History of Town

Planning

Submitted By: SNEHA.S.KUMAR

B.ARCH 3RD YR
150016
 What is Town Planning?
• An art of shaping and guiding the physical growth of the town
creating buildings and environments to meet the various
needs such as social, cultural, economic and recreational etc.
and to provide healthy conditions for both rich and poor to
live, to work, and to play or relax, thus bringing about the
social and economic well-being for the majority of mankind.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVE OF TOWN
PLANNING:
 Evolution of Town:

• Most of the early civilization have sprung on the banks of some navigable

rivers or at any natural port which not only provide security to the town
but also acted as a communicating link from one civilization to another.

• Physical Safety and communication links are the two prime factors
which
lead to the development Of towns.

• The earliest civilizations were seen on the banks of rivers like Nile,
Ganga,Sindhu.
 Development of towns
periodically:

• Towns flourished since prehistoric times in India. Even at

the time of Indus valley civilization, towns like Harappa and
Mohenjo-Daro were in existence.
• The second phase Of urbanization began around 600 BC. It
continued with periodic ups and downs until the arrival of
Europeans in India in 18th century.
• History of town planning in India may be divided into 6
important periods –
• The Ancient Period
• The Vedic Period
• The Pre-medieval Period ( The Mauryas till advent of Mughals)
• The Mughal Rule Period
• The British Colonial Period
• Post- Independence Period
 Ancient Period:

Indus Valley Civilisation

• (3300 BC to 1300 BC)

• Important towns:
Harappa,Mohenjodaro,Dholavira
 Salient features of Indus Valley
Civilization:
• Street Of 9m width divided the city in 12 blocks each Of 365m x 244m.
• Layout of street was based on 'grid-iron' pattern.
• Series of houses were arranged around open-to-sky central court.
• They dependent fully on ventilation and roof lighting.
• Houses with G+I storey made of kiln-brick with complete bathing
establishment.
• City had effective system Of drainage.
• It had a Great bath of 7m width, 12m length and 2.4m depth made of
bricks at bottom and was made waterproof by providing layers Of
bitumen and it formed to be part of ritualistic bathing forming part of
Hindu temple.
 Mohenjo-Daro & Harappa
• Mohenjo-daro has a planned layout based on a street grid of rectilinear
buildings.
• The city is divided into two parts, the so-called Citadel and the Lower
City.
• The city had a central marketplace, with a large central well. Individual
households or groups of households obtained their water from smaller
wells.
• Both Harappa and Mohenjo-daro share relatively the same architectural
layout, and were generally not heavily fortified like other Indus Valley
sites.
• Most houses had inner courtyards, with doors that opened onto side-
lanes. Some buildings had two stories.
• There is a building which was • There is the ruin of a great
used as a public bath. The granary at Harappa
overall dimension of the Bath is measuring 169 fit x 135 fit.
180 feet by 108 feet. The
bathing pool is 39 feet by 23 feet
with 8 feet depth. There is a
device to fill and empty the
water of the bathing pool. There
are galleries and rooms on all
sides of the bathing pool.
• Each house had horizontal and vertical drains. There were
underground drains for the streets. These drains were covered
by stone slabs. The soak pits were made of bricks. The house
drains were connected with road drains.

• Building materials:
There was no stone built house in the Indus cities. Most of
the houses were built of burnt bricks. Most bricks were of a
uniform size.
 Dholvira:
• The layout of the excavated city consisted of a citadel which can be
divided into a "castle" and "a bailey", a middle town, a lower town, two
stadia, an annexe and a series of reservoirs. All of these were set within an
enormous fortification wall running on all four sides.
• The rock-cut reservoir
discovered on the southern side
during the excavations.

