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History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c32.s1: Historical Background

History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c32.s1

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Historical Background

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Irrigation is the artificial application or method of supplying water to crops in countries where the rainfall is insufficient or comes in the wrong season. There are two types of irrigation, natural and artificial. The former is obtained through rivers, lakes, springs and rainfall and the latter type is by human effort in the form of excavated tanks, lakes, pools, wells, dams, embankments, etc. These two systems of irrigation were in vogue in India from the earliest times. The pre-historic food-gatherers of India turned out to be “International producers” in the Neolithic age itself (Krishnaswami, 1959, p.1).

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That the inhabitants of the Indus Valley riparian culture that had sprung and vanished at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa practised agriculture as the main industry is amply evidenced by the existence of food grains like wheat, barley, seasame, peas, etc. The cultivation of such food stuffs was made possible with the help of fertile alluvial soil, rather a heavy monsoon and the perennial waters of the Indus. They cultivated the winter crops such as wheat and barley with a system of irrigation. Raikes admits on the basis of hydrological studies that “winter irrigation requires the construction of barrages and large canals” (Raikes, 1984, pp. 455-60).

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The pre-historic sites explored by the Indo-French Mission recently in Rajasthan desert displayed “a distribution pattern showing that they were certainly located along with branches of irrigation canals as they were in lines not necessarily following the Palaco-channel of Chautang (river Dṛṣāvati)” (IAR, 1986, p. 97). Moreover, the method adopted by the Harappans was seasonal damming of the rivers on the smaller branches. These barrier dams would have inundated the lands thereby depositing the fertile silt on the smaller river banks. The soil was cleverly extracted and utilised by them for their soil requirements. This barrier-dam irrigation system was subsequently destroyed by the invaders (Kosambi, 1975, p. 75). This is well documented in a number of hymns addressed to Indra in the *Rgveda*. Hence, the technique of flood-irrigation was known to them. The pottery specimens with deep grooves found at Mohenjo-daro suggest the possibility of their being lashed to a wheel for raising water for irrigation. The discovery of a large number of wells at the same place shows that water was mainly derived from them for domestic and other purposes.

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In the Vedic period water was given the utmost importance. The *Rgveda* (VII. 49.2) recognises four main sources of water, viz., waters which come from the sky or rain-water; those which flow in rivers and streams; those which are obtained by digging and those which ooze out from springs. Similarly, the *Yajurveda* (XXII. 25) identifies different types of waters from diverse sources. This amply implies that the vedic farmers were aware of and practised two types of irrigation, natural and artificial.

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The method of collecting water from rivers and catchment areas in the hilly tract and carrying it through canals (*kulyā*) to distant areas was known to them. Moreover, they sought to supplement the rainfall and canal waters by digging wells (*avaṭa*). Water-lifting devices such as *aśma-cakra* and *ghaṭa-yantra* were made use of for lifting water from deep and large wells.

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In the pre-Mauryan period, irrigation from rivers and canals were practised as before. Construction of irrigation works was considered to be an act of religious and social duty. In the *Sabhāparva* (Section V) of the *Mahābhārata* (Roy, p. 14), we find Nārada asking Yudhisthira thus: “Are large tanks and lakes constructed all over thy kingdom at proper distances, without agriculture being in thy realm entirely dependent on the showers of heaven? The interesting part of the Hāthigumpha inscription (*EI*, XX, No. 9, pp. 86-87) of Khāravela (1st cen. A.D.) is the extension at great cost of an ancient canal from the Tosali road. The canal was originally dug by king Nanda of Magadha who conquered Kalinga even before Aśoka and the Mauryans.

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During the Mauryan period much importance was shown to agriculture and irrigation facilities by the State. Although there is only one instance of the State organised irrigation, the construction of a large reservoir, Sudarsana lake, by Puṣyagupta, (the governor of Candragupta) and later completed with a canal system by Tusapa, the Yavana governor of Aśoka it is clear from the *Indica* of Megasthenes and Kauṭilya’s *Arthaśāstra* that the State recognised the importance of irrigation and encouraged private initiative in this direction. Perhaps this was done by the State to increase the State revenue.

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In western India, the Kṣatrapa rulers continued the tradition of constructing tanks. In the second century A.D. the ’Sudarsana’ lake suffered a breach (420 cubits long and 75 cubits deep) owing to heavy flood and on-rush of rivers Swarnarekha, Palasini, etc., and became ’durdarśana’ (*IA*, VII, 1878, pp. 259-61). It was restored and made more beautiful than ever (Sudarsānatara) during the reign of Rudradāman I under whose orders this work was carried out by the provisional governor, Suvisakha.

