Urban Planning Evolution in India

1. EVOLUTION OF HUMAN
SETTLEMENTS IN INDIA
BY
JOSHUA L (2018803006)
Ist Year
MPLAN – SAP CAMPUS

2. OVERVIEW
This study tells about the step by step process
of evolution of Planning, starting from Ancient
period till the Knowledge based society and the
lessons we can learn from them.

3. OBJECTIVES
▪ To study the progress of planning from the past
▪ To understand the old concepts of spatial panning.
▪ Review the Concepts that can be adopted from the past .

4. INTRODUCTION
– Initially the people were wanderers , once they started
agriculture they got settled along the river side.
– Natural boundaries were the initial planning
obstruction .
– The planning started from that stage.
– The history of human settlement in India goes to
prehistoric times where no written records are
available.
– Plenty of archaeological remains are found in different
parts of India to reconstruct the history of this period.
River side -Settlement

5. The Periods of Evolution
(after A.D)
1. Ancient India Period (Before 6th Century )
2. Dark ages ( 6th to 10th Century )
2. Medieval Period (10th to 14th Century)
3. Renaissance Period (14th to 18th Century )
4. Industrial Revolution (18th to 19th Century )
5. Modern Period ( 19th to 20th Century )
6. Knowledge Based Society ( 21st Century )

6. ANCIENT PERIOD
– Indus valley civilisation
– Vedic period
– Buddhist period

7. INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION
• The civilization happened between the rivers Indus
and Ghaggar Hakra which includes Pakistan and
north western India
• The most important cities among them are
Mohenjo-Daro –(40,000 population).
Harappa - (30,000 population).
• Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa were laid out in
perfect grid patterns.
• The urban plan in Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro, included
the world's first urban sanitation systems.

8. TOWN PLANNING CONCEPT
– Town planning system was first introduced.
– City was the heart of civilization.
– Remarkable drainage and sanitation
systems.(worlds first )
– Street were laid in perfect grid pattern.
– From a room that appears to have been set
aside for bathing, waste water was directed
to covered drains, which lined the major
streets.
Changing
rooms or
bath rooms
Drainage system

9. Mohenjo-Daro
– No fortification.
– Major streets were in the N-S direction.
– Streets within built-up areas were narrow.
– Zoning was distinct for distinct groups,
commerce at the meeting of east road and first
street, near palace.
– City is divided into two parts, the so-called
Citadel and the Lower City.
Mohenjo-Daro –Aerial plan

10. Harappa
Town structure consists of
– Houses had rooms on three sides opening into a central courtyard.
– Many houses had distinct toilets, separate from the bath areas.
– Houses built with a perimeter wall and adjacent houses were
separated by a narrow space of land. Great granaries were built to
store food grains.
– Citadel mound and lower town surrounded by a massive brick wall. It
had square towers and bastions.
– Large public buildings, market areas, large and small houses as well as
craft workshops have been found in the same neighbourhood.
– The most common building materials were mud bricks and baked
bricks, wood and reeds.
– Wells and reservoirs were provided in cities to ensure drinking and
bathing water.
– Outside the city walls a cluster of houses may represent temporary rest
stops for travellers and caravans.
Granaries

11. VEDIC PERIOD
– In Ancient Indian cities, towns and villages were built within the framework of strict rules and
regulations laid down in Hindu Shastras and Puranas.
– The most important books are Silpa Sasthras, Nithisasthra, Smrithisasthras,etc…
– The ‘Manasara’ and ‘Mayamata’ discuss the following stages in Town Planning:
1. Examination of soil (Bhu-Pariksha)
2. Selection of site (Bhumi samgraha)
3. Determination of directions (Dikparichheda)
4. Division of ground to squares (Padavinayasa)
5. The offerings (Balokarama Vidhana)
6. Planning the storeys (Bhumividhana)
7. Buildings and their storeys (Bhumividhana)
8. Construction of gateways (Gopurvidhana)
9. Construction of temples (Nendapavidhana)
10. Construction of royal palaces (Rajavamsmavidhana)

12. Planning in Vedic period
The planning itself has five items, which are as follows:
1. Grama – Sannivesa (village planning)
2. Griha – Vinyasa (house planning)
3. Nagara – Sannivasa (town planning)
4. Durga – Sannivasa (planning of forts)
5. Prasada – Vinyasa (planning of big buildings)

13. Contd.,
– Manasara has classified the villages into eight types called
1. Dandaka
2. Sarvatobhadra
3. Nandya vartha
4. Padmaka
5. Swasthika
6. Prasthara
7. Karmuka
8. Chaturmuka
Each of these types differs from the other in their shape, method
of street planning and location of temples.

14. Dandaka
– Streets are straight and cross each other at
right angles at the centre
– Village has 4 gates on four sides
– village is rectangular/square, width of the
street varies from one five danda
– 2 transverse street at the extremities have
single row of houses have single row of houses.
– The village offices located in the east.

15. SARVATOBHADRA
– This type of town plan is applicable to larger villa
ges and towns, which have to be constructed on
a square sites.
– According to this plan, the whole town should be
fully occupied by house of various descriptions
and in habited by all classes of people
– The temple dominates the village

16. NANDYAVARTA
– This plan is commonly used for the construction of
towns and not for villages.
– It is generally adopted for the sites either circular o
r square in shape.
– The streets run parallel to the central adjoining stre
ets with the temple of the presiding deity in the ce
nter of the town
– “Nandyavarta” is the name of a flower, the form of
which is followed in this layout.

