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Urban hierarchies, typologies and classification in early medieval India: c. 750–1200

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2009

Renu Thakur
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Abstract

Architectural treatises and inscriptional evidence from buildings, artefacts and monuments are used to identify the different terms ascribed to urban settlements in medieval India. These sources reveal the diversity of terms used to describe towns and cities, and accordingly the diversity of functions associated with them. The linguistic variations employed indicate how urban functions changed over time, and convey contemporary perceptions of an urban hierarchy based on a functional classification or typology of towns.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , April 1994 , pp. 61 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Dr Laxman Singh Thakur and Dr Chetan Singh for their comments on an eariier draft.

References

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22 Rajadhani is a heavily populated place, with a royal palace situated in the middle of the kingdom. See Mayamata, ch. x, 19, 21–6.Google Scholar The Manasara also refers to rajadhani as having the king's palace in the centre inhabited by the wealthy people and laid out on the banks of the river, ch. x, 44–7. However, the Aparajitaprccha does not refer to rajadhani. In this text pura served as 3 capital town (ch. II, 17) and nagara as residence (nivesa) of small rulers (nrpa), ch. LXX, 1. The Samaranganasutradhara refers to rajadhani as the chief seat of a king, see ch. XVIII, 2.

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56 This term is frequently used in the context of south Indian cities from the tenth century onwards. In the earlier texts we do not find any reference to rajadhani-pattana.

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63 Epigraphia Indica, vol. XIX, 52ffGoogle Scholar; Tattanandapura was an important urban settlement of early medieval period and is confirmed by archæology as well, Archæological Survey of India, Annual Report, 1925–26, 56–8. The mound at Ahar covers a total area of 3,800 acres.

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