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History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c32.s2.t3: Sluices

History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c32.s2.t3

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Sluices

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Sluices are contrivances in the form of gates or valves through which the flow of water can be controlled or stopped. They are also used for surplus vents. For better flow of water from the reservoir, the sluices are usually installed at points of maximum depth and quite far from the embankments. The sluices were not unknown to the pre-Aryans who had barricaded the streams of seven rivers, Sapta-Sindhavah (RV. I. 51.4; VII 82.3). It is disappointing to note that the northern sources do not offer any tangible material in this connection. Udagabandha (Sanskrit), madagu, kalingu, tūmbu (Tamil), tubu (Kannada) and tumus (Telugu) are the terms generally met with in the inscriptions to denote a sluice (EI. III. No. 20; Silappadikāram, X. 109; XII. 4.1; ANRIE No. 257, 1952; No. 552, 1902, SII, III, p. 392).

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In the Paripāḍal (verse, 20, ll.90-107; see also Balakrishna Mudaliyar, 1960, p.38), one of the Sangam anthologies, we come across a passage in which it is mentioned that the river Vaigai near Madurai was then a mighty river, and to control and regulate it when in freshes, several water-heads and large underground sluice shutters were constructed for the purpose. So it is not a matter of coincidence that we notice in the early and later Pāṇḍya records from the 8th century onwards a good number of references to the construction of sluices to river channels and small-sized reservoirs in and around Madurai.

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References to the installation and renovation of sluice gates are more in South Indian lithic records pertaining to the Pāṇḍyas, the Pallavas and the Colas. It is equally interesting to note that the tanks constructed in one period were provided with sluices in another period. But they add a little to our knowledge of the types of sluices used in the regulation of water.

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Depending on the size and water-spread of the reservoir the number of sluices were determined. The Tirayaneri in the Cingleput district constructed in the first half of the 8th century A.D. by some predecessor of the Pallava Nandivarman II was provided with 23 sluices and stone revetment (Sewell, 1882, p.188). The extant Viranam tank or Vīranārāyaṇppereri, a large reservoir, constructed by the Cola Parāntaka I (c. 950 A.D.) at the fag end of the Kaveri delta (South Arcot district, Tamil Nadu) has 74 sluices (GAAD, 1906, p. 132).

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Similarly, the ‘Colagaṅgam’ reservoir constructed by the Cola Rajendra I was provided with several sluices and channels for the irrigation of a large area. During the period under review, the sluices were installed by the use of dressed granite slabs in place of laterite blocks; and some times the planks of palmyra trees joined together by means of ropes were also used as a make-shift arrangement (ANRIE, No. 417, 1912). A single evidence from Sirgāli (Tanjavur district, Tamil Nadu) records the exact measurement of a sluice (ANRIE, No. 499, 1918). It measured in modern conversion 35 inches in length and 8 inches in breadth. It is presumable that this sort of narrow sluice shutters were put to use to regulate the water-supply from the branch channels.

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Head Sluice: The Head-sluice (Kūṛṛan-vay), as we understand from the Pallava records, is a sort of regulator. It is usually a strong masonary work at a point where the canal takes off from a river or tank; and its purpose here is to control the supply entering the canal. Muka-vāy, talai-vāy, vāyt-talai are the other terms in Tamil to be identified with the head-sluices (SII, I, 151; EI; V p. 49). Above the head-sluice was constructed a ‘head of water’ (uvantri or taluippelai) with a large mouth or opening which conveyed the excess flow of water entering the canal from the main sluice (SII, II. No. 93, p. 11; III, p. 530).

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A remarkable piece of native engineering work, which is still in a fairly good condition supplying water to the town of Tiruchirappalli (Tamil Nadu) is the massive head-sluice (Vayttalai) of the Uyyakondan channel, which branches off from the Kaveri near the Veṭṭuvāyttalai Railway Station. This head sluice is made of a solid granite block.