• An underground drain. It was more

than 1.3 metres deep and about one
metre wide.
The lower town was divided into
wards like a chess board, by north-
south and east-west arterial roads
and smaller lanes, cutting each
other at right angles, as in a grid
system. 
Although some houses were
larger than others, Indus Civilization
cities were remarkable for their
apparent, if relative, egalitarianism.
All the houses had access to water
and drainage facilities. 
 Vedic Period Town Planning: 
• 2000 BC to 400 BC
• Characterized by the traditional city designed according to
the principles of sacred geometry based on cosmological
theories, viz., 
• Vaasthu Purusha Mandala
• Sthapatya Veda (part of Atharava Veda) - layout of a city
• Smrithi Sastra – Street layouts (micro and macro)
• Vaasthu Sastra –treatise architecture, planning and construction and
design, matters relating to site selection, site planning, and
orientation, quality of soil, water resources, planting of trees and
groves- with towns based on plans ranging from Pechaka Plan ( 4
Squares) to Asana(100 squares)
•  Arthasastra- environment management
•  Mansara Shilpa Sastra- Gram Vidhana and Nagara Vidhana with 4
distinct categories of human settlements
• Mayanata and Vishwakarma Prakara – with the Temple as focal
point (link between the cosmic and the human)  (100 Squares)
Ancient Layouts of Town in
Vedic Period

• Dandaka
• Sarvathobhadra
• Nadyavarta
• Padmaka
• Swastika
• Prastara
• Karmuka
• Chatumukha
 Dandaka
• Dandaka type of town plan provides for two main entrance gates
• Generally adopted for small towns and villages,
• The village offices being located in the east.
• The female deity of the village or the chamadevata will generally
• be located outside the village
• The male deities in the northern portion.
• Grid road
 Sarvathobhadra

• This type of town plan is applicable to larger villages and

towns, which have to be constructed on a square site.
• According to this plan, the whole town should be fully
occupied by houses of various descriptions and inhabited by
all classes of people.
• The temple dominates the village.
 Nadyavarta (Flower Type)
• This plan is commonly used for the construction of towns and not for villages.
• It is generally adopted for the sites either circular or square in shape, with not
less than three thousand houses, but not more than four thousand.
• The streets run parallel to the central adjoining streets with the temple of the
presiding deity in the center of the town.
• "Nandyavada" is the name of a flower, the form of which is followed in this
layout.
 Padmaka(Lotus Flower)

