Did Karikala, the 2nd Century Chola king, build the Kallanai dam?
People in Tamil Nadu widely believe that Karikalan built the Kallanai dam, also known as the Grand Anicut. There is a memorial at the dam site to honor him. It features a bronze statue of the king.
“Myth” of Kallanai by Karikalan
However, there are some who question this belief, such as this web site “Controversies in History” which features the story titled, “Myth of Kallanai by Karikalan”.
Karikalan never built Kallanai. Kaverikku iru puramum karai eduppiththaan.That’s all. Kallanai was constructed during Nayak period. That was very small dam and today what we see is the expansion by British people. A student of Jawaharlal Nehru University did a PhD on Kallanai and proved beyond any doubt that it was built by nayaks and subsequent expansions by British people.
There have been too many emotional arguments presented in this thread. It is understandable that Tamil pride is hurt when a long held belief is questioned. But is it based on evidence or just a myth? The author of this article has every right to question that. Scientific temper calls for questioning all assumptions. Newton’s physics was good enough, up to a point. By questioning that, Einstein came up with the Theory of Relativity.
In murder cases, eyewitness accounts are the best evidence to prove guilt. However, if such an eye witness is not available, prosecution may be able to offer proof by way of circumstantial evidence. In our case, as the author of the above article points out, we do not have any copper plates, stone inscriptions or palm leaf manuscripts directly saying that Karikalan built Kallanai. Let us see where the circumstantial evidence leads us.
No, it is not a dam *across* the river
Whenever somebody says dam, we visualize a structure across the flow of a river, causing the water to form a lake behind the dam. The other well known dams on river Cauvery are of this type, Mettur Dam in Tamil Nadu and Krishnaraja Sagar Dam in Karnataka. However, Kallanai is a different type of dam. This is unfortunately made more obscure by further construction on the site by the British. The original Kallanai is what is known in Hydraulic Engineering branch of Civil Engineering as a side weir. Let me quote an authoritative source on what type of dam Kallanai is.
Alternative Internet Archive link is here.
See the article titled “Tanks and Anicuts of South India” by Chitra Krishnan & Srinivas V. Veeravalli, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT Delhi from page 220.
On page 221, the authors describe what it is and its size:
[Kallanai] is a stone masonry structure, about 6 m high and 330 m long, situated in the Cauvery river delta… it is a side weir lying along the northern bank of the Cauvery.
It is not a typical dam across the river. It is along the banks of the river.
So, what is the function of a side weir? The authors of the above paper also explain that very well on page 222:
The main function of the Grand Anicut was to keep the waters of the Cauvery away from the faster and steeper Kollidam (Coleroon) during normal times, while allowing floodwaters to be safely transported from the Cauvery to the sea via the Kollidam.
In other words, in a flood situation the excess water will overflow Kallanai into Kollidam for safely draining to the sea. But at normal times, Kallanai will keep the water in Cauvery for irrigating the Delta region. With that in mind, let us go back and analyze the statement in the Valanjeri plates.
Velanjeri copper plates of Parantaka Chola I
Copper plate grant issued by Parantaka Chola I is dated 932 A.D. It gives the names of his ancestors in the Chola line including Karikala. Three important accomplishments of Karikala are mentioned, of which the second one is of interest to us:
(2) He raised embankments on either side of river Kaveri and controlled its flood.
If you take a good look at the Google maps of Grand Anicut area even today, a very simple fact will hit you in the face. The Kollidam (Coleroon) river is not just faster and steeper, as the above paper pointed out, but it is also much wider than Kaveri (Cauvery). We in the Kaveri delta (கழிமுகம்) region call Kaveri the Irrigation River (பாய்கால்) and Kollidam the Flood Draining River (வடிகால்). Without Kallanai, much of the flow will directly drain into the sea through Kollidam. Only a very small portion will flow through Kaveri. Let us leave it there for a moment and look at the other accomplishments of Karikalan.
Sangam literature to the rescue
Pattinappaalai is a Tamil poetic work belonging to the Sangam period written by the poet Kadiyalur Uruttirangannanar in praise of Karikala. You can read the full Tamil text of பட்டினப் பாலை here. In line 283 it says:
காடுகொன்று நாடாக்கி
He cleared forests for making the land suitable for cultivation.
In line 284 it says:
குளந்தொட்டு வளம்பெருக்கி
He created village tanks to improve prosperity.
Please note that Kalingattupparani mentions Karikalan’s presentation of gold coins to the poet of Pattinappaalai — meaning that this poet lived at the same time as Karikalan.
Thus there is ample evidence to show that he built an extensive Irrigation System in the Kaveri delta region. That is why he was given the title of “பெருவளத்தான்” meaning “the one who brought great prosperity” (Akananuru - 125).
You can see more about tank storage systems also in the above paper. Even though this article is about the Palar river system, you will understand how such tank systems worked.
The river Kaveri has over 20 distributaries or branch rivers, namely Vennar, Vattar, Kudamurutti, Arasalar, T.R.Patnam river, Nattar river, Keerthimaan Aaru, Manjalaru, Mahimalai, Veeracholan river, Uppanar river and so on. Each may be 100 kilometres long for a total length of more than 2000 kilometres. These rivers in turn feed a couple of thousand village tanks of varying sizes.
As we can see on page 222 in the above paper, “the Cauvery is the primary river for irrigation in the region. Even in 1800 AD, it irrigated 6,00,000 acres”. According to the Madras District Gazetteers Tanjore Vol-i by Hemingway F.r. page 114, in 1903 Tanjore District came first with 1,083,000 acres of cultivated land. Given this data, it is likely that Karikalan converted of the order of 1,00,000 acres or more of forest land into cultivable fields suitable for rice paddy.
Karikalan is the visionary architect and builder of a massive irrigation project
So, what is the logical conclusion we can draw from all these facts? There would be no need to raise the embankments on either side of river Kaveri to control the flood, unless Kallanai diverts more water into it instead of draining into the sea through Kollidam. There would be no point in clearing the forests unless there is more water to irrigate the fields. There would be no point in forming village tanks unless you have the means to fill them.
Don’t short sell him folks. Karikalan didn’t just build a dam. He is the visionary architect and builder of a massive irrigation project that gave food security for this part of the country for the next two thousand years and beyond, of which Kallanai is just one part, albeit the most critical part.
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