Indigenous Water Management System in Pudukkōṭṭai Region—A Case Study of Sluice Technology

Water management is an indispensable component of society, particularly in semi-arid zones. In an agro-pastoral economy, the role of water is pivotal as the entire activities of the society such as agriculture, feeders for livestock and on few occasions to perform rituals and rites revolved around water. Society, therefore, focused on the collection, storage, preservation, evaporation, percolation, regulation, maintenance and distribution of water in irrigation tanks. Earliest written reference to irrigation in Tamil Nadu occurs in Saṅgam literature where terms like aruvi (waterfalls), ēri (reservoir), kayam, kuḷam (tank), āṟu (river), poykai (pond), kiṇaṟu, kēṇi and vāvi (well), all indicating water bodies appear. Irrigation tanks with sluice inscriptions are concentrated in the Cheṅgalpaṭṭu, Pudukkōṭṭai and Rāmanāthapuram regions of Tamil Nadu and the earliest sluice inscription goes back to sixth century CE. Keeping these historical factors in the background, a study was undertaken in Pudukkōṭṭai and several ancient irrigation tanks datable between Iron Age down to the Vijayanagara times, were documented. The study attempts to highlight the significant features of the hydraulic device popularly called kumuḻi installed in tanks to regulate water and also various intricacies involved in Indigenous water management system based on archaeological, inscriptional and literary sources that survived for a millennium. Water is considered wealth and serves as a lifeline for the very survival of society, particularly in the agro-pastoral-based economy of semi-arid zones. The everlasting contentious issue in sharing Kaveri river water irrespective of judicial, political and societal involvement and intervention for an amicable solution is the finest example. Thus, the role of water is immense as almost all activities of society, such as agricultural practices, feeders for livestock, and on a few occasions, rituals and rites revolve around water. The transformation from cattle-raising to an agro-pastoral subsistence pattern changed people’s resource utility patterns. The formation of settlements and the emergence of a particular social group in water-fed areas depended on their control over water. So, water rights and management become an indispensable part of their life. In Tamil Nadu, water tanks are concentrated in Cheṅgalpaṭṭu, Pudukkōṭṭai and Rāmanāthapuram regions. The distribution of tanks shows that physical factors such as granite substrata, air humidity, rainfall distribution and low moisture retention capacity of soil are conducive to tank irrigation. Besides, the collective effort of society, institutional support and local administration have played a significant role in the long survival of tank-based irrigation. The tanks dug or constructed by the rulers have received the attention of scholars, whereas lesser-known tanks built by the collective wisdom of the society have not received the attention of historians as most of them have not provided any inscriptional evidence. However, there are literary references expressing the existence of tank irrigation in Tamil Nadu before the Early Historic period, probably from the time of the Iron Age.