The Pandya kingdom, which mainly consisted of today’s Madurai, Pudukkottai, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Ramanathapuram, Tenkasi and Virudhunagar districts, has an interesting topography. Virudhunagar and Ramanathapuram and parts of Pudukkottai and Thoothukudi are known for their arid weather conditions with no perennial river to depend upon. Rivers Vaigai and Tamrabarani help in irrigation along their tracts through canals. With agriculture being the fulcrum of the economy, the Pandyas overcame the water constraints thanks to their administrative genius.
A 1030 CE inscription from Mannarkoil from the time of Jatavarman Sundara Chola Pandiyan enlists the modes of irrigation used in the region. Irrigated by the Tamrabarani and Gatana rivers, most of the land was river-fed, double-crop yielding and reclaimable. A lot of them were wetlands purchased and endowed to the deity of Vishnu of Rajendra Vinnagar, built by the Chera ruler Rajasimha in 1021 CE.
A foolproof network of weirs was constructed across the rivers when they were on a higher elevation and capillaries were designed to feed tanks. Surplus water from the higher source would flow into the tanks at lower elevations with the help of reservoirs that were dug to conserve as much water as possible during occasional floods. At the same time, the residual flow of water to the sea was sufficient for boats to enter the roadsteads. All along the course of River Vaigai, we see settlements named with the prefix yendal, meaning one that collects and stores. They are smaller tanks constructed to collect and store surplus from the higher sources. But this system might not feed the regions at the tail-end efficiently due to absorption of water by the farmers near the source. This challenge was overcome by adopting a system of turns called murai and a monitored distribution of hours of supply called neer naazhigai.
The role of the community, and their physical and monetary contributions in both building and maintaining public infrastructure is reflected in several inscriptions. In 1102 CE, during the reign of Jatavarman Sri Vallabhan, the summer rains were unusually very heavy and caused more than 30 breaches in the supply canal of Manomayam lake, the irrigation source of Vijayanarayana Chathurvedi Mangalam (present day Vijayanarayanam town near Nanguneri). An official named Nambi Sankaran Vasudevan, who was managing the affairs of Chera king Ravi Kodaivarman, came forward to take up the repair works. In return, the regional administration renamed the supply tank as Sri Vasudeva Peraru and the bund as Vasudevan bund. Nambi Sankaran ensured annual maintenance of the new bund by purchasing and endowing a land exclusively for it. According to the endowment, a part of the annual produce from the land must be spent in regular checks and repair works.
Similar request for excavations, deepening and desilting of the tank at Suthamalli was submitted at the court of Jatavarman Kulasekara Pandiyan (1024 CE) by an influential Vedic scholar Alwan Bhattan Atiratra-yajiyar. The king sanctioned 1,000 dramam (a monetary denomination) from the tax dues of this settlement to be paid annually for the maintenance of the tank. The tank was named after him as Kulasekara-pereri.
There are also cases of disputes over ownership and interruptions in the existing system that were settled through government intervention. During the 11th year of Jatavarman Sri Vallabhan (12th century CE), a certain Sri Harshan Narayana Bhatta Vajapeyi of Kiranur was granted land to the south of Vaigai river near the popular Vishnu temple of Kuruvithurai near Madurai. The land to the south side of the river was irrigated better than the north owing to the natural slope of the river to the south. The grant to Vajapeyi also enabled the excavation of a canal in the name of Sri Vallabha. Five years later, the administrative complained to the king that the newly dug canal had intercepted the drawing of water from their own channel lower down and clearly violated their riparian rights. The king who commenced the grant understood the issue and reissued a command to revoke the grant and fill the newly dug canal with earth. This was a very rare case where the king was forced to revoke his own orders for the welfare of the people.
Interestingly we also see how compensation was paid for accidents and loss of life during maintenance activities. A 13th century inscription from Manur records the death of two people on the banks of Madurantaka canal due to rise in level of water and how a certain Sathappan died when he ventured to enter the river and open the sluice. The sluices were designed a short distance from the bund inside the stream. To access and open the stone slab, one had to dive and swim deep into the stream. To compensate for the death of the sluice operator, land was granted to his family.
The Pandyas, undoubtedly the lineage that made every challenge an opportunity to prove their genius, managed water and irrigation in the most sophisticated way possible. Setting up an integrated irrigation channel benefiting people far away from the main river course, maintaining the established system, reclaiming and rejuvenating dry land, protecting the riparian rights of the beneficiaries and ensuring a fair share of available water can be understood through the few examples mentioned. They also stand testimony to their adherence to dharma and planning for the future.
Madhusudhanan Kalaichelvan
(madhu.kalai0324@gmail.com)
Architect and conservationist interested in Indian heritage and culture