The Araghatta Irrigation Device

The araghatta is a water-lifting wheel. Pots are fixed around its rim. The wheel dips them into a well and brings water up.

Hala’s Gathasaptasati is an early Prakrit poem collection. It gives the Prakrit form rahattagadiya. That word means a wheel fitted with buckets.

What are its parts?

The pots fill at the bottom of the turn. They empty at the top. The same water keeps flowing as long as the wheel turns.

A bullock turned it through gears. Babur described the set-up in his account for 1525 to 1526. He saw it near Lahore and Dipalpur.

Two circles of rope were cut to suit the depth of the well. Wooden strips joined them. Pitchers were tied to the strips. The whole loop hung over a wheel above the well.

Where did the gears sit?

A second wheel sat at one end of the same axle. Next to it stood another wheel on an upright axle. The bullock turned this upright wheel. Its teeth caught the teeth of the second wheel. That turned the wheel with the pitchers.

A trough stood where the pitchers emptied. From there the water ran to the fields.

Why were gears needed?

The bullock walked in a flat circle. The pot wheel had to turn upright. The gears changed one motion into the other.

The earliest inscription mention is dated AD 532. It is the Mandasore inscription of Yashodharman. It praises a fine well with rotary motion. The Sanskrit phrase is valayaparigati.

What do later records add?

Hala’s poems use the word in the early centuries AD. Siddharshi wrote a work in 906. It gives the most elaborate account of the device.

Poets used the wheel as a figure of speech. Bilhana likens a pearl necklace to the pots on the rim. Merutunga likens fortune to buckets turning on a water wheel.

Is there a picture from the period?

Yes. A panel at Mandor in Rajasthan is dated to about the 11th century. It shows a wheel with six spokes. Pots with flaring mouths are tied to the rim with ropes.

The exam keys say yes. The Mughal word was arhat or rahat. The English called it the Persian wheel. Scholars, however, draw a finer line.

What is the finer line?

The araghatta is a type of water wheel with pots on its rim, in wide use. The Persian wheel is the geared form. Gearing became visible from the 14th century onwards.

An older wheel was the noria. It was common from the 9th century. It had no chain and no gears.

One view has two stages: the noria, then the saqia. Another view adds a middle stage, the ghatiyantra.

Was gearing a Mughal addition?

No. A description from 1525 to 1526 already shows a geared wheel working in the Punjab. The Mughals met it. They did not invent it.

The lift changed with the region. Babur noticed this. East of the Jhelam, around Lahore, Dipalpur and Sirhind, the pot wheel prevailed. He found it a novelty.

What did people use around Agra?

Around Agra and further east, the charas was most common. The charas was a leather bucket lifted by yoked oxen.

At Agra, Chandwar and Biana he saw a bucket on a rope. The rope went over a roller and was tied to a bullock. One person drove the bullock. Another emptied the bucket. He called it a laborious and filthy way.

What was the dhenkli?

The dhenkli was a lever lift. It was used wherever the water lies close to the surface.

Did the wheel spread east?

Yes, a little. Babur’s nobles set up wheels like those of Dipalpur and Lahore in the Agra gardens.

How much land used wells?

For Lahore province, the Ain-i-Akbari says that most of it was cultivated with well irrigation. The Ain is silent on wells in some provinces, where crops depended mainly on rain.

Only rich peasants and landlords could afford one.

Why does the 11th century stand out?

Rajasthani inscriptions of the 11th century mention vapis and araghattas more often than those of the 9th and 10th centuries. A vapi is a step-well, also called a baoli.

An inscription of 1059 ties one araghatta to a rice field. A Sevadi inscription of 1110 links one to a double-cropped field.

Well-irrigated land paid a smaller share. In the Deccan, Murshid Quli Khan took half the produce from ordinary land. From land irrigated by wells he took one-third.

Why a lower share?

No reason is given for the one-third well rate. Costlier crops like sugar-cane, fruits and spices paid one-third to one-fourth.

When was this set?

It was set in the closing years of Shah Jahan’s reign. Aurangzeb was then viceroy of the Deccan, sent there in 1652. The rule covered crops irrigated from wells. It was not only for the pot wheel. Some costly crops paid even less.

What are the key points?

• Device. A wheel with pots fixed to its rim. It lifted well water.
• Power. Bullocks. In the geared form they turned an upright wheel through gears.
• Earliest inscription. Mandasore, AD 532.
• Persian wheel. Exam keys equate the two. Scholars treat the saqia as the geared form.
• Regions. Pot wheel near Lahore. Leather bucket near Agra. Lever lift where water is near the surface.
• Cost. Rich peasants and landlords alone had the means.
• Revenue. Well-irrigated land in the Deccan paid one-third instead of one-half.

What are the traps?

1. The bag option. A leather bag pulled over a pulley is close to the charas, a leather bucket drawn by oxen. Neither is the pot wheel.
2. The other 2016 options. The araghatta is not bonded labour, a land grant or wasteland.
3. Persian wheel. The exam keys treat it as the same device. Scholars separate the two.
4. Gears. They were not a Mughal addition.

Has this come up in the exam?

The answer is (b). Pots were tied to the wheel. Option (a) is close to the charas, the leather bucket of the Agra region.

The answer is (c). The araghatta is a waterwheel for irrigation.

More sources: Chakravarti, Agricultural Technology: noria and saqia, Habib, The Agrarian System of Mughal India: rahat, charas and dhenkli by region.