History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c24.s6.50

v1.c24.s6.50

Large scale canal work in India is evidenced only from the early Muslim times. The absence of a regular term for a canal in Sanskrit would create the impression that canals were not much in vogue in ancient India (Laping 1978, pp. 4-5). The term praṇālī occurs in the Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela. This is the earliest epigraphic reference to an aqueduct dug out (oghātita) by king Nanda (possibly Mahāpadma) three hundred years earlier. But praṇālī may refer to a narrow water course and not to a large canal (Sircar 1966, p. 256). In the Arthaśāstra (III. 8.21,23) also the term implies a channel, a drain, a small water-course, a trench for sanitation or rain-water.