Indian Antiquary Vol 45

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 82

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[APRIL, 1916
SECTION VIII.
Conclusion. It only remains to close our review of the remarkable career of this remarkable man with a consideration of the way in which he actually ruled and utilized the institutions of which he was the author for actual administration. And such & consideration shews that he was as great in doing as he was in planning. He had not only a head to think, but a hand to execute. He was not only an organizer, but a practical administrator.
Vibyanatha as a practical administrator. His measures were so conceived as to conciliate all classes of people. The Brahmans were edified by his liberal gifts to them, their temples and their gods. Lands were freely bestowed on them, cows as well as coins; and everywhere in the south, on the banks of rivers or in the vicinity of temples, there grew prosperous agraharams, wherein the chant of Vedas and the noise of studies mingled with praises to the royal benefactor. Visvanatha in fact was an idol of the Brahmans, and his successors never forgot this. Orthodox in practice or not, they never ceased to show respect for orthodoxy. The agricultural people were equally gratified by Visvanatha's solicitous attention to their needs and comforts. He bestowed happiness on thousands of homeless men by giving them lands to settle in and cultivate. The public distress which had been caused by the exposure of the people to the incessant rage of war and the insecurity of property, was alleviated by this paternal act. Knowing that the prosperity of an agricultural country depended on a good system of irrigation, he constructed two dams, the Perianai and Chinnanai,5 in order to divert the waters of Vaigai, through a number of canals and water courses, to the parched-up fields around Madura. A glance at the course of the Vaigai will give an idea of the wisdom of Viávanátha's choice of the sites for these dams. The Vaigai, it is well known, rises in the Varushanad valley, and after a few miles northward course receives the copious waters of the Suruli, the river which drains the flanks of the Kambam valley. The junction of the Suruli makes the Vaigai a deep and rapid stream, flowing in a narrow channel. In its subsequent north-eastern course under the northern slopes of the Andipatti hills and the Nâgamalais, it is further swelled by the perennial streams of the Varâhanadi and Mañjalâr which rush down from the Palnis. Immediately after this, the river turns and begins that south-easterly course in which is continues until it reaches the sea. It is at this important turning point that Visvanatha constructed his da ms. It was wise choice as by this time the river becomes full and, after this, it has simply to give and not take. From the dams a number of canals carried the waters to the banks and reservoirs excavated in almost every village. The whole country thus came to have a network of canals broken at intervals by big reservoirs which stored water and averted droughts. The immediate result of the creation of irrigational facilities was an enormous increase in the area of cultivation, in the formation of new villages, in population and in material prosperity. Droughts became less common and famines less formidable.
His works in Tinnevelly. The province of Tinnevelly also had the full advantage of these measures of construction and consolidation. The great Naik conqueror seems to have employed the months which immediately followed the subjugation of the Five Pâņdyas in the pacification and
5 For an account of these and other aniouto see Madura Gazt. p. 124-8.