Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s21.1095

v1.c3.s21.1095

It would probably be a mistake to regard these forts as permanently occupied fortified places like the fortresses of the mediæval barony. They were probably merely places of refuge against attack, ramparts of hardened earth with palisades and a ditch (*cf.* Dehī). Pischel and Geldner,⁸ however, think that there were towns with wooden walls and ditches (περίβολος and τάφρος) like the Indian town of Pāṭaliputra known to Megasthenes⁹ and the Pāli texts.¹⁰ This is possible, but hardly susceptible of proof, and it is not without significance that the word Nagara is of late occurrence. On the whole it is hardly likely that in early Vedic times city life was much developed. In the Epic, according to Hopkins,¹¹ there are found the Nagara, ‘city’; Grāma, ‘village’; and Ghoṣa, ‘ranch.’ Vedic literature hardly seems to go beyond the village, no doubt with modifications in its later period.