History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c32.s2.t4.10

v1.c32.s2.t4.10

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).