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In the classical age and later, due recognition was given to irrigation, both natural and artificial. The *Amarakośa* (6th cent. A.D.) distinguishes between provinces watered by the rains (*deva mātṛka*) and those irrigated by the rivers (*nadī-mātṛka*). The *Nītisāra* of Kāmandaka (Maity, 1957, p. 83) advocates the importance of irrigation by human effort. Considering the importance attached to irrigation the Gupta State evinced keen interest in the construction and restoration of irrigation work. Reference has been made to the Sudarsana lake. When the lake burst again as a result of heavy monsoon, Cakrapalita, who was the governor during the reign of Skandagupta, reconstructed it after two months' effort incurring huge amount of money.

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In the extreme north of India, in the Kashmir Valley we read of Suyya, a great engineer - Minister in the service of King Anantavarman of Kashmir (9th century), who "made the streams of Indus and Jhelum flow according to his will, like a snake-charmer to his snakes" (Basham, 1954, p. 193).

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In the southern region the practice of irrigation had its beginnings in the use of naturally formed small lakes and tanks by the Megalithic (Iron Age) people. The authors of Megaliths were settled people who practised agriculture as the main industry and knew the value and use of irrigation. It, may, therefore, be plausible to ascribe the authorship of the tank irrigation in the south to the megalithic folk (Banerjee, ANI, 12, p.21; Srinivasan and Banerjee, p.109). But in the historical period the absence of perennial rivers must have necessitated the rulers to resort to impound water for affording irrigation facilities for agricultural operations. Moreover, it is also largely with a view to removing the menace of years of failure of monsoons and the consequential drought that the irrigation systems of South India have been conceived.

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Historical records prove that the organised irrigation system began in South India from the initial centuries of the first millennium A.D. This is quite evident from the early Sangam literary works. Tiruvalluvar in his Tirukkural (No. 737, see Pope (Eng. tr.) says the following as the important constituents of a kingdom: "Waters from rains and springs, a mountain here and water thence; these make a land with fortress sure defence". The Puranānūru (Srinivasa Iyengar, 1914, p. 43), a Sangam anthology, makes a pointed reference to the importance of "artificial tank irrigation" this: "Verily he who has turned the bent (low) land into a reservoir to arrest the flow of the running water is one who has established a name in the world". So the organised irrigation system in the South goes back to the Sangam age if not earlier.

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The credit for launching large irrigation works goes to the early Cola king Karikāla (c. first century A.D.). The important achievement in his life time was the taming of the Kaveri by building the flood banks, cutting the inundation canals and strengthening the river embankments. This is testified by more than one inscription of the later period (EI, XI. No. 35, pp. 337-346; SII, III, pp. 249-50; ASSI, IV, p.217; TRV, III, pp. 154-155). In effect his pioneering activity successfully prevented the annual inundations for nearly fifteen centuries. Moreover, the lead given by him was followed by a number of other rulers who ruled the Tamil country in the succeeding centuries.

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After the decline of the Mauryan Empire, the rule of the Satavahanas was followed in the Deccan who ruled for four and half centuries about 230 B.C. They were succeeded by the Ikṣvākus who ruled the Krishna-Guntur region from their capital from Nagarjunakonda. In the South West part of Deccan, the Kadambas of Vaijayanthi (Banavāsi) rose to power from the middle of the fourth century A.D.

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Instances show that agriculture received the necessary patronage from the rulers during their regime.

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The period from the seventh to the twelfth centuries A.D. witnessed the enormous growth and utilization of irrigation facilities provided by the early and later Pāṇḍyas of Madurai, the Pallavas of Kāñchi, the Colas of Tanjavur, the Hoysalas of Dwārasamudra, the Cālukyas of Kalyāṇi and the Kākatīyas of Warangal. This period was also characterised by the wider utilization of irrigation works and effective water management.

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Records of the Pāṇḍyas point out that both the perennial and inundation channels from the river Vaigai were effectively utilised for irrigation purposes. Since the major part of the Pāṇḍya Kingdom was dependent upon the seasonal rains, only the rain-fed tanks were the next best possible choice for irrigation. More number of small scale reservoirs were constructed by the State and benevolent private individuals in the modern districts of Madurai and Rāmanāthapuram using the string-line technique for the embankments and stone-sluices (karthumbu) (SII. XIV, No. 44). Even now one could find innumerable remains of ancient reservoirs in the above districts.

