Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c10.15

c10.15

**Village Planning.** Apart from its arable land, a village should have its uncultivated land (*akṛishyā bhūmi*) distributed for purposes of (1) Pastures (*vivīta*) for the grazing of its cattle; (2) Sylvan retreats for religious study and practices (*Brahma-Somāraṇya*) and for ascetics (*Tapovana*); (3) a reserved forest for royal hunt to be stocked "with tamed (*dānta*) animals like deer and elephant, and wild animals like tiger but with their teeth and claws cut off"; (4) ordinary forests for the shelter of all animals (*sarvātithi-mṛigam mṛiga vanam*); (5) plantations of different kinds of forests growing different kinds of produce such as Timber-forests, Bamboo-forests, or forests of bark-producing trees; (6) factories for utilisation of forest-products (*dravya-vana-karmāntān*); (7) colonies of foresters and (8) forests for rearing of elephants beyond human habitation [II. 2].