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History of Town Planning in India
Building and Town Planning
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Introduction:
• Town planning is not new idea or science in India.
• It is as old as its rich culture and tradition.
• Following are the development stages of town planning in
India.
– Ancient India
• Indus Valley civilization
• Vedic Period
• Buddhist Period
– Medieval Period (up to 14th century)
– Moghul Period (1526 to 1707 A.D.)
– Pre-independence or British Period (till 1947)
– Post Independence Period.
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Ancient India
• Indus Valley Civilization (3000 B.C.)
– The Indo- Gangetic region formed the cradle of Indus
valley civilization nearly 5000 years ago.
– The details of this was not known till 1920’s.
– Excavation carried out in the Mohenjo –Daro (Hill of the
Dead) covering an area of 260 hectors and Harappa (on
the river Ravi) now in Pakistan.
– Kaligangan in Rajasthan.
– Lothal, Sukortada and Dhoulavira in Gujarat.
– Rakhigadhi in Hariyana.
– This all sites indicates the existence of Indus valley
civilization between 4000- 3000 BC.
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Ancient India
– The civilization had greately developed as that of ancient
Mesopotamia.
– The cities had highly advanced system of Town Planning.
– The city was built systematically.
– The streets were 9m wide divided the city in 12 blocks
each 365m x 244m. The layout was based on Grid-Iron
plan.
– The various size and number of storeys of the housing.
– No direct opening on the main street.
– Houses with open central court.
– No windows towards the subsidiary walkways.
– Provision of roof lighting and ventilation.
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Ancient India
– Houses were built of Kiln bricks.
– Bathing establishment
– A common well.
– Effective drainage system. Which was laid under the walkways
and finally connected to main sewers laid under the main roads.
Provision of Manhole and inspection chambers.
– System of Great Bath 7m wide and 12m long 2.4 m deep.
– Watertight, surrounded by toilets and private baths.
– The Indus valley culture collapsed due to the natural
catastrophe.
– After centuries later it was occupied by the Aryan invaders in
1500 -1000 B.C.
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Ancient India
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Ancient India : Mohenjo –Daro
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Ancient India Mohenjo –Daro
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Ancient India Mohenjo –Daro
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Ancient India Lothal
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Ancient India Lothal
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Ancient India Harappa
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Ancient India Dholavira
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Ancient India Dholavira
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Ancient India vedic period
• Vedic Period (upto 400 B.C.):
– The principles of town planning are mentioned in some
sacred book like ‘Viswa Karmaprakashan’ It is mentioned
‘First Layout Towns and then Plan the houses’
– The principle holds good even today.
– Mansara Shilpshastra deals with many aspects of town
planning.
– The importance of studies like study of soil, climatic
condition, topography, fixing orientation to get maximum
advantage of sun and wind. And layout of various town
plans such as Dandaka, Swastika, Padmaka, Nandyavarta,
Prastara, Chaturmukha, Karmuka etc.
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Ancient India vedic period
– The general principle was to lay main streets (Raja Marga) were
aligned East-West to get the roads purified by the Sun’s rays.
– Short streets were aligned North – South.
– Roads running around the village called ‘Mangal Vithi’ were
reserved for Priests.
– These books also refer to the qualification and moral qualities of
the town planner emphasizing that he must have mastery over
the science of planning. And thorough knowledge of culture,
social and religious conditions.
In Ramayana and Mahabharat we come across the descriptions of
the cities of Ayodhya and Indraprastha respectively that the cities
had neatly laid out houses, palatial buildings, spacious
thoroughfares, tanks, lakes gardens parks etc.
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Ancient India : vedic period
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Ancient India : vedic period
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Ancient India : vedic period
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Ancient India Buddhist Period
• Buddhist Period (upto 320 A.D.)
– During the period of Emperor Chandragupta Maurya (321
B.C. – 185 B.C.), Kautilya a.k.a. Chanakya was the chief
minister who wrote the famous ‘Arthshastra’, a treatise
(formal writing) on Town Planning.
