Preliminaries (c): Geological Survey

So far we have been surveying the land to be selected for the town-planning from the geographical stand-point. The ancient texts on Vāstu-Śāśtra are full of details aiming at the physiographical or more correctly anḍ more characteristically the geological survey of the land too. In these days of advanced stage of the Geological science, this may sound simply astounding, but the fact is otherwise. The different varieties of the soils having different different colours, smells, sounds, touches and tastes could not have been ascertained unless the physiographical and geological surveying and investigations had been carried out. The Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra allots the four soils of white, red, yellow and black colours to the four castes respectively (8.18), This allotment may be symbolic, the colours of the ground answering the colours of the respective castes—the Sanskrit term for caste being ‘Varṇa’ literally colour. Similarly, from the point of view of the taste of the soil, sweet, astringent, pungent and bitter tastes have been allotted to the respective four castes. But it may be noted here that these prescriptions are not mandatory or obligatory they are only recommendatory (8.49).

Again in every text on Vāstu-Śāstra, some account of the unfit sails is found (8.52-62). The Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra directs that the soil having the following characteristics, should be avoided for the planning of any town: one, which is full of ashes, charcoal, skulls, bones, husks of corns, hair, poison, stones; similarly one abounding in rats, rubbish ant-hills, and gravels. Again lands which are hollow, dry, zig-zag, having decayed wood, and subterranean pits, barren, with water currents moving to the left, devoid of rains, where trees are bitter, thorny, useless, dry, devoid of fruits, abounding in birds eating raw flesh and where worms are also found, are not to be selected; where any religious piety or food, drink, vanish like the sounds of a tūrya (musical instruments); where the river flows towards the East; which smell like 6il or a dead body; which have a smoky colour, mixed colour or no colour, dry colour—all these also must be rejected. From the point of view of taste, bitter, saltish must be avoided. Land which is sharp and dry, too hot or too cold to the touch, should be rejected. Land that has the sound of a jackal, camel, dog or donkey or the torrent or a cruel sound like that of a breaking jar must also be avoided (these sounds are simply symbolic of the sound of the soil). The import of all these directions regarding the selection of the ground for town-planning is that impurity, insanitation, sterility or barrenness, hollowness, irregularity of sites and plots must be avoided at all cost, so that laying out of the buildings and the planning of the roads are not affected and the stability of the structures erected on them is ensured. All this is possible when well-planned soil tests and geological surveys are carried out. Again this shows that not only the fertility and the solidity of the ground are ascertained, but also the mineral resources were tapped and the building materials explored. Again this is also necessary from the point of view of the stability of a town, situated on the bank of a river, in order to ward off any possible flood or erosion. This brings us to another point of consideration in the selection of the site. namely, the proclivity of the ground.

The Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra (8.66) directs that the ground should have its proclivity either to the North or to the North-East or to the East proper and it should resemble a mirror (in its elevation in the middle). The Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra in two other places also takes this topic of proclivity and declivity of the ground. In its chapter entitled “Gṛhadoṣa” (the 48th) it opens with the direction that the ground slanting towards the direction presided over by Varuṇa, Yama, Marut, Fire or if depressed in the middle, is unfit and brings poverty, disease and death. More pointedly, it says that a ground having its declivity towards the quarter of Fire, suffers from the fear of fire, towards the south from death, towards South-West from ailments, towards the West from the destruction of the grains and wealth, towards North-West from foreign residence, quarrels and ailments and the one sloping in the middle is the worst of all and is instrumental in bringing total destruction. Again in its 20th Chapter in connection with the raised or low grounds in the vicinity of the house, it has laid down that a house having a low ground on the left and raised on the right, is beset with many ills (cf. wrong orientation—it will be insanitary). Similarly, if it is low on the right and raised on the left that too is unfit. Further, hollowness and a low ground at the back are also bad. Only the ground with westward slope and frontal projection (as much as it can be) is the fittest one.

