Fenced villages

[thompson at jlc.net]

>Dear list members,
>
>        In a recent book (Ariel Glucklich, _The Sense of Adharma_, New York,
>OUP: 1994) we are told that the communities (grAma) known from Vedic
>literature were usually surrounded by a fence. We don't know how these
>fences looked like except for what can be guessed from later stone rails
>(around stupa complexes for instance). What do we know about such fenced
>villages from post-Vedic and medieval evidence? Is there a good historical
>description of the topography of Indian villages?
>
>Best regards to all,
>
>Mikael Aktor, Research Fellow, cand.phil.
>
Dear Mikael,

Besides the series of books by Wilhelm Rau on Vedic material culture, which
perhaps you are already familiar with, there is an old article by Renou
["La maison védique"in JA 231, 1939].  There is also a recent publication
by Elizarenkova called "'Words and Things' in the Rgveda" which you may not
have run into yet [publ. by Bhandarkar Oriental Research Inst. as part of
the Prof. Gune Memorial Lectures, sixth series, 1995].  She briefly touches
on the Vedic grAma, describing it as more a less a heap of sheds and
awnings, mats and reeds,all very temporary, and sometimes even arranged
around a carriage.  She refers to such primitive material conditions as
reflective of the "material asceticism" of the Vedic Aryans....

Best wishes,
George