Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c8.98

c8.98

Irrigation. Irrigation, which meteorology served or pretended to serve is one of the prime cares of the state, and is in the charge of a distinct department. Kautalya mentions four methods of irrigation—drawing water by hand, carrying it on shoulders, or by some mechanical contrivance; or, still more dexterously, by raising it from tanks and rivers. The charges were to be a fifth, a fourth, a third, and a fourth of the produce of the irrigated soil. respectively. There were canals, big and small, with bridges and embankments. Every big canal seems to have had smaller branches supervised by a staff of overseers. It is interesting to recall that in the 4th century B.C., Megasthenes noted that in the Mauryan empire, the officers were wont to measure the land as in Egypt, and inspect sluices by which water is distributed into the branch canals, so that every one may enjoy his fair share of the benefit.¹ All tanks were sacrosanct. He who cut the dam of a tank full of water, was to be drowned into it. To damage an empty tank or one in ruins, brought the highest and middle amercements, respectively. A fine of *paṇas* was inflicted for hindering the flow of water in a canal, or for letting it out otherwise than through the sluice gate.² The same desire to protect agricultural interests produced the rule that those who set fire to pasture lands, fields, yards prepared for threshing grains, or houses or forests should be consigned to the flames they had kindled.³