17. PADMAKA
– This type of plan was practiced for building of t
he towns with fortress all round.
– The pattern of the plan resembles the petals of
lotus radiating outwards from the center.
– The city used to be practically an island surroun
ded by water, having no scope for expansion.

18. SWASTIKA
– Swastika type of plan contemplates some diago
nal streets dividing the site into
certain rectangular plots.
– The site need not be marked out into a square
or rectangle and it may be of any shape.
– A rampart wall surrounds the town, with a mot
at its foot filled with water.
– Two main streets cross each other at the center
, running south to north and west to east.

19. PRASTARA
– The characteristic feature of this plan is that
the site may be either square or rectangular
but not triangular or circular.
– The sites are set apart for the poor, the mid
dle class, the rich and the very rich, the sizes
of the sites increasing according to the cap
acity of each to purchase or build upon.
– The main roads are much wider compared t
o those of other patterns.
– The town may or may not be surrounded by
a fort

20. KKARMUKA
– This plan is suitable for the place where the site of th
e town is in the form of a bow or semi‐circular or par
abolic and mostly applied for towns located on the s
eashore or riverbanks
– The main streets of the town run from north to south
or east to west and the cross streets run at right‐ang
les to them, dividing the whole area into blocks.
– Chennai is a example of karmuka

21. CHATURMUKHA
– This type of plan is applicable to all towns
starting from the largest to smallest town to
smallest village.
– The site may be either square or rectangular ha
ving four faces.
– The town is laid out east to west lengthwise, wit
h four main streets.
– The temple of the presiding deity will be always
at the center

22. BUDDHIST PERIOD
– During the period of Emperor Chandragupta Maurya ,Chanakya
was the chief minister who wrote the famous ‘Arthashastra’, a
treatise (formal writing) on Town Planning.
– The excavations carried out at Pataliputra (modern Patna) the
capital of Magadha, show evidence of advance knowledge of
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.
– Most of the houses had gardens with wells and ponds.
– Waste water was carried out by means of underground drainage.
– Taxila (Taksa-sila) and Nalanda were also founded in this period

23. Contd.,
– Nalanda was a renowned place of learning.
– The site Nalanda 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.
NALANDA

24. MEDIEVAL PERIOD
– With the Medieval period the history of human settlement
planning entered a phase of new importance, Trade and commerce
were developed in this period.
– A transition time - Only fortress towns under the patronage of
chieftains and petty rulers could grow.
– Medieval towns, whether in India or anywhere else, were walled,
encircled by an outside moat.
– 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.

25. RENNAISANCE PERIOD
– Renaissance planning was definitely architectural in character with
magnificence of design in place of more militaria and colonial objects.
– Cities like Agra, Delhi were re-developed. Fatehpur-Sikri was entirely
planned.
– Other important thing started in this period was laying of gardens and
parks.
– It was a new trend in planning many ornamental gardens (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.
– The city was considered as a monument or work of art, framed apart from
the surrounding country.
Mughal garden

26. INDUSTRIAL ERA
– In the nineteenth century the Machine age began due to
Industrial Revolution.
– Workers drawn together wherever manufacturing took place.
– Industries and mechanized transportation created rapid growth
of cities. (Growth was unplanned and undirected ).
– Blight in cities and slums appeared. Traffic hazards increased.
– Houses were not built properly, population density was high,
recreational areas lacking and all these lead to urban chaos.
– Ideal concepts proposed were
-- Garden Cities of Tomorrow by Ebenezer Howard in 1898.
-- The City of Tomorrow by Corbusier in 1924.
-- New city pattern by S.E.Sanders and A.S.Raback in 1946.

27. MODERN PLANNING
– Planning and architecture went through a paradigm shift at the
turn of the 20th century.
– The industrialized cities of the 19th century had grown at a
tremendous rate, with the pace and style of building largely
dictated by private business concerns.
– The evils of urban life for the working poor were becoming
increasingly evident
– Around 1900, theorists began developing urban planning
models to mitigate the consequences of the industrial age, by
providing citizens, especially factory workers, with healthier
environments.
– Modern zoning, which enabled planners to legally demarcate
sections of cities for different functions, originated in Prussia,
and spread to Britain, the USA, and Scandinavia. Public health
was cited as a rationale for keeping cities organized.
Chandigarh –
planned urban city

28. KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY
– The strategic components of area-based
development in the Smart Cities Mission
are
– city improvement (retrofitting),
– city renewal (redevelopment) and
– city extension (greenfield development)

29. INFERENCE
– The town planning done in ancient time was central based.
– The important structures were planned at the corner of the town so
the outside people can access it easily.
– The roads were having N-S alignment and hence less glare effect is
observed.
– And roads are planned based on grid-iron pattern.
– Circulation inside the town and outside was provided from all side
– Development of town is done in a way that natural beauty is
maintained.
– Moats were made on outer periphery to provide security. More
green belt and open space were kept
– Social, cultural and religious values were taken care while planning.
– Industries were provided on the outskirts.

30. CONCLUSION
– The concepts used nowadays have evolved through the
ages gives a brief ideas about the settlement patterns
– Proper planning, well connectivity,Ventilation, drainage and
defense was given importance.
– Citadels, temples were located at the center.
– Historic cities were in an orderly manner but only after
Industrialization the situation became pathetic.
– Now the smart city are arrived for urban improvement
,renewal and extension. (like detoxification of the
environment )