GRAND ANICUT – KALLANAI DAM - THE GREATEST TEMPLE

GRAND ANICUT – KALLANAI DAM - Tiruchirapally

 

Kallanai Dam

 

Bhagiratha Prayed to Lord Shiva to reduce the force (break her fall) of Ganges when she descends from the Heaven to the Earth. Her turbulent force could shatter the earth, and Only Lord Shiva could contain her force. Ganga while descending thought she will sweep the lord along with her to the Patala or netherworld. Lord Shiva who envisioned this thought of Ganga, imprisoned her in his Matt or Jata, and released her only after the tapas of Bhagiratha, for the well-being of his ancestors and the earth. Shiva is the 1^st builder of a Dam with his Jata. Hence he is also known as “ Gangadhara  “, The Lord of Ganga”.

 

There are very many claims to the first ever man made Dams across the world including Dholavira in India, Egyptian’s, Roman’s and Mongolian’s. It does not make a difference, what makes the difference is the thought behind the dam and the purpose and long sustenance of such structure still functioning or live in the modern times.

 

Somewhere between the 4^th century BC and 2^nd Century CE, was born a King Named Karikalan or  Karikal Valavan ( Kari = Charred Kal = Leg) in the Chola dynasty (Early Cholas) in the southern parts of India and Tamilnadu  in Particular. People trying to usurp his throne, tried to burn him in the palace, but he escaped with his leg getting charred by the fire and hence his name.

 

So fierce was he to his enemies that, he was called Parakesari meaning “Lion to his Opponents”. I was mildly surprised to know that he had conquered the entire country of Bharath and Srilanka. He is supposed to have conquered and engraved his Tiger emblem in the Himalayas. He was given gifts by the Kings of Vajra (Modern Mathura), Avanthi (Modern Malwa region), Magadha(Modern Bihar).

 

Tiger to his enemies, but very passionate about the welfare of his subjects, He built the Kallanai Dam, also known as the Grand Anicut. Corruption of the word ANAI in Tamil means DAM. KALL means STONE. The purpose behind the construction of the dam was to divert the excess water of the Kaveri to the Thanjavur Delta region for boosting irrigation for agriculture through many canals. The main purpose of the dam was to retain the supply of water in the Kaveri and its distributaries and to pass on the excess water to Kollidam River a tributary of Kaveri.

 

 It is a live dam and still serves the people of Tamilnadu, India. The dam was constructed by King Karikala Chola, and could be dated as early between the 4^th century BC and the 2nd century AD. The dam is located on the River Kaveri, approximately 20km from the city of Tiruchirapalli. During his time the Dam helped in irrigating 69000 acres of land now it irrigates 10,00,000 acres of land.as it was altered during the period of British In the 19^th century.

 

Built around 2,000 years ago across the Cauveri River in Tiruchirapalli District of Tamil Nadu, the Kallanai Dam is still in excellent condition and used as a major irrigation dam even now. The techniques used to build or the dam was very unique and had used scientific methods to preserve the flow of sand.

 

Architecture

 

The structure measures 329 meters in length and 20 meters in width, with a height of 5.4 meters. The construction was done on very simple principles of displacement of Sand. The heavy Rocks were sunk into the running river, with pressure, which would displace the sand in and around it. A live example is, when you stand in a beach the waves after hitting the shore, while retreating pushes you inside the sand, and the sand below your legs is displaced.

 

The real Dam built by Karikalan  is a unique structure built,  just with large boulders brought and sunk in the Kaveri river bed.  The Structure of the Kallanai has been tampered and altered with additional hydraulic equipments which have been added around 1800 by the British, making it very difficult to assess the architecture.

 

 

 

Dr.Chitra Krishnan ( Tank & Anicut irrigation Systems: An Engineering Analysis)(Ph.D Thesis, Indian Institute of Technology, 2003), in her pioneering historical studies of old descriptions of the Anicut from a variety of archives with archaeological and anthropological field,  suggests, that the original Kallanai had some very peculiar design features: the curved shape of the masonry section, a sloping crest, and an irregular descent from front to rear”( See Photograph).

Dr.Chitra Krishnan also concluded “ that the old Anicut worked so well because they sophisticatedly reshaped water currents and sedimentation processes, rather than trying to control all natural elements by force”

 

 

The Kallanai was built to divert floods from the Kaveri branch of the river into the Kollidam branch “via a short connecting stream” “when the water level in the river rose above its crest”.The Kollidam “was the wider (also the steeper, straighter, and hence faster) of the two river branches, and…the flood carrier. It was barely used for irrigation. Almost all of the 600,000 acres irrigated by the river in 1800 were delta lands south of the Kaveri branch. So the Kaveri branch was the lifeline for delta farmers, while the Kollidam was of little consequence for them (See Photograph)