake. And in Asoka’s reign, his governor of Surāshtra constructed canals to utilise the waters of this lake. In 150 A.D. this dam was rebuilt by Rudradāman, and in the fifth century it was repaired by Chakrapālita, Skandagupta’s governor.³ Sung Yun, speaking of irrigation in Kasmir, says: “At the proper time they let the streams overflow the land by which the soil is rendered soft and fertile.”⁴ In the Rājataranginī we find a detailed account of the irrigational achievements of Suyya, the Minister of Avantivarman, King of Kasmir (855-883 A.D.). Some parts of Kasmir were liable to be inundated by disastrous floods, and to remain submerged during a great part of the year. Suyya built dykes to prevent the floods, and drained the marshes. He also constructed canals to divert the water of the rivers, and thus procured a supply of artificial water for villages which had so long been dependent on the rainfall. He further arranged on a permanent basis for the size and distribution of the watercourse for each village, and by this method of using the streams for irrigation, embellished all regions with an abundance of irrigated fields yielding the most excellent produce. Suyya, in the words of the Rājataranginī, “ made the different streams (i.e. Sindhu and Vitastā) with their waves which are (like) the quivering tongues of snakes, move about according to his will, just as a conjurer (does with) the snakes.”¹

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² Fragment XXXIV.

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³ “Having done honour to the Kings, he laboriously built up with a great masonry work, properly constructed, the lake Sudarsana, which is renowned as not being evil by nature, so that it would last for all eternity.” Vide Fleet, Gupta Inscriptions.

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⁴ The Sukranīti says: “Wells, canals, tanks, and lakes should be constructed in abundance so that there may not be any scarcity of water in the country. Their breadth should be twice or thrice their depth.” Ch. IV. sec. 4.

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¹ Rājataranginī (Stein), Bk. V. Referring to Suyya’s engineering work, Sir Aurel Stein remarks : “It shows alike the large scale and the systematic technical basis of Suyya’s regulation. The result of the latter was a great increase of land available for cultivation, and increased protection against disastrous floods which in Kasmīr have been the main causes of famine.” Introduction, p. 98. “The facilities secured for cultivation produced a remarkable reduction in the price of rice, the cost of a Khārī being alleged to have fallen from 200 Dinnāras to 36 Dinnāras in consequence.”

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It is worthy of note that Hindu architecture and art and works of public utility were not confined to India. Some wonderful examples of Buddhist as well as Brahmanical architecture are still to be found in countries where the Hindus founded settlements, such as Ceylon, Cambodia, Siam, Java, Bali and Sumatra. The Kings of Ceylon paid great attention to the construction of works of public utility. Parākrama Bāhu, for instance, erected innumerable religious edifices and public buildings, and planted beautiful parks and gardens. He built a stone wall and stopped the course of the Kāra-ganga, and turned the wide flow of the waters thereof by means of the great channel Ākāsa-gangā. He also built that famous lake known as the Sea of Parākrama, and constructed the celebrated Jayagangā canal. It is said that the many thousands of lakes, tanks, and canals were constructed and repaired by this great monarch.¹

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¹ Mahāvamsa, Ch. LXXIX.

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Speaking of the ancient public works of Cambodia, Mr. Fergusson remarks : " Wonderful as these temples and palaces are, the circumstance that, perhaps, after all gives the highest idea of the civilisation of these ancient Cambodians is the perfection of their roads and bridges. One great trunk road seems to have stretched for 300 miles across the country from Korat, in a south-easterly direction, to the Mekong river. It was a raised causeway, paved throughout like a Roman road, and every stream that crossed was spanned by a bridge, many of which remain perfect to the present day. Dr. Bastian describes two of them : One 400 feet in length and 50 feet in breadth, richly ornamented by balustrades and cornices, and representations of snakes and the snake-king.”¹ In Java and Sumatra “for nearly nine centuries (A.D. 603 to 1477) foreign (i.e. Indian) colonists had persevered in adorning the island with edifices, almost unrivalled elsewhere of their class.”²

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¹ Fergusson, History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, Vol. II. p. 402.

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² Ibid.

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