ABSTRACT
In the modern period there has been a lively controversy on the rise and decline of urban settlements in Europe. Some of the writers have taken the towns of entire Asia as one kind. Henry Pirenne and Maurice Dobb had connected the emergence of distant commerce and the decline of Feudalism in Europe with the rise of towns. The later debate between Maurice Dobb and Paul Sweezy came round the view that the position of urban settlements was outside the pale of Feudalism although no definite conclusion could be reached. The European view based on the letters of the mid-seventeenth century French traveller Francois Bernier postulate that the Indian towns were mostly military camps and agglomeration of villages. Max Weber modified these views slightly and stated that the Indian towns were symbols of royal power or had grown from the market. It may be mentioned that in their times the knowledge on Indian towns was very limited. For further discussion, see two excellent articles of J.S. Grewal and Satish Chandra in Indu Banga (ed. 1991).
