History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c32.s2.t9.12

v1.c32.s2.t9.12

‘*Ettapulam*’ (ANRIE, No. 116, 1929) and ‘*ettapādam*’ (*EI*, V. p. 49) are the expressions often used in the Tamil inscriptions to categorize lands irrigated by means of *picotahs* (water-levers). Generally speaking, *etta*, *ettam*, or *erram* are the terms current even now in local usage in South India. The importance of *ettam* is well highlighted by Kambar, the author of the *Erelupadu*. In the following stanza of the *Erelupadu* a eulogium on agriculture and the cultivator class, Kambar lays stress on the importance thus: “Let not rain fall: Let the seas and the rivers dry up; Let there be famine every where; Let not each do his respective duty, in the world; Even if all these adverse circumstances happen at the same time, only if the peasants do their duty, water their crops from wells by means of *ettam*, the crop will grow and there will be no hunger in the land” (*Erelupadu*, vs. 39; see also Jagannathachariar, 1967, p. 52).