Kulam in Tamil is a generic term for a water resource commonly found in many parts of southern and eastern India. In English they are called tank (emanated from tanque in Portuguese). View a short film about the tanks here.
There are many theories exist from where such technology of building tanks would have come. While many south Indians, especially Tamil scholars estimate that tanks came into existence in their territory for long – even during Sangam age. Some prominent historians from the west had also written Sri Lanka may be the country given origin to this technology. A great Tamil scholar, Kathiraivelpillai of Eelam, using Tamil etymology cites some technology related to weirs might have originated from eastern India say-today’s Orissa. Read here.
Tanks contribute significantly to irrigation in India especially in the states of Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Their contribution to irrigation varies from 20-35% of the total area irrigated by all sources ( includes dams, groundwater and streams) in a year. Tanks are used for many purposes apart from irrigation such as domestic and drinking water use, cattle use, fishery, forestry and timber. However all is not well with tank irrigation systems today.
They are in serious disrepair all over India.
kulam
This is an interesting article. I’d like to see the small rural farmer to have the opportunity to make use of these tanks for irrigation. I write more about it here. :http://blog.paulpolak.com/?p=516