The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11.t14.4

c11.t14.4

Sûyyâ's operations ultimately changed the very topography of the country. (Through technical skill he succeeded in making the different streams "move about according to his will" "just as a snake-charmer does with the snakes". A new confluence of the Vitastâ with its most important tributary, the Sindhu, was artificially created by the engineer's genius, and "it will last" says Kalhana, "to the end of the world". Sûyyâ also constructed stone-embankments for about thirty miles along the Vitastâ and dammed in the waters of the Mahâpadma. Having "raised the land from the water" he founded several villages. As the water was kept by means of circular dykes the villages looked like round bowls. The previous dependence of the locality on rainfall was thus rendered unnecessary through an achievement of the human brain.)