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ESTE SA
SWT
CHAPTER V
IN THE TOWN
W E have, unfortunately, no detailed description
VV of the outward appearance of an ancient city. We are told of lofty walls, and strong ram. parts with buttresses and watch-towers and great gates; the whole surrounded by a moat or even a double moat, one of water and one of mud. In a bas-relief on the Sanchi tope, dating from the second or perhaps the third century B.C., we have a repre. sentation of such city walls, and it is very probable that in earlier times the fortifications were often similar in kind. But we are nowhere told of the length of the fortifications or of the extent of the space they enclosed. It would seem that we have to think, not so much of a large walled city, as of a fort surrounded by a number of suburbs. For there is frequent mention of the king, or a high official, going out of the city when he wants to take an afternoon's pleasure jaunt. And froin the equally frequent men. tion of the windows of the great houses opening directly on to the streets or squares, it would appear that it was not the custom to have them surrounded
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Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
