Irrigation in Ancient India

Agriculture is the foundation of the economy of India, and consequently the practice of irrigation is widespread. In the above introduction, we have tried to give some idea of the broad cultural mixing that took place in this country. Because of this mixing, com­bined with India’s traditional lack of interest in its own history and the difficulty of dat­ing Sanskrit texts, it is quite a challenge to find the origins of innovations, and some­
times even to identify references to original hydraulic works in the texts. Nonetheless, ancient documents do mention the existence of canals, reservoirs, gates, and machines for lifting water.1 The lifting wheel (“rotating wheel fitted with buckets”) is mentioned with a date that is perhaps 350 B. C. but impossible to confirm.[299] [300] Moreover, it is impos­sible to know if this description refers to a simple wheel, a bucket chain (saqqya), or per­haps a true hydraulic noria, which seems unlikely.