Fenced villages

[LGoehler at aol.com]

In einer eMail vom 07.10.1996  22:01:43, schreiben Sie:

>>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 vedique"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
>
>

For the time of the BrAhmaNas it may also be worth reading Klaus Mylius: *Die
gesellschaftliche Entwicklung Indiens in jungvedischer Zeit nach den
Sanskritquellen*, published in a series of articles in
Ethnographisch-Archaeologische Zeitschrift, Berlin 2/12 (1971), 3/13 (1972),
3/14 (1973), 3/15 (1974)


Lars Goehler