History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.403

v4.c62.403

In the Ṛgveda we have frequent mention of cities. In I. 63. 7 Indra is said to have shattered seven cities for Purukutsa and in II. 20. 8 it is narrated that Indra killed the dasyus and destroyed their cities of *ayas* (copper, *hatvī dasyūn pura āyasīr ni tārt*). This shows that walled cities were known even at that distant date. There is difference of opinion as to whether the walls were of mud and wood or of stones and bricks. Vide Hopkins in J. A. O. S. XIII. pp. 174–176. The Tai. S. VI. 2. 3. 1 speaks of the three cities of asuras constructed with *ayas*, silver and gold (*hariṇī*). In the *agni-cayana* as described in the Śat. Br. thousands of baked bricks were required. The excavations at Mohenjo-daro show that walls were built of burnt bricks (Marshall, vol. 1. pp. 15–26). There is no reason to assume that houses, palaces and city walls could not have been built of bricks, simply because no purely Hindu ruins anterior to Alexander have yet been discovered or because Megasthenes describes that Pāṭaliputra had a wall of wooden palisades. One must demur to the remarks of Hopkins on pp. 174–175 of J. A. O. S. vol. XIII. Walls (prākāra), toraṇas (arched gates) and upper stories (aṭṭālakas), moats are very often spoken of in connection with capitals in both epics. The gates were sometimes called after cities e. g. in Vanaparva I. 9–10 the Pāṇḍavas are said to have gone out of Hastināpura from the gate called Vardhamānapura.²²⁹ Vide also Āśramavāsiparva 16. 3. The Mahābhārata states that palaces had dancing halls (nartanāgāra) attached to them (Virāṭa-parva 22. 16 and 25–26). Śānti 69. 60 states that the capital was rendered gay by naṭas (players) and dancers and Śānti 86 (4–15) describes how cities were to be founded in durgas, how they were to be full of music, festivals and merry gatherings (*samājotsava*) and what stores they should contain. In the Rāmāyaṇa (V. 2. 50–53) Laṅkā is described as having palaces of seven or eight stories and mosaic pavements. The Bṛhatsaṃhitā (chap. 53) contains in 125 verses very accurate directions and measurements about palaces, houses &c. (i. e. on vāstuśāstra). It states that the best kind of royal palace was to be 108 cubits broad, that palaces of 100, 92, 84, 76 cubits may be built, that the length in each case was to be one-fourth as much more as the breadth. It speaks of the dimensions of mansions for the commander-in-chief, ministers, the queen, crown prince, purohita, physician &c. In v. 23 it states that the walls may be of baked bricks or of wood.