Local Government in Ancient India c13.143

c13.143

Another source of material well-being, next to land, is the public works of utility for which the assembly assumed considerable responsibility and created a special department. The Public Works Department of the rural administration was the tank committee of the assembly. The arrangements for the water supply both for wealth and health were provided for by the construction of wells and tanks, channels and canals, sluices and embankments, as mentioned in the inscriptions. Some of these public works were provided out of private benefactions, as we have already seen. When necessary, the assembly, as has been noted, exercised their land acquisition rights to obtain the land required for such works. In one case, an irrigation bank being breached, it was strengthened and broadened by taking slices of adjoining lands belonging to private proprietors who were given due compensation. These agencies for irrigation and water-supply were of course maintained by taxation, and the distribution of the water was carefully controlled by the assembly. The general rule was that water was to be taken to a field ‘in the manner that it flowed’, i.e. along the lines of its natural course. Violations of this rule and attempts to modify the water-course in any one’s favour were fined. Wet lands were classified into five kinds (called *kaṉāṟṟu*, *śadiram*, *śiragu*, *śadukkam*, *pāḍagam*) according to their share of the general water. They could be distinguished from one another by the main or sub-channels that irrigated them, and these channels were further distinguished by their designations after the names of kings, princes, nobles, and other high personages (e. g. *Vāykkāl*, *Narāyam*, *Nārāsam*). It was thus quite easy for revenue officers to locate the plots of lands from the descriptions recorded in their books giving these particulars. Besides water rates, special taxes were also levied to maintain the public works. We have already cited an instance of a tank committee levying a special impost for the tank bund (no. 23 of 1893). A Nellore inscription refers to a gift for the construction of rest-houses for travellers. Among village public works was also included the upkeep of the pasture land (*go-pracāra-bhūmi*, *S. I. I.*, vol. II, part I, no. 22), and of roads (no. 9 of 1898).