Fenced villages

[Mikael Aktor]

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.

Department of History of Religions, University og Copenhagen,
Njalsgade 80, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark.

Phone: (45) 3532 8954 - Fax: (45) 3532 8956 - E-mail: aktor at coco.ihi.ku.dk