An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c19.s7.4

v1.c19.s7.4

Inscriptions of s. India are full of references to the construction of tanks, canals and channels and their administrative control and upkeep during the early as well as later historical periods. The feeding channels connecting the Parameśvarataṭāka of the Pallava king Parameśvara (c. 672-700) and the Uyyakonda irrigation channel in Dt Tiruchirappalli of Rājarāja I (985-1013) are examples extant even now. So is a large network of canals (*kāluvas*) and sluices (*tūmus*), like the Kollipaka (*Vaṁśavardhana-kāluva*), Lempaka (*Rāual-Sahasramalla-kāluva*) of the times of Kākātīyas, the Koragal channel from the Tungabhadra and the Basavanna channel of the Vijayanagara monarch Śrī Kṛṣṇadevarāya. They are mostly feeder and irrigational canals with sluices, their maintenance and administration alike vesting in hydraulic engineers known as *jalasūtradas* (Yazdani, 1960, p. 679).