A History of Agriculture in India v1.c28.s3: Ring Wells

v1.c28.s3.1

In the ring wells, instead of bricks, terracotta rings were used. Ring wells appeared in India in the sixth century B.C. and continued till about the second century of the Christian era. The ring wells of Ropar are dated from fifth to fourth centuries B.C. to the beginning of the Christian era. According to Y.D. Sharma, ring wells can be seen even at present in the south and in Orissa and Bengal. Their present use is for drinking water. In ancient times, they were mostly used as soakage or sullage pits. In some places, undoubtedly, they also must have been in use for drinking-water. In ancient times, they appeared often in clusters. In Ropar, there were five of them in a cluster, their depth being different from one another. When one was silted up, another was dug up close by (Fig. 69).