Preliminaries (a): Regional Planning

This subject of the preliminaries is principally consisted of surveying of the region or regional planning, the site-planning including the examination of the land, testing of the soils and the selection of the site thereof, the levelling of the ground or Bhūkarṣaṇa along with the germination on the plot and offerings, the Balidāna etc. etc. Accordingly let us begin with the regional planning, the first prerequisite of the town-planning.

The planning of a town, a habitation, villages, fort, city or any other variety of group-residences, should take into account its location first—situation and surroundings, climate and soils, vicinity and frontiers. To put it in one word, the Town Planning pre-supposes the planning of the country, the Deśa or more correctly the regional planning—(the deśabhūmis) i.e. surveying the region on which the town is to be planned out.

The first essential of town-planning, according to the Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra, is the survey of the soil conditions and their examination.

In its chapter entitled ‘Bhū-Parīksā’, the 8th, the Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra divides the land (deśa) into three varieties:—

1. Jāṅgala,
2. Anūpa and
3. Sādhāraṇa (Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra 8.2).

The land almost barren, where well water is too far to be accessible, the wind is dry, hot and violent, and the soil is black in colour is called Jāṅgala. The region, opposite to the one described, full of water easily accessible from the wells, with beautiful landscape and cool climate, fish and meat in abundance, with rivers all round, plentiful trees, lofty and full of verdure is called Anūpa.

A combination of these two characteristics, viz. climate moderate—neither too hot nor too cold, is called Sādhāraṇa, or i.e., having common qualities of both of them.

The above classification is with reference to climate and geological formation. The Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra further classifies the Land (deśa-bhūmis) into as many as sixteen varieties based more or less on human and cultural as well as natural factors.

They are as follows:—

1. Bāliśasvāminī—Easy to be administered and inhabited by good people—bhadrajana.
2. Bhogyā—Fit for all worldly enjoyments, everything in plenty and people glowing with riches.
3. Sitāgocararakṣiṇī—With adequate natural resources like rivers, lakes and mountains and well-knit frontiers.
4. Apāśrayavatī—With fearful surroundings and devoid of human habitations.
5. Kāntā—With charming and beautiful landscape allround.
6. Khanimatī—Abundant in mineral resources.
7. Ātmadhāriṇī—With abundance of freedom and hard to be administered.
8. Vaṇikprasādhitā—With commercial centres and trades in full swing.
9. Dravyasampannā—Rich in trees of superior quality.
10. Amitraghātinī—With people in complete accord to each other, living in well divided Janapadās.
11. Āśreṇīpuruṣā—With no captives and inhabited by gentle folk.
12. Śakyasāmantā—Where Sāmantas are lethargic and reluctant towards the statecraft (Mantra and Utsāha etc.).
13. Devamātṛkā—With agriculture blooming, the rivers in plenty; not depending on the rain water.
14. Dhānyā—With easy, excessive and plentiful harvests, and where ploughing is not necessary.
15. Hastivanopetā—Where mountains are on all sides, and where the forests are full of elephants.
16. Surakṣā—Unconquerable by the enemies on account of the natural barriers.