Transcript Origin of the City 2

PRE-MODERN URBANIZATION
Region
Location
Approximate date
Mesopotamia
Tigris and Euphrates
3900 BC
Rivers
Egypt
Nile River Valley
3200 BC
India
Indus River Valley
2400 BC
Eastern Mediterranean
Create
1600 BC
China
Yellow River Valley
1600 BC
Mexico
Yucatan Peninsula
200 BC
CULTURAL HORIZONS OF INDIA
Mesolithic
Neolithic
Pre-Harappan
Harappan
Late-Harappan
6000-4000 BC
4000-3000 BC
3000-2500 BC
2500-1900 BC
1900-1400 BC
Other Chalcolithic cultures outside Harappan culture
Copper Hoards / Ochre Colored Pottery 1800-1400
BC
Southern Chalcolithic
1800-1000
BC
Eastern Chalcolithic
1500-1000
BC
CULTURAL HORIZONS OF INDIA
(CONTINUED)
Megalithic cultures
1200-200 BC
Painted Grey Ware
1100-600 BC
Northern Black Polished Ware culture 800-200 BC
Recorded History
 500 BC
Historic period
500 BC-300
AD
Gupta period
300-600 AD
Post-Gupta period
600-1100 AD
Medieval period
1100-1800
AD
British period
1800-1947
AD
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Archeologically demonstrable urbanization had
reached the middle Ganges valley extending
eastward by 500 BC if not earlier. Throughout
the traditional story of Buddha’s life we
encounter description of capital cities like
Kapilavastu, Rajagriha, Kausambi, Vaishali,
Benaras.
THE EASTWARD MOVEMENT OF URBAN
CIVILIZATION IN THE SUB-CONTINENT
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Mahenjodaro 3000-1500 B.C.E.
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Hastinapur 1500-1000 B.C.E.
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Kausambi 1000-500 B.C.E.
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Mainamati 500-1 B.C.E.
DISSOCIATION FROM NATURE AND QUEST
FOR SALVATION: AN URBAN QUESTION?
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It has been pointed out that the spiritual problem that Buddhism
addresses depicted a quintessentially urban problem.
When prince Siddhartha is faced with social inequality, hunger,
poverty, disease he sees other’s suffering from the point of view of the
social superior. He comes up with an urban response: suffering comes
from desire, eliminate desire and there is no suffering.
Now this can never be the response of a farmer. To produce food and
for the civilization one cannot be perturbed by birth, life and death.
Nature teaches the farmer that everything is forever cyclical and we
cannot seek fundamental truths of a mortal universe.
Buddha’s disciples are also primarily urban people, kings, queens,
merchants and artisans. The audience is urban audience who do not
understand the timelessness of the natural world. They are divorced
from the nature by high civilization and therefore have the leisure to
be perturbed by such spiritual dilemmas.
THE PRE-MODERN CITIES OF INDIA
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The rise of the city was river centric. They were
also the sacred spots—Hardwar, Benaras,
Allahabad.
Apart from flowing waters what was necessary
was surplus.
In the Harappan cities each had about 35,000
inhabitants. After 1400 BCE the Harappan
urban centres collapsed and there was regression
to villages.
AFTER A MILLENIUM (FIFTH TO THIRD
BCE)
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Frenetic urbanization begins in the Gangetic
valley
In South India urbanization begins a little later
but between third century BCE and third century
CE there are host of port cities. They had trade
relations with the Mediterranean.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ANCIENT CITIES
Ptolemy’s (AD 127-151) writings and Buddhist
texts are good sources of descriptions of ancient
cities.
 In the Buddhist texts the term for city in Pali is
thira (sthira, in Sanskrit) which means stable,
durable.
 The city was defined as buildings surrounded by
a wall with gates and towers, and a deep moat.
The city was characterized by well laid out
streets, crossroads, and places where business
was transacted.
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A treatise on architecture in Sanskrit edited
between sixth to eighth centuries A.D. states that
circumvallation and fortification were
constructed for most cities.
This made the word fort interchangeable with
the word city.
The text recognized eight types of urban
settlement.
NAGARA
A commercial centre with many merchants and
markets serving a large population.
 Circumvallation with gate-towers along with
barracks and guard-houses appear to connect
commerce with military power.
 Many temples and religious communities.
 Not an administrative centre but rather a
religious and commercial settlement.
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PURA
Pura—commercial city but of lesser means, more
like a bazzar where buyer and seller meet and
bargain among petty peddlers.
 It is a fortified place though militarily not
significant.
 Agriculture was undertaken to some extent.
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NAGARI
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A city that incorporates both political and
commercial importance with the king’s palace in
the centre of the city.
PATTANA
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A commercial city which was fortified with a
population of various castes and with a location
providing easy access to waterways linking it to
foreign lands and thus allowing considerably
more import and export trade than in other
examples cited.
RAJDHANI
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The capital city generally located in the interior
on the banks of a river. It was stipulated that the
king should live in the middle of the rajdhani.
KHETA
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A small town where residents were of low caste
(shudras). It was circumvallated with a river
nearby. If could be located in the mountains.
KHARVATA
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A town located in the hills near pasture land, the
population included varied castes.
KUBJAKA
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Settlement with heterogeneity in its population
and an absence of circumvallation resulting in a
lack of fortification.
It is possible that kubjaka, kharvata, kheta grew
out of villages in the trade routes approaching
the larger urban areas.
MUGHAL CITIES
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French travelers of this period have mentioned the
beauty of cities like Delhi and Agra.
The difference between the European cities and these
cities was that while the European cities with large
workshops were centres of production, Indian cities
seemed to have substantial numbers of craftsmen
catering specifically to the royal court. On a royal tour
the residents of the city also had to move because
they made their living by supplying goods to the
court.
This report described these cities like a military
encampment. Bur this was applicable only to cities
like Delhi and Agra in the seventeenth century. It
was an exception rather than rule.