Public Administration in Ancient India c20.60

c20.60

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