Come monsoon, and archaeologists will be testing the revival of an Ancient water harvesting system in this historic Buddhist town
The forgotten waters of Sanchi
LORD Varuna be pleased! May the rains
come... Officials of the Archaeological
Survey of India (ASI) are waiting with
bated breath in the revered town of
Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh. For the 1st
time in history they have attempted to
restore an ancient rainfed water harvesting system atop the Sanchi hill. A bountiful monsoon may just spell the rebirth
of a long forgotten tradition.
But the spinoffs of this venture are
just beginning to dawn on the archaeologists. The effort has been totally technocratic and the local people have been
left out so far. This is likely to create ten -
sion between the Asi and villagers.
Sanchi lies 45 km northeast of
Bhopal. Its 91 metre (m) hillock is
crowned with 50 monuments consisting
of stupas, monasteries, pillars and temples. The Maurya Emperor Asoka
founded this religious town in the 3rd
century BC. The relics of Buddha and his
closest disciples, Sariputasa and Maha
Mogalanasa are believed to lie here.
Inscriptions on a stone casket commemorate 10 Buddhist teachers, and 4
richly carved gateways depict the
Buddhist Jataka5, affording a glimpse of
the Buddha's noble life. In 1992, Sanchi
was recognised as a World Heritage site
by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO), because of its special significance to Buddhism.
There are 3 ancient tanks on Sanchi
hill dating back to 3rd century BC. One
tank is high on the hill and the other 2
are situated downhill, half a kilometre
away. The slopes of the hill once formed
a natural catchment area. Rain gullies
and drains collected water, and from 1
tank it flowed into the next. The western
side of the hill was dotted with monasteries and the monks used this water for
domestic purposes. People lived down
in the valley on the eastern side of the
hill.
The area was lush with vegetation.
Two krn froffi the hill flowed the Betwa
river which,joined up with Bhopal's
tanks. The river, the 3 tanks and the
once thice forest formed part of an integrated water regime. About 2 km downstream an ancient barrage of the same
period has been unearthed by archaeologists, who now wonder whether restoring it would help increase the water
table.
Today Sanchi hill, with its famed
monuments has no forest cover. The
Betwa river has been reduced to a
stream. In 1992 R C Agarwal, superintending archaeologist of the ASI, Bhopal
circle, realised that conserving the monuments would be easier if the hill had
some trees. But the lack of water made it
impossible. All the ASI possessed were 3
forgotten ancient tanks. "We decided to
renovate the tanks and restore the oldstyle water harvesting system. As
archaeologists we knew the techniques
of ancient water harvesting systems,"
says Agarwal.
The ASi approached UNESCO, then
the Japanese government earmarked
Rs 1.5 crores in January 1994 to fund the
project which included tank restoration,
documentation and conservation. Says
Agarwal, "We plan to recreate the environment of 2nd century BC. Period trees
such as girni, neem and peepal are going
to be planted. And the lotus flower will
be given pride of place in the tank."
About Rs 5 lakh has been spent so
far on tank restoration. The tanks were
formed-by scooping out rocks. Work
began 6 months ago. The geometrical
details of the structures and terrestrial
photography were conducted by the
Indian Institute of Remote Sensing in
Dehradun. The tanks were measured
along with the silt. The 1st tank is 32 in
in length and 13 in in breadth. Siltage
here was as high as 2.80 in. The 2nd tank
measures 27 by 24 in. Here, the siltage
was about 3.15 in.
Archaeologists have identified
cracks in the rocks and blocked these to
prevent seepage of rain water. The
catchment area was rebuilt with brick
reinforced with mortar and limestone.
A storm drain at the surface of the
catchment area will act as a filter, preventing silt and refuse from getting into
the tank. A spillover drain will drain off
excess water and help it seep into the
forest. The silt has been removed. Old
rain gullies atop the hill have also been
identified and channelised into the tank.
The Ist tank now awaits the monsoon. Once the tanks are renovated,
Agarwal hopes they will provide about 2.27 million litres
of water in all. And this
water will be used to green
Sanchi's hill.
But Agarwal's efforts, however laudable, have already
run into a spot of trouble.
The 3rd tank downhill,
called Kanak Sagar, lies close
to a village and women have
been using it as a toilet.
R Srivastava, a cartographist, was shooed away
by the women when he
attempted to survey the
tank. Restoration of this tank has
now been taken up by the
Environmental Protection and
Coordination Organisation (EPCO), a
government organisation.
Agarwal is keen that a buffer zone
consisting of a forest area should be
maintained between the monuments
and the village. But there are whispers
about tension prevailing over the
imperilled grazing rights on the remaining patches of green.
ASI's archaeologists are completely at
sea. These are issues which they have
obviously not been prepared for and it is
betrayed by their confused logic. One is
piously told about how entry fees will
remain at a measly 50 paise to invite
local people in. And in the same breath
archaeologists speak of erecting a costly
fence around the hill to keep people out.
At the same tinw involvement of
local people is sought to be achieved by
organising "cultural awareness programmes" on the World Heritage Day.
This year schoolchildren were galvanised into action. An es ,ay competition on how people can help conserve
Indian cultural heritage was organised.
Interestingly, most participants wrote
that monuments should be a common
property resource shared by the government and the local community.
Agarwal agrees, "The government
cannot do everything." But he is dismissive of sharing resources. "The Sanchi
Development Authority charges entry
fee from all tourists, but does not use it
for any developmental work," he claims.
Avani Vaish, secretary, ministry of environment and forests and director of
EPCO says they hope to develop a souvenir industry to rope in the local people, but obviously this is just a sop.
"Anyway, lets have a little action first,"
he sighs.
Admits an insider at EPCO,
11 Eventually, tank restoration'must satisfy its users." But the users in his list of
priorities are the trees, the birds and,
lastly, the local community which needs
water for domestic purposes. Says
Chakravarty, "In the past there were
certain classes of people such as the
agrahans (artisans and potters) who
maintained the tanks and monuments.
That category of people no longer exist.
The government needs to recreate a
class of people rooted in the community
who would fulfill this role. Fencing is
improper."
But is it at all feasible for the ASI to
restore an ancient water harvesting system? ASI insiders expressed doubts over
the success of the project. "Certainly,
restoring the kind of water harvesting
systems which were created in the past
is going to tax modern engineering
skills," says Chakravarty. "Past engineers based their design skills on an
intricate survey of the environment. But
the environment itself has undergone a
total transformation."
Bhopal's taals (tanks) were connected to the Betwa river and the town had
a courtyard culture, with each home
having its own well. A symbiosis existed
between the wells and the tank. Today,
Ve tanks in the city are virtually dead.
One has been reclaimed for erecting a
building. Bhopal city now gets water
for only half an hour during the peak
'summer.
Sanchi is really part of a much
larger historical landscape," says
Chakravarty. "These 27 hills form part
of a continuous chain, consisting of 700 painted rock
shelters littered with historic
sites and excavations, a
common biosphere, soils,
plants and an interflow of
energy. What we need eventually is not Japanese money
but the indigenous knowledge of geology, so that
water lines can be recollected and old water bodies can
be identified."
More benefits can be
achieved by restoring a traditional water harvesting
system than by investment
in big dams, points out
Chakravarty. ASI's archaeologists need
to rope in local people and tap indigenous knowledge. Its efforts might be
showered with success if it goes further
and looks ambitiously at a larger historical canvas and attempts to use past
engineering skills to solve the state's
present water crisis.
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