Technology and Culture

Book Reviews 301 is supplemented by photographs of actual armor, which clarify the text, and by illustrations from contemporary books. For example, plates 33-34 show sixteen views of the order of arming a samurai in the manner of the Momoyama period (1568-1600). These drawings, as well as the colored frontispiece, are from the Yoroi-Chakuyo no shidai. The three appendixes deal, respectively, with the colors of armor lac­ ing; the Myochin schol of armorers 1500-1940; and types of helmet, from the Buyô-Ben-Riaku, illustrated by seventy drawings. Up to the present, the emphasis has been on the technical aspects of the sword rather than of armor. The two studies are interrelated and are of con­ siderable importance to students of technology, especially of metalwork. Stephen V. Grancsay* History of Road Development in India. New Delhi: Central Road Research Institute, 1964. Pp. viii-)-116. Illustrations. Maps. Photo­ graphs. Rs. 7.50. This is a scholarly work of importance to historians and highway technologists who wish to understand the misty past as well as the development of the current road systems in India. Only a national organization like the C.R.R.I. could compile such a publication from its vast resources and know-how accumulated from painstaking re­ search and investiagtions. As Professor S. R. Mehra, director of the Institute, observes in his Foreword, this study took some four years to compile, and in this work Gyan Prakash Batta, an officer of the Insti­ tute, shouldered the full responsibility under the direct supervision of the director. To present a clear picture of road development over several thousand years, the text is divided into two parts. The first, covering some thirty pages, deals with the Indian road system from time immemorial to the end of the medieval era, that is, around the seventeenth century. The second part surveys the modern era of highway planning and construction, including a critical appraisal of the existing systems. Although a mere thirty pages would scarcely seem to do justice to the history of road evolution, very substantial material is packed in here, and everything worth knowing is presented carefully and authori­ tatively. The story of road systems really begins with the migration of Aryans into India some 5,000 years back, because little is known of events prior to that period, except that the original inhabitants had used the wooden wheel on hardened road surfaces as a means of trans­ portation. In time, society spread over the plains of the Ganges down south, and by the fourth century b.c. magnificent routes were travers­ * Mr. Grancsay is Curator Emeritus, Department of Arms and Armor, the Metro­ politan Museum of Art. 302 Book Reviews ing the whole land from east to the northeast. The two fine maps depict the routes in ancient and medieval India and show how pro­ gressively the country was crisscrossed with a transport system. It was in the Mauryan age, that is, the fourth to the second century b.c., that a new revival of transport and trade was noticed. For the first time, highways and byways were developed known as “Rajapathas” and “Banikapathas,” respectively, and the Mauryan rulers showed them­ selves to be able road-builders. The Gupta period, during which added impetus was forcefully given to all land routes by extending them further, followed. It was not, however, until the Mughal empire established itself dur­ ing the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that the final road system in India was firmly founded. During the Mughal reign, roads were macadamized and surfaced, and from then onward started the modern systems. The text, apart from surveying these routes and developments, gives the scientific characteristics of ancient roads and city streets, which are well worth studying. Complete specifications are given for various road widths depending on the type of road, that is, chariot roads, royal roads, roads leading to forests, etc. Distances were measured in krosa and yojna, 4 krosas being equal to one yojna, which is about 4.8 miles. The road widths were specified in danda or dhanu, 1,000 dhanus being equal to 1 krosa. The paramanu, the lowest unit, was conceived as an atom. After the fall...