History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c32.s2.t9.41

v1.c32.s2.t9.41

There was a contrivance by name *Araghaṭṭa*, *araghaṭa* or *arahaṭa* for lifting water from wells and canals. The term *araghaṭṭa* has been translated as ‘machine-wheel’ or ‘Persian-wheel’. A large number of lithic records relating to Rajasthan (6th to 13th centuries) refer to the widespread use of ‘*araghaṭṭa*’ as an efficient contrivance for irrigation. “The importance of *araghaṭṭa* may be deduced from the fact that almost invariably they bear separate names and from the social status of the people who seem to have transferred land irrigated by an *araghaṭṭa*” (Chattopadhyaya, Pts II-III, p. 305). While there is no satisfactory technical details relating to the *araghaṭṭa* or *ghaṭiyantra* available as yet in India, it is not true that these devices were not set up on wells. A recent re-interpreted passage in a Mandasor inscription (Joshi, pp. 214-17) of 532 A.D., referring to a newly constructed well, eulogies its “rotary motions (moving ring) resembling a garland of “skulls” which would continue to discharge “nectar like pure water”. More explicit evidence that an *araghaṭṭa*, with its pots, was set up on a well, like the *ghaṭiyantra* of *Amarakośa*, comes from a passage in the *Pañcatantra* (Chattopadhyaya, p. 304). While describing the traditions of Kashmir, Kalhana records in his *Rājatarangiṇī* (IV. 191) that “at Cakradhara (modern Tsakadar) he (Lalitāditya 740- 776 A.D.) made an arrangement for conducting the water of the Vitastā (Jhelum) and distributing it to various villages by the construction of a series of water-wheels (*araghaṭṭa*)” (see also Stein, 1900, II, p. 428). The above references definitely show that *araghaṭṭas* were set up on wells and river banks. But they do not indicate the use of both chain or rope and gearing mechanism. “To be set up on a *mahākūpa* (big well), the wheel carrying the pots required the mechanism of a chain but the gearing mechanism, which facilitated the use of animal power may have come at a later stage” (Chattopadhyay, p. 304 f.n.). Based on the above evidences, we are unable to deduce the mechanism of an *araghatta*; nevertheless its operation was distinct from that of other indigenous water-lifting devices.