– It states the regulation of zoning depending on
communities, highways to be parallel to the main cardinal
direction i.e. grid iron pattern.
– Width of Rajmarg to be not less than 30ft.
– It clearly shows that the art of Town Planning had made
much progress as long back as third century B.C.
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Ancient India Buddhist Period
– The excavations carried out at Patliputra (modern Patna)
the capital of Magadha, show evidence of advance
knowledge of town planning.
– The capital was laid on grid-iron pattern consisting of 16
sectors.
– Most of the houses had gardens with wells and ponds.
– Waste water was carried out by means of underground
drainage.
– The city as long as 16 km and 3.5 km wide was surrounded
by a deep moat 180m wide and further protected by
ramparts stretching more than 40 km long studded with 64
gates and 570 towers.
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Ancient India Buddhist Period
– The four main gates were oriented to the cardinal points of
the compass and were wide enough for the elephants to
pass through easily.
– Taxila (Taksa-sila) and Nalanda were also founded in this
period.
– Nalanda was a renowned place of learning.
– The site Nalanda measured about 487m long and 244m
wide and contained three main essentials –stupas, temples
and hostels for monks.
– It had 300 halls accommodating more than 10000 pupils.
– The libraries were nine storeyed high.
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Ancient India Buddhist Period
Taxila or Takshashila
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Ancient India Buddhist Period
Nalanda
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Medieval Period (14th Century):
• There was gradual developmentof trade and commerce.
• In this period we have the famous cities such as.
– Dhaka for malmal
– Krishnanagar for clay models.
– Agra for marble and perfumery.
– Murshidabad for Silk.
– Jaipur for palatial buildings or artistic excellence.
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Medieval Period (14th Century): Jaipur
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Medieval Period (14th Century): Jaipur
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Moghul Period (1526 – 1707 A.D.)
• Cities like Agra, Delhi were re-developed.
• Fatehpur-Sikri was entirely planned.
• Fortification strengthened Bijapur, Lucknow.
• Other important thing started in this period was laying of
gardens and parks.
• It was a new trend in planning many ornamental gardens
of Moghul period (some of them are still in good
conditions)
– Kabul Bagh at Panipat by Babar
– Shalimar Bagh or Garden of Bliss and Nishat Bagh at
Kashmir by Shah Jahan.
– Lal Bagh at Bangalore by Haider Ali.
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Pre-Independence Period or British Period (till 1947)
• When the Britishers first settled in India they found most
of the condition s of the towns to be unhealthy.
• So they started independent colonies on the outskirts of
the existing towns.
• These extensions were known as ‘Cantonments and
Barracks’ for the military occupied area and ‘Civil Lines’
for the residence of civilians and well-to-do people.
• Next they took to street planning.
• They adopted straight roads regardless of the cost or
damages to social structure of the town.
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Pre-Independence Period or British Period (till 1947)
• No large town planning scheme were taken till the end of 19th
century.
• In the first decade of 20th century they took up the
outstanding work of building New-Delhi.
• The plan was prepared on modern town planning principles
by eminent town planner Edwin Lutyens assisted by Baker.
• The capital group of buildings like Government House, Council
Hall, Secretariat has been designed with their monumental
architecture, industrial buildings are separated from
residential sector, and arranged around the commercial and
civic buildings.
• It was more a planning and designing of Administrative centre
than a new town as such.
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Pre-Independence Period or British Period
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Pre-Independence Period or British Period
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Post Independence Period (After 1947)
• Many industrial towns were planned after post-independence
period.
• A few of these can be mentioned below.
– Steel Towns:
• Durgapur – West Bengal
• Bhilai – Madhya Pradesh
• Rourkela - Orissa
– Industrial Towns:
• Jamshedpur – Bihar
• Bhadravati – Karnataka
• Chittaranjan – West Bengal
– Capitals:
• Gandhinagar – Gujarat
• Chandigadh – Punjab (Now a union territory)
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