• This type of plan was practiced for building of the 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 surrounded by
water, having no scope for expansion
 Swastika
• Swastika type of plan contemplates some diagonal streets
dividing the site into certain triangular 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 moat at its foot filled with water.
• Two main streets cross each other
at the center, running south to north
and west to east.
 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 middle class, the rich and the very
rich, the sizes of the sites increasing according to the capacity of each to
purchase or build upon.
• The main roads are much wider compared to those of other patterns.
• The town may or may not be surrounded by a fort.
 Karmuka
• This plan is suitable for the place where the site of the town is in the
form of a bow or semi-circular or parabolic.
• Mostly applied for towns located on the seashore or riverbanks.
• The main streets of the town run from north to south or east to west and
the cross streets run at right-angles to them, dividing the whole area into
blocks.
• The presiding deity, commonly a female deity, is installed in the temple
• build in any convenient place.
 Chaturmukha
• Chaturmukha type of plan is applicable to all towns starting from the
largest town to the smallest village.
• The site may be either square or rectangular having four faces.
• The town is laid out east to west lengthwise, with four main streets.
• The temple of the presiding deity will be always at the center.
 The Pre-medieval Period
(Buddhist Period)
• 350 BC- 180 BC
• Important Towns: Pataliputra, Kosambi, Takshashila
• Mainly influenced by Buddhist style of architecture and development. the
famous “Arthashastra”, a treatise of Town Planning.
• Features stated in it were:
• Regulation of zoning depending on communities.
• Highway (Rajamarga) to be parallel to the main cardinal direction.
• Road were aligned in grid-iron form.
• Rajmarga to be not less than 30 ft. or nearly 3 lanes of traffic.
• 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.
• The four main gates were oriented to the cardinal points of the compass and
were wide enough for the elephant to pass through easily.
• Taxila 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 10,000 pupils.
• The libraries were nine storeyed high.
 The Mughal Rule Period
• 1526 AD 70 1707 AD
• Important Towns: Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Lahore, Jodhpur ,Jaipur,
Shahjahanabad
• The entire structure of a town was divided into socially hierarchical
classes controlled by the chieftain or zagirdar .
• In siting towns and cities, Mughals borrowed the Hindu concept of Vaasthu
Sastra, and rectilinear form and pattern, and later influenced with the
Rajput style both in Buildings as well as layouts.
• In later period i.e. during Shah Jehan, Mughal supremacy was at its zenith.
• The urban infrastructure was laid out in a geometric pattern. Shows traces
of both Persian and Hindu traditions of town planning and architecture
with the Persian influence largely accounting for the formalism and
symmetry of the palaces gardens and boulevards.
• The designed infrastructure of Shahjahanabad comprised –
• The fort
• The Friday mosque.
• The other major mosques, including the corresponding waqf properties.
• The two main boulevards.
• The bazaars around the Friday mosque.; The elaborate system of water
channels.; The major gardens and the city wall.
• The arrangement of these planned elements was influenced by certain
site features, which precluded absolute geometry. The streets in
Mughal towns were usually narrow and crooked. However, the major
streets in the new capital were designed as wide and straight.
• The layout of the city walls was based on a geometrical planning; i.e.
to say, a polygonal plan with gateways.
• The city was planned according to hindu planning principles of shilpashastra
from vastushastra.
• The site was placed on a high land as in the shastra and was karmukha or
bow shaped
• The arm of the archer was Chandni Chowk.
• The junction of the two main axes is the most auspicious point in the whole
region and was therefore the red fort.
 British Colonial
• 1857 -1947
Period
• Important towns: Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras
• Colonized most of India in later half of the 19th Century, Industrial
Revolution and changes in transportation dictated town planning in India
• The arrival of the railways accelerated urban growth. 
• The growth of these three cities as the new commercial and
administrative centres was at the expense of other existing urban centres
• they functioned as collection depots for the export of Indian manufactures
such as cotton textiles, leather, iron ore, mica, etc
• Both the architectural style for British buildings in India and town planning
ideas were imported from British.
• For security of the local British populace, Pasturelands and agricultural
fields around the older towns were cleared, and new urban spaces called
“Civil Lines” or areas for “Whites” were set up. 
• Cantonments– places where Indian troops under European command were
stationed – were developed as safe enclaves.
• These areas were separate from but attached to the Indian towns. With broad
streets, bungalows set amidst large gardens, barracks, parade ground and
church.
• Measures regarding sanitation were implemented, Municipalisation began with
enactment of Public Health Act, and building activity in the Indian towns was
regulated
• Underground piped water supply and sewerage and drainage systems were
also put in place around this time. 
•  Concept of British planning in sub continent is –
• Functional efficiency and public health wide
• straight roads
• provision of water and sewage systems
• segregation of land uses
• open space provision
• garden suburbs
• regulation of new development

•  The British Colonial era was the dawn of modern town planning, modern
building byelaws in India.
 Post-Independence Period
• 1947 till Present date
• Important Towns: Chandigarh, Gandhinagar, Bhubaneswar, New Bombay
• New towns were constructed, most famously in Chandigarh,but also in
Bhubaneswar and Gandhinagar, and were meant to embody the spirit of the new
country.
• The government also accommodated hundreds of thousands of migrants from
Partition by building housing in cities like Delhi and Calcutta, building new towns
in Punjab and refugee towns like Faridabad.
• The Post Independence era ushered in Master Plan with a ‘Top Down Approach’.–
• Plans that were basically land use plans with a proposed Circulation network of Ring Roads and
arterial roads thrown in
• with a set of zoning regulations
• building regulations and layout rules- with implementing given to both civic body and the
Development Authority (Considered the ‘Outsider’) and functional bodies like Water Supply and
sewerage board, Housing Board, Industrial Development Corporation, etc.
• But implementation has not been successful since the State Governments
feel it is their right to plan, undertake and regulate development. Thus,
planning and implementation continues to be a ’Top Down Approach’
instead of ‘Bottoms Up Approach’ mandated by the Indian Constitution.