In his Yukti-Kalpataru (vide Nagara-racanā-śāstra verse 136-7), Bhoja is more specific. He says that the ground should be elevated in the middle and slanting towards the East and North-East. A Southern declivity is responsible for all insanitation and brings diseases; a declivity towards North is conducive to wealth, while a westward slope destroys peace and prosperity; a depression of the ground in the middle conveys poverty, while a depression on the border brings in happiness.

Practically all the Śilpa-Śāstras are unanimous in extrolling an easterly declivity of the ground. It offers the full benefit of the morning sun. After the site was chosen, the four points of the compass were fixed by means of a gnomon (Śaṅku).

The purification and consecration of the ground, though much elaborated in manuals like the Mānasāra and the Mayamata, are conspicuous by their absence in the Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra and some remarks may be made in the end of this chapter.

These elaborate precautions in the selection of the site for the ṭown-planning as we find in these texts point out that in ancient and medieval India, town-planning was probably the concern of the State. Such a wide range of the prescriptive directions could not have been within easy reach of individual resources. Town-planning seems to have been a social function in which the society as a whole took part.

Havel (vide A Study of Indian Civilization pp. 7.8) simply relates the truth when he says:

“It will probably be revelation to modern architects to know, how scientifically the problems of town-planning are treated in these ancient India’s architectural treatises. Beneath a great deal of mysticism which may be scoffed at as pure superstitions, there is a foundation of sound common sense and scientific knowledge which should appeal to the mind of the European expert”.

So far we have been busy with the architectural preliminaries, there are however certain important injunctions in the Śilpa-texts for ritualistic preliminaries, some of which like Halakarṣaṇa may be deemed as helpful in the context of the architectural preliminaries as well.

Hence some remarks may be made in the words of Sri B. B. Dutta. T. P. in A. I. pp. 60-62:

“The selection of the ground over the Sthapati (the civic architect) now turns his attention to its purification and consecration. The rites to this end prescribed both by the Mānasāra and the Mayamata are almost identical and they are these:—“In an auspicious moment the Sthapati after pious ablutions, clad in fresh garments, and adorned with garlands of flowers, in the presence of the assembled people, makes an offering of fried paddy and white flowers to the deities and with invocations for the welfare and prosperity of the builder (or of the architectural enterprise he is going to undertake), he sprinkles consecrated waters in all quarters, and drives away the evil spirits that may haunt the place. Then he, guiding the oxen, draws furrows across the ground towards the east or the west, the grass and the weeds having been plucked out in the first instance. Usually he turns the first furrow and thereafter the Śūdras hired for the purpose complete the ploughing of the ground”.

A new plough was specially made for the occasion. The fourth chapter of the Mānasāra deals with the construction of a plough and with ploughing. The newly made plough was yoked to a pair of oxen, strong and without blemish, with gold and silver rings on their horns and hoofs. When the ploughing was finished, the oxen and the plough were presented to him as his prequisites, the people reverencing him as their guru. Then all kinds of seeds (generally sesasum seeds, pulse and kidney beans, i.e., sacrificial grains) mixed with cow dung are sown with incantations pronounced over them. When the crops have matured and flowers are in bloom, the cows, generally the cattle of the community, together with oxen and calves, are put to graze on them and they are allowed to remain there for one or two nights; for the ground is purified by the grazing of the cattle, consecrated by their exhalations, purged of impurity by the hilarious bellowing of the oxen, cleansed and sanctified by froth flowing from the mouths of the calves, laved by bovine urine, besmeared with their ordure and chequered with slipped cud and their foot-marks. The foregoing procedures of selecting and sanctifying the ground were followed in all cases of a village, a ward, a fortress, and the like”.

As regards other ritualistic details, they are reserved for the part V—Temple-architecture.

N.B. (i)—Among the other notable architectural preliminaries like, Site-planning or Vāstupada-vinyāsa including the orientation, the ascertaining of the cardinal points by means of a gnoman, etc., etc., and marking out the area, etc., i.e., marking off the perepheries of the town, with especial reference to the dimensions etc., the former has already been dwelt at length in the previous part and the latter is reserved for the chapter ahead—vide Folk-planning.

N.B. (ii)—This chapter is principally based on the Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra and details of other texts—vide V. L., have not been delineated upon as these may be purviewed there.