An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c19.s14.2

v1.c19.s14.2

In peninsular India much of the irrigation right from the Neolithic period [4.6.7-10] was by means of rainwater ponds and water-reservoirs, while in the n. the stress was more on ‘regulation canals’, linked to the rivers, which were largely perennial but were also perilous. In the s. one notices a sudden emergence without any antecedents of such traits as the construction of megaliths and reservoir irrigation [4.17]. The farming systems crystallized in the n. in the early part of the second half of the 1st millennium B.C., as seen from the references to dams (*setu*) in the *Dharma-śāstras* and *Artha-śāstra* and evidenced by the existence of a large rain-fed reservoir of the NBPW period [4.16] at ROPAR. They descended deep into the s. and set a model to the early rulers like the Cera-Coḷas, Pāṇḍyas and Pallava-Kadambas, not to speak of the Sātavāhanas. Site 93 of NAGARJUNAKONDA, under the Ikṣvākus, ‘had two ornamental tanks, provided with underground drains, besides a number of wells and paved cisterns .... The square stepped tank with arrangement for overflow of water—the extra water was diverted through a passage on the top joining a very long underground drain—had originally a wooden superstructure adorned internally with lamps, hooks, and so on .... Close to it on the s. was a tortoise-shaped tank connected with an underground drain on either side with two square wells and soak-pits.’ (Sarkar and Misra, 1972, p. 20).