Irrigation
system of Ancient India
 |
Irrigation
system of Ancient India
|
In the Rig
Vedic period the Aryans were depending upon cattle-rearing mainly though they
had the knowledge of agriculture. When they came down from the north-Western
hilly areas to the Gangetic plain their economic life underwent a great change
and instead of cattle-rearing economy they now got engaged in agrarian economy
and agriculture became their maim pursuit. Agriculture needs water and where
there was no rainfall water the heavenly gift, irrigation became the most
important thing.
Due to
paucity of our knowledge, we do not know what method of irrigation was followed
during the days of Indus valley civilization because we have not been able to
unearth enough of evidences as yet as was said earlier the Rig Vedic age was the
age of cattle-rearing where agriculture was not given any special attention at
all. Neither do we know much about the irrigation system in the later Vedic age
also. Yet the ancient literature everywhere laid stress on irrigation system
and Manu, the great sage even declared capital punishment for the person who was
found guilty of spoiling the irrigation system. All these prove that the Aryans
by this age must have known the importance of irrigation and possibly practiced
it seriously.
During the
6th century B.C. irrigation system was given greater importance and
a system was followed thereupon. The arable lands during this period lay
outside the mountain which were fenced and guarded by field watchmen. All the fields
were cultivated at the same time and the irrigation channels were laid by the
community. The supply of water was, however, regulated by the supervision
headman of the village. During the Maurya age, however, the importance of
irrigation to agriculture was fully realized and recognized. The Mauryas had a
vast empire and in some parts of the country there could be no production
without irrigation. In certain areas this irrigation water was distributed
after due measure. From Arthasastra we came to know that water tax was regularly
collected where the state provided the required irrigation water, it was the
function of the government to construct and maintain various reservoirs, tanks,
canals and wells. From the ancient writings epigraphic and narrative sources we
came to know about the system of artificial irrigation in the Mauryan period. Various
writings, epigraphic and narrative sources and even Megasthenes gave us much information
about it. From Megasthenes we came to know that there was a special group of
state officials whose duty was to inspect the sluices through which the water
was let out from the main canal into the branch canals. Thus everyone could get
the share of water equally. Kautilya in his Arthasastra declared irrigation as
the basic of crop growing and advised the ruler to pay more attention in
building and maintaining the proper irrigation system. The irrigation
technology was quite high in those days.
During the
period of Guptus too constant supply of water was made available to the agriculturists
through irrigation work. Wells were constructed at several places throughout
the country to help the agriculturists to till the soil and do agricultural works
properly. There were some state officials who had to supervise regularly the
irrigation works and maintain its good condition although. The government used
to take water tax for supplying the necessary irrigation water to the
cultivator. If the water was supplied through mechanical way, the water tax
would be heavy. But the people in those days possibly knew the art of bringing
water from the ponds or rivers with the help of Persian wheel to irrigate their
field. Sometimes irrigation was made on personal initiative as well. Large scale
irrigation projects were taken by the government only. The Mauryas tried to
implement three types of irrigation system by erecting darns on the rivers, by
digging canals and by digging wells. During the reign of Chandragupta Maurya a
100 ft high Dam was built near Girnar to provide water for irrigation. There were
other kinds who made such projects. The best example was, however, the
Sudarshana lake of the Sakashatrapa Rudradamana which was build on a river. The
canals were used to water the agricultural lands in the plain. Wells and ponds
were also dug to provide such water. Normally irrigation to the distant lands was
made through the canals. These were all done by the government in power.
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