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On the bridge which crosses the head-sluice is placed a stone, which is stated to have originally formed part of one of the pillars of the sluice itself. This head-sluice was constructed about A.D. 1205-06 for conducting water to flow into the Uyyakondan Channel during the reign of the Cola Kulottunga III (ANRIE, No. 70, 1890; 1891 para 4; SII, IV, no. 394, p. 119). Another example of such a nature comes from the same district. This head-sluice, now popularly known as nāṭṭu-vāykkāl (native channel) or Periya-vāykkāl (big channel), is on the northern bank of the Kaveri near Musiri (Tiruchirappalli district). This head- sluice is spanned by a bridge across the channel Periya-vāykkāl. On one of the side walls of the sluice close to the bridge is an inscription of Rājarāja Cola III which records that in the fourth year of his reign (A.D. 1219), the head-sluice was built of stone at Musiri (ANRIE, No. 72, 1890; 1891, para 4; SII, IV. No. 396, p. 120).

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The major part of the Pandya region in the South (Madurai and Rāmanāthapuram districts) depended on rain-fed servoirs for irrigation. They were carried out by the early Pāṇḍyas (7th and 8th centuries) and continued by the later Pāṇḍyas from the 9th century onwards. All the surviving reservoirs, mostly medium- sized, with stone sluices (Karttūmbu) of the period would indicate the technical skill involved in the construction of reservoir for irrigation. “The position and depth of the sluices demonstrate adequate knowledge in choosing the most suitable points and ascertaining the correct sill level” (Rajan, 1986, p. 159).

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The following information regarding the working of the tūmbu sluices is based on in situ inspection of certain early sites by Rajan Gurukkal, since none of the tūmbu inscriptions is published (Fig.1). “The tūmbu was a single valve system operated without any devices for mechanical advantage. It consisted of two granite pillars installed in the reservoir on either side of the sluice-mouth. The pillars varied in height, according to the depth of the reservoirs. The distance between the two pillars was about one to one and a half meters. The pillars were connected to each other by a series of cross-slabs from the base of the sluice to the top. Each cross-slab had a hole in the centre with a diameter of about 5 to 8 inches. The base of the system was a rectangular enclosure built in granite on the bed of the reservoir. It had a rectangular opening of 1 ×2 feet. The stone above the opening had a long aperture and the stones on either side of the opening had slots, obviously for the movement of the shutter plank. It appears that, through the series of holes in the cross-slabs, a wooden rod lowered to the sluice-mouth. The edge of the rod must have been connected to a shutter-plank lowered through the long aperture so as to cover the opening of the sluice. The operation of the system was quite simple. The sluice-mouth could be opened by lifting the rod. The lifting of the rod was not difficult since a little opening would cause enough upward thrust from the flow of water for the shutter-plank to move easily. The sluice opened into an underground conduit which lead water to a well called etirakkiṇaru built outside the embankment. Unlike the ordinary wells, the etirakkiṇaru was constructed upwards Fig. 1. Tūmbu (sluice) system

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Valve-rod

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Shutter-plank

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Sluice-mouth

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Shutter-ball

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Sluice-mouth

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Fig. 2. Kumiḷi (sluice-pit) system (reproduced from Studies in History, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1986)

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from the ground level. It had openings at its base into channels running in various dissections. The flow of water through the channels required no contrivance since it worked on gravitational force.

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"The sluice-pit" (*kumiḷi*) was another system (Fig.2) for the regulation of the flow of water from the reservoir, used at required centres. In this case, the sluice-mouth was a pit, also enclosed and with a circular opening on the surface. The rod lowered through the cross-slabs in the system must have been connected to a global stone or wood that acted as the shutter. Here the difference was in the nature of the valve of the sluice. In the case of the *tūmbu*, water from the reservoir flowed into the sluice from the side and, in that of the *kumiḷi*, from above" (Rajan, 1986, pp. 160-161).

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