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History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c32.s2.t4: Canals

History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c32.s2.t4

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Canals

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The canals system of irrigation probably had its beginnings in the use of artificial water courses by the Vedic people. The word *kulyā* (*RV*. III, 45.3; X.43.7) refers to artificial courses flowing into a river. The expressions *khanitrima* meaning ‘produced by digging’ as an epithet of *āpaḥ* clearly refers to artificial water channels used for irrigation. Such artificial canals were dug by using a tool called *Khanitra* (*RV*. VII. 49.2; *AV*. I. 6.4). Rituals were practised before leading the river water into the canals (*AV*. III. 13; I. 6.4; XIX. 2.2; Ramgopal, 1953, p. 133). Kautilya classifies the countries making use of the water channels in agriculture as *kulyāvāpaṇam* (*AS*. II. 24.116, Shamasastry (tr), p. 130). Patañjali in his *Mahābhāṣya* speaks of canals for irrigating paddy fields *śalyartham kulyāḥ* (Patañjali I.1.24; I. 82, see also Agrawala, 1953, p. 204).

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In Sanskrit literature the expressions such as *nāla*, *nālikā*, *praṇāḷi* are used to designate different types of canals, drains and channels and these unmistakably point to the existence of artificial water-courses used in irrigation in North India. The canals which also helped to stop inundation by rivers are referred to as *Jalanirgamah* (drains) in the *Amarakośa* (9.7; 9.36).

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A survey of South Indian epigraphical evidence shows that a number of canals and channels bearing different names would indicate their specific use. The reason is that in the South each agrarian unit had a network of channels to supply water in each field, leading either from the river or the village reservoir. Generally the canals were known as *vāykkāl* (Tamil) and *kāluve* (Telugu and Kannada) (*SII*. II. Nos. 4 & 5). In the Tamil speaking areas the channels were dug from every conceivable source, natural or otherwise. The channels dug to bring water from the rivers to feed the tanks in the vicinity were known as *ārruk-kāl* (*SII*. II. p. 352). In the days of the Pallavas, there were native channels (*nāṭṭukkāl*) dug from the river Palar for irrigating the adjacent fields (*SII*. I. p. 150).

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The high level channels *meṭṭu-vāykkāl* or *mugaṭṭu-kāl* (*SII*. II. p. 435) were expressly dug to conduct water from the tanks to water the fields. The drinking water channels cut from the rivers and tanks were specifically known as *sennir-poduvinai* and for digging such channels there was a provision of free labour known as *sennir-veṭṭi* or *sennīr-amañji* (*EI*, XVIII, p. 124; XV, p. 72).

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Branch channels from the main canals and tanks were variously named as *kuraṅgāru*, *kāl* and *kilai-kāl* (SII, II. p.352, III, p.106 & 154; *EI*, V. p.49). Similarly, the field channels flowing towards the fields in a village were either called *kai-yāru* or *ahai-vāykkāl*. Small irrigation channels issuing from the reservoir was known as *kaṇṇāru*. The famous Vairamegha *taṭāka* constructed by the Pallava Dantivarman (c. 795-845 A.D.) had three branch channels and as many as twenty five such *kaṇṇārus* taking water from this tank and watering the fields in and around Uttiramerūr (Chingleput district). This is attested by a number of Pallava and Cola records.

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*Feeder Channel*

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Feeder channels were dug from rivers to feed tanks which in turn were used as the main source of supply to fields by means of branch channels. Such a channel is mentioned in a record of the Pallava Parameśvaravarman who dug a feeder channel from the river Pālār to feed the Paramesvara *taṭāka* which was constructed by him at Kañcipuram (Cingleput district) in the 2nd half of the seventh century A.D. (*SII*. I. p. 154). From the Udayendiram grant of the Cola Parantaka I (920 A.D.) we learn that a feeder channel was constructed to the tank at Vinnamangalam (Ambur, North Arcot district) (*SII*. II. p. 389).

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Among the many feeder channels dug in the extreme South India, the Uyyakoṇḍān Channel dug by Rājarāja Cola I (c. 985-1013 A.D.) is an important native irrigation work which is still serving the district of Tiruchirappalli. This channel branches off from the Kaveri near the Veṭṭuvāyttalai Railway station, supplies water to a good portion of the district and eventually falls into a large tank in the village Valavandān-koṭṭai, about 10 miles to the North-East of Tiruchirappalli. Robert Sewell remarks “there is no doubt that the channel is a very old work” (*ANRIE*, No. 72, 1890; *SII*.IV, No.396,p. 120; Sewell, I, p. 269).

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*Inundation Canals*

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The method of irrigating fields through inundation canals is indeed very ancient. Though the northern source materials are silent about this practice, but considering the geographical conditions and the river systems, the inundation canals dug from the rivers for irrigation purposes must surely have existed in many parts of north India. In the south, irrigation by means of inundation canals was quite common in the days of the Pallavas as evidenced by the records of the period. Shallow cuts are made through the river banks (*kulai*) into which the excess water flowed when the level of the water in the river rose higher in the floods which occur during the monsoon seasons. Usually the head of inundation canals are made on the exact or correct bank of the river from which they draw their supply. In the past, such spots were selected by experience only. In one of the records of Nandivarman Pallavamalla II we notice that the settlers of the newly constituted village were permitted to make inundation canals (*vellakkāl*) on the banks of the rivers Vegavati and Pālār and irrigate all the fields within the village. Though the use of such canals must have been extensively in vogue in other parts of India, but we hardly come across any references to such canals in the records (*SII*. II. p. 352).

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