Selection of case diagrams - Simulation and analysis

3. Simulation and analysis

3.4 Selection of case diagrams

Among the fifteen types of Vedic Villages mentioned in the previous chapter, ‘Town Planning in Ancient India, 1925’ by Binode Behari Dutt presents the schematic diagram for eight villages: Dandaka, Sarvatobhadra, Prastara, Swastika, Chaturmukha, Nandyavarta, Padmaka, and Karmuka. Although the first five types of these villages have orthogonal street patterns, the principle for laying out street for Padmaka and

81 Karmuka is omnidirectional. Also, there are three diagrams for Nandyavarta; for square, rectangular and circular shaped settlements; which makes the total number of diagrams to be ten (Figure: 2.4). The diagram for circular settlement is also omnidirectional and have radial cadastral network. For simulating environmental performance, this research considers the diagrams with layout that provide specific cardinal direction. Therefore, omnidirectional diagrams have not been considered for study and hence, Padmaka, Karmuka and the circular diagram for Nandyavarta were not selected as case diagrams. Among the orthogonal diagrams, the plot division principle for Chaturmukha is geometrically the same (although, the Padavinyasa is different in many other terms) as Sarvatobhadra for which it was not considered for studying environmental performance in order to avoid repetition.

Through the above process of elimination, six case diagrams have been selected with orthogonal street and plot division: Dandaka, Sarvatobhadra, Nandyavarta (for square and settlement), Nandyavarta (for rectangular settlement), Prastara and Swastika. The diagrams even have direction towards the east.

From the discussion regarding bounding condition from the previous chapter, we find that Mayamata suggests the length of the settlements to be 2, 1¾, 1½, 1¼, 1¹^⁄₆^,1¹^⁄₈or 1 times the breadth. For this particular research, the ratio for length to breadth has been considered to be 2:1, 1½:1 and 1:1; which are the two marginal and one mean value of the suggested proportions. The bounding conditions also suggest that the shortest length of a quadrangular village or any settlement has been found to be 300 dandas (equivalent to 548.78m). Taking this length into account, the area of a square settlement is calculated to be 90,000 square dandas or 301,159.48 sq.m. Considering this as the base area, the length and width of the settlements with the above selected ratios 2:1, 1½:1 and 1:1 are deducted (rounded to meters) to be 780m x 390m (426 dandas x 213 dandas), 675m x 450m (369 dandas x 246 dandas) and 548m x 548m (300 dandas x 300 dandas) respectively. A 9 dandas (15 m) wide moat has been considered at the periphery of the settlements. No walls has been considered as walls were not a mandatory feature as bounding condition for Vedic villages as they were for towns and cities. Various length to breadth ratio for a single type of village will be useful to compare the environmental performance between deeper and linear settlements.

82 The two principal streets, the Brahmavithi and Mahakalavithi along with the Mangalavithi has been considered to be 5 dandas wide, which is equivalent to 9m. All the other streets, the Rajapatha, Vamanapatha, Vithi and Marga has been considered to be 2 dandas or 4m wide. The Rajapatha and Vamanapatha for Dandaka has been considered to be 3 dandas or 6m wide as the description suggests.

Given the above information, fifteen settlement patterns has been generated from the selected six case diagrams. Dandaka, Sarvatobhadra, Prastara and Swastika; each of these diagrams produce three settlement patterns with the above mentioned ratios. A single settlement pattern with length to width ratio1:1 has been generated from Nandyavarta diagram for square settlement and two patterns has been produced from Nandyavarta diagram for rectangular settlement. The settlement pattern generation process involved laying out the streets and dividing the plots; which are two essential elements of the ‘Capital Web’; following the proportions of the diagrams and incorporating the above mentioned measurements.

A coding system has been followed to identify and classify the streets in each settlement pattern in easier manner. As all the settlement patterns are orthogonal and essentially symmetric (except Prastara), the patterns are divided into four equal quarters: North- East (NE), South-East (SE), South-West (SW) and North-West (NW). The central roads, Brahmavithi and Mahakalavithi are termed as BrV and MhV. The peripheral road Mangalavithi is termed as MngV. The other streets are categorized according to their orientation. The streets elongated towards east-west direction (Rajapatha, which in short this research will refer as RP) are numbered with alphabets and the streets elongated towards north-south direction (Vamanapatha, n short VP) are numbered with numerals. The streets closer to the center of the pattern (as well as the central streets along both cardinal axes) have the beginning character and this character, in association with the quarter initials indicate the position of the street. For example, SE-2 indicates the second north-south oriented street (Vamanapatha) from the center of a settlement pattern as well as the Mahakalapatha of the same and residing on the South-East quarter. Similarly, NW-C indicates the third east-west oriented street (Rajapatha) from the center of a settlement pattern as well as the Brahmavithi and residing on the North- West quarter. All the settlement patterns are presented in figure 3.8-3.12.