Abstract:

For a long time, people studying ancient Indian buildings have mainly looked at the art and symbols in temples and stupas. This is important for learning about art and religion, but it has hidden the bigger story of how ordinary people lived. This paper says that buildings are not just old objects. They are real clues that can help us understand the social life of ancient India. If we stop looking only at big temples and palaces and instead look at simple homes, markets, and streets, we can learn a lot. We can see who was rich and who was poor, how people worked and traded, how different religions lived together, and what life was like for men and women. From the planned cities of the Indus Valley, to the hero stones in the Deccan, to the Brahmin villages called agraharams in Tamil Nadu, all types of buildings show us how society was set up. But there is a problem. Most simple houses were made of mud and wood, so they did not survive. The buildings we still see today mostly belonged to kings and rich people. Still, if we use buildings along with old writings and inscriptions, we can write a better history of ancient India, one that includes everyone and shows how people really lived.

Keywords:

Social History, Urban Planning, Social Stratification, Temple Economy & Vastu Sastra.

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