An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c21.s1.10

v1.c21.s1.10

Given the ecological variation and geomorphology of the subcontinent the variety in irrigation techniques is, not unexpectedly, large. The Baluchistan area seems to have used a system of *gabarbands*, the channelizing of water and silt from hill streams on to large semiterraced areas. For the Indus valley and the Sind plains in particular it has been suggested that river inundations were used. The spill from the river or its channels flooded the banks and surrounds. The crop was sown at the start of the inundation and harvested with the subsiding of the water. Possibly the fields alongside the river were embanked. There is however so far no archaeological evidence to support this idea, feasible as it may sound. In w. India bunds, or earthworks, were constructed for minor irrigation; an example of this can be seen in the vicinity of DEVNIMORI. Terrace agriculture appears to have been more common in the Deccan. In Megalithic times there is evidence of catchment areas serving as tanks which perhaps developed into the building of earthworks and bunds to enclose tanks. Tank irrigation predominates in historical times in s. India with, to a lesser extent, canal irrigation [cf. 4.14]. At Vanagiri near KĀVERĪPATTINAM there is evidence of a sluice with rounded walls to control the supply of water. In the Ganga valley wells are likely to have been main sources of irrigation, giving way to tanks in the e. areas. The major technological innovation related to well-irrigation was the use of the Persian wheen which became current in the later half of the 1st millennium A.D. Literary sources also refer to the use of river channels and their damming. Perhaps the most significant irrigation work of early historical times for which archaeological identification has been suggested is the dam on the lake Sudarśana near Junagadh, originally constructed during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya and subsequently repaired at various intervals. The canal said to have been built by the Nanda kings and referred to in the Hathigumpha. [UDAYAGIRI-KHANDAGIRI inscription of Khāravela has yet to be identified.]