TENETS OF TOWN PLANNINGS
Vinayak Pulah AstroVastu Consultant
HAD THE GOVERNMENT Enacted a National Lavel Policy on Town PLANNING The conditions of our cities would have been better .
It may be remarked that it would not be justified to view the antiquity of ancient indian townplanning in regard to IndoAryan or the Vedic Indians aloneWhat about the bulk of the population of this great subcontinentthe aboriginalswho were definitely the founders of great cities and fortified towns as is fully evident from the excavations at HarappaMohanjodaro and at other parts in sindIt may also be born in mind that according to our silpa sastras or Vastursastras the planning of a village or town does not make much difference.The canons are indenticalonly the size may be varying .A town is large village.Similar is the case with the forts .According to the Manasara as we have already seen,there is not much difference between village,a town and fortall are fortified town, with this defference, that a fort is principally meant for purpose of defence,while a village or town is mainly intended for habitation. This canon of the earliest of the litreature, the vedasvedasand the deniers of the Vedic city-life, themselves prove our proposition-vide vedic Index under Pur pp. 338-39 and grama pp. 244-5 as is evident from their own observation, Pur is a word of frequent occurrence in the Rig Veda and latter, meaning rampartfort o strongholdSuch fortification must have been occasionally of considerable sizeone is called broad and wide Elsewhere a fort made of stone Sometimes strongholds of iron are referred but these are probably only metaphoricalA fort fort fort full of kins is mentioned showing that stronghold were used to hold cattle.Autumanal forts are names, apparently as belonging to the Dasasthis may refer to the forts in that being ccupied against Aryan attack or against inundations caused by overflowing rivers. Forts with a hundred walls are spoken It would probably be a mistake to regard these forts as permanently occupied fortified places like the fortresses of the medieval barony. They were probaly mere places of refuge against attack, ramparts of hardened earth with palisades and a dich Pischel and geldner ,however ,think that they were towns with wooden walls and ditches like the Indian town of pataliputra known to megasthenese and the pali Texts .
