History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c32.s1.11

v1.c32.s1.11

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.