A History of Agriculture in India v1.c25.s3.9

v1.c25.s3.9

The Village. All the evidence points to the absence of city life among the tribes. The village probably consisted of a certain number of houses built near each other for purposes of mutual defence, surrounded by a hedge as protection against wild beasts. The pur, which is often referred to and which in later days denotes a ‘town’, was probably no more than a mere earthwork fortification which may in some cases at least have been part of the village. In certain passages, these puras are called autumnal; and by far the most probable explanation of this epithet is that it refers to the flooding of the plains by the rising of the rivers in the autumn, when the cultivators and herdsmen had to take refuge within the earthworks which at other times served as defences against human foes. In the midst of each house burned the domestic fire, which served both for practical and sacrificial uses.⁵