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The Pallavas of Kāñci in the Toṇḍaimaṇḍalam region who ruled from the fourth century A.D. were great tank builders. From the available evidence we gather that irrigation was carried on with the help of tanks, inundation canals and channels and wells. The concentration of medium and small-scale tanks in the northern parts of Tamil Nadu (Chingleput and North Arcot districts, popularly known as ‘Tank Districts’) shows that the rivers Pālār and Vegavati were not only non-perennial, as they are today, but carried insufficient water to meet the irrigation needs of the cultivators. Some of the tanks constructed by the Pallavas continue even to this day to serve the purpose for which they were intended to. Canals were dug from the river Pālār to feed the small tanks which in turn were the main source of water supply to the fields by means of branch channels. The most notable works of the period are the Mahendra taṭāka (North Arcot) and the Citramegha taṭāka (Chingleput district) by Mahendravarman I, the Parameśvara taṭāka (Chingleput) by Parameśvaravarman, the Tirayaneri (8th cen. A.D., Chingleput), Kaveripakkam tank (North Arcot) by Nandivarman III, the Vairamegha taṭāka at Uttirameru (chingleput) by Dantivarman, and the tanks at Ukkal, Guḍimallam and Solapuram (North Arcot) by Kampavarman. One important feature noticed in the Pallava records is that most of the projects were initiated and funded by the State. Private individuals were encouraged to construct works of irrigation. However, the maintenance part of it was entrusted to the village assembly; the assembly in turn received donations and endowments in cash and kind from the donees and invested the revenue part of them for the purpose of maintenance.

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Following the Deccan tradition rural development was not neglected by the Rāṣṭrakūṭas of Malkhed. The State was directly responsible for the construction of irrigation works largely for religious purpose. After the decline of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas by the last quarter of the tenth century, the Cālukyas of Kalyāṇi rose to power. Unlike their counterparts in the Tamil country, the Cālukyans were not credited with the construction of many irrigation works. Recent excavations remains show that a channel about 300 feet in length connected the lake Sahasraliṅga dug by Sidharāja with the river Sarasvati, which evidently provided the lake with abundant supply of water (MurariKrishna, pp.194-195). Another important interconnected tank ‘Big Tank’ at Kāṭṭageri (Bādāmī tāluk) during the time of Vikramāditya VI is known from a Kannada record (IA, VI, 1877, No. xxxii). The tank is unique in the sense that the method of draining the excess water from a tank at a higher level to the tank at the lower level was successfully applied in this case. The Calukyans had a separate department of water works called Vāri-gṛha-karaṇa which was responsible for the execution and maintenance of irrigation works. The Mahājanas were responsible for collecting taxes and land revenue and utilising the same for the proper maintenance of irrigation works. The tradition set by the early Cola King Karikāla was assiduously followed by the Imperial Colas. This is well confirmed by a network of canals and branch channels from the Kaveri, besides a number of reservoirs of immense size. Canals and branch channels were dug from the Kaveri to cover the entire Kaveri delta. With the expansion of the Cola empire, the irrigation activities also increased manifold under the State patronage. In the absence of natural streams, recourse was preferred to tanks, and the bulk of the evidence on irrigation from the inscriptions relates to the care bestowed on the proper maintenance of the tanks. The agency responsible for the maintenance work was the village assembly. It consisted of several committees, of which the committee for the “Supervision of tanks” (eri-vāriyam) was one. This body consisted of six members who held office for 360 days and then retired. The famous Uttiramerur inscriptions (ANRIE, Nos. 83 & 84 of 1898; ANRASI, 1903-1904) (Cingleput district) of Parāntaka I give an elaborate description of the rules regarding the composition of this Committee. The eri-vāriyam was in the main concerned with raising of resources and their utilization for the maintenance of irrigation works. There was another committee called the ‘Sluice Committee’ (Kalingu Vāriyam) under the village assembly.

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The duties of this particular committee was to maintain and check the sluice gates from wanton damage and other natural causes. This committee existed only in a few village assembly segments. The village assemblies on their part collected various types of land taxes, dues and cesses. Apart from this, as many as thirty-two tax items connected with the water-rates found in the records of the Colas were ostensibly collected from the tenants and land owners as service charges for the maintenance of irrigation works.

