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| How a Hindu king tackled floods in Kashmir 11 centuries ago | | | Peerzada Ummer
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Apr 2: About 1100 years ago, Kashmir Valley was beset with the same crisis as it's facing today: floods. One of the ministers of Kashmir's then Hindu king set the course of Jehlum by the marvels of his engineering skills. Floods were thus tamed for centuries.
Historical records mention that the Valley was always prone to floods and almost every year the ravaging waters would snatch everything from people. The Hindu king Avantivarman who took control of Kashmir in 855 A.D. had appointed in his cabinet a public works minister named Suyya. Historians believe that Suyya was a genius, and with his talent in the field of engineering, he channelized the flow of Jehlum in a manner that Kashmir remained safe from repeated flood threats for centuries.
The historians say that Avantivarman assigned Suyya the task to find out solution for the perennial floods so that his kingdom could remain safe. Suyya found that the rock bound gorge where the Jehlum left Kashmir greatly reduced the passage of the river bed. "It caused frequent floods and also damaged the crops-the main source of income at that time in Kashmir. The river bed had been further blocked by the rocks and boulders which had rolled down into the river from the hill side, hence choking the coarse of the Jehlum," historian M..A Stien records.
His book mentions further that Suyya took up the Herculean task of clearing and widening the passage of river. He constructed the high embankments on either side of the river in order to check the rocks from falling into the river in future. He also constructed new beds of the river at points threatened by breaches due to inundation. "Due to this measure, not only did the beds also deepen and cleared rocks, it also accelerated the flow of water which now speedily drained out," writes Stein.
Another great work of engineering undertaken by Suyya was the change in the course the Jehlum and the Sindh. The historical records mention in detail that in past, the Jehlum and Sindh river met near Trehgam, north Kashmir, turning a large tract of cultivable land into a swamp. But Suyya changed their course to the present place in Srinagar and regulated the course of Jehlum in such a way that it flowed right through the Wullar lake. The course of many important tributaries were regulated in a similar way. As a result, thousands of acres of land were reclaimed from the marshy tracts.
Unprecedented bumper crops were harvested and the peasants became prosperous. The historian Stein adds, "The change thus, made in confluence of the Vitasta and its most important tributary Sindhu, can still be traced, thanks to Kalhana's accurate topographical data. It shows alike the large scale and the systematic technical basis of Suyya's regulation. The result of the latter was a great increase of land available for cultivation and increased protection against the disastrous floods, which in Kashmir have ever been the main causes of famine."
Experts are of the opinion that successive governments in Jammu and Kashmir allowed large scale illegal constructions on flood channels, undermining the course of water which Suyya had set for Jehlum. The large scale violations on the banks of floods channels with the patronage of the governments has again put Srinagar on brink of destruction.
Indeed, history always has lessons, but only for those who are willing to listen and act. |
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