Town Planning

MADURAI
TA M I L N A D U , I N D I A

To- By-
Ar. Jagrati Vaidya Patil Brajesh Bathri
Ar. Poorvee Khargonkar Ojas Varshney
Praneet Chelawat
Priyank Gupta
Siddharth Jain
Syamdeepak
 TOWN PLANNING
The old city of Madurai is
considered to be designed
according to the Rajdhani plan,
described in Manasara, one of
the Shilpasastra, and has the
fivefold concentric rectangular
formation with Meenakshi-
Sundareshwara Temple at a very
centre point. The city was a well
planned one with bazaars and
many broad streets with high
and luxurious mansions on both
sides. The city was built around
the temple complex as the focal
point with a combination of a
concentric street pattern.
STREET CONNECTIVITY AND PATTERN

The streets concentric to the temple complex formed the

major streets viz., Chithirai Streets, Avani Moola Streets and
Masi Streets. The next order of streets is perpendicular to the
above streets and lead to the temple entrances. The
developments within and beyond these streets are on an
irregular pattern. A definite hierarchy of street pattern was
adopted with the width of the Streets decreasing as they
branched out, ending up in stone paved streets and lanes - the
width of some being just 0.60 m. The entire city was
enclosed within the fort walls and surrounded by a moat. The
fort walls have been razed down and the moat filled up to
form the present day Veli Streets.
 SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION

The settlement pattern of Madurai is planned according to the

ancient system of town planning which is based on caste and
occupational hierarchies. The map shows the present
settelemnt pattern and its relavance with the ancient town
planning system. Ancient south indian temple towns are
designed by placing the temple complex at the centre with
concentric rectangle pattern of streets around. This can be seen
in another southern temple town srirangam also.
THE CENTER -MEENAKSHI TEMPLE
In Madurai, Meenakshi Amman Temple is at the
center. Royal Palaces, Brahmins and Priests at the
first concentric rectangle.Traders, Kishatriyas and
Vaishnavaites on the second rectangle. The lower
caste Sudras and immigrants zoarashitrains in the
third rectangle.
PLANNING

The central market is in

the north-east corner of the
temple.
 There are several such places –in and around the
old city of Madurai.
• Puthu Mandapam
IMPORTANT PLACES • Khadi Craft
• Historical Residences
• Theatre Halls
Other Important Landmarks
Listed above are very few places that hold back a
strong history. Though the structures are
demolished and modified, the history is still
remembered by the natives of the city.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/fresh-perspectives/a593-how-to-revital
ize-the-perisihing-lifeline-of-the-city-madurai
• Study development plan .pdf
• Studyofcityevolution-Madurai.pdf
• Ancient and medieval town planning in India by Prabhakar v. begde
• Building planning designing and scheduling book