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The Cola vāridhi (North Arcot), the Virāṇameri (South Arcot), the Nangavaram tank (Tirucirāppalli), the Kaliyaneri (Madurai) by Parāntaka I, the ‘Big Tank’ at Bāhur (Pondicherry), the Arikeśarimangalam tank (Tirunelveli) by Rājarāja I, the Cola-gangam (Tirucirāppalli) by Rajendra I, the Sembarambākkam eri (Cingleput) by Rājarāja III are some of the leading examples of a large number of irrigation works mentioned in the inscriptions. The Tiruvalangadu plates (SII, III, pp. 3, verse 24, p. 425) of Rajendra I (1012-1044 A.D.) refer to the large irrigation tank ‘Colagangam’ as the ‘Liquid Pillar of Victory’ (‘gaṅga-jalamayam jayasthambam’) and states that, “This lord constructed in his own domain as a pillar of victory (a tank) known by repute as Colagangam which was composed of the waters of the Ganges”. About the extant Sembarambākkam ēri excavated by Rājarāja III, C.S. Crole says that it is “one of the biggest irrigation tanks in the Chingleput district whose vast expanse of water, when it is full, is an object of attraction to the people in the vicinity, not to mention its immense utility for the agriculturist” (Crole, 1879, p. 70). The Hoysalas of Dwarasamudra in Mysore (first quarters of the 11th century) were not lagging behind in creating irrigational facilities by the construction of rain-fed tanks and canals. These works were undertaken by them for religious purpose. But there is no positive proof of any scientific and systematic planning of tank construction and the inscriptions do not offer any technical details. However, it may be inferred that it involved in the cleaning of jungle, levelling of land and fixing of sluices (Kuppuswamy, 1975, p. 48). Channels were cut from the rivers to channelise water to arable lands. On the contrary the Kākatīyas of Warangal in the Telugu-speaking area of the east had made significant contribution in this direction. “They inherited a system which had been in use in the land from time immemorial” (Yazdani, 1964, p. 677). The Hanmakonda Niroṣṭya-kāvya inscription (EI, XXXVI, verse 21, p. 217) states that “in the country (Andhra deśa) are hundreds of tanks and thousands of rivulets, and they indeed appear to be the ocean and the consorts respectively”. Lithic records, literary compositions and the remains of extant irrigation works of the period bear ample testimony to the care with which the irrigation facilities were provided by them. Among the Kākatīyas, Gaṇapatideva (A.D. 1199-1262) was the most prominent ruler who was responsible for the construction of several irrigation works in different parts of the Kingdom. Among them the Pākhal lake, about 30 miles north of Warangal and the Rāmappa lake, about 44 miles north-east of Warangal are outstanding and surviving examples. The Pākhal lake lies in the basins of the Krishna and the Munnari rivers. King of the Geological Survey of India writing on the lake observes, “It is a splendid sheet of water lying back in two arms on either side of a good big hill east-south-east of the band, while from these are long bays reaching up behind low ridges of outcropping Vindhyas” (Bilgram & Willmott, Vol. II, p. 706 i.). At present the combined drainage of the lake is 80 sq. miles of which 40 sq. miles are intercepted. The Ramappa lake is formed by a ring of hills on three sides with a colossal bund only on the northern side. This lake is now fed by four channels. The lead given by Gaṇapatideva was followed by his successors in the 13th century also. In addition to tank irrigation, well irrigation was practised and it was confined to individual parcels of land. During the Kākatīya period the information regarding the method of construction was scanty and so our knowledge in this respect is very poor. However, different methods must undoubtedly have been employed varying with the terrain and locality. This is attested by the existing tanks of the period.

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From the above brief account it may be concluded that because of the foresightedness of the rulers in ancient India, the problems like the seasonal drought and consequent famine were checked and brought under manageable control. The solution to the above problems was found in the creation of adequate irrigation facilities and thereby bringing under the plough newly created areas and increasing the land revenue to the State exchequer. It is thus no wonder that the present irrigation system is the result of the work of orthodox ancient Indian rulers who gave their experience and expertise in no small measure in the form of large and more expensive irrigation projects in the entire length and breadth of India.

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It may be pointed out that there may be similarities or dissimilarities in the techniques involved in the construction of irrigation works from one period to another or from on region to another. But it is the local needs, exigencies and human experience that ultimately decide the technique and the selection of material. So, there is no question of one period following and continuing the techniques of the other period especially in ancient India.

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