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YODHA ELA of ANCIENT SRI LANKA

A glimpse of the glorious past and marvelous water management skills exhibited by the civilization

hen discussing about Yodha Ela in Sri Lanka, there are at least four of them well known, namely the Kalawewa Yodha Ela (KYE) which is also known as the Jaya Ganga, the Elahera-Minneriya Yodha Ela (EMYE), the MinneriyaKantale Yodha Ela (MKYE) and the Minipe Yodha Ela (MYE) that comes to my mind.

The Irrigation Civilization of Ancient Lanka From ancient times, Sri Lanka had been enjoying the facility of irrigated agriculture through the regular supplies of monsoonal rainfall of the earths equatorial belt. In Lanka or Ceylon as the British liked to call it or Sri Lanka as it is now famous, the beautiful island and civilization of ours, implementation of the famous One TankOne Village Ecology and the resultant 'eco friendly sustenance of its agri based economy' had been very successful for very many centuries. In this set up, there is a cluster of homestead forming a village, and an upstream tank, which is being utilized to cater for the cultivation of paddy lots downstream. When the monsoonal rains come, the water from its little catchment gets collected and it is retained at this village tank, and it was quite This system of One Tank-One Village Ecology was operating in many parts of the country, and even today if we happened to take a glance of the one inch to a mile Topo Sheets of Sri Lanka, we would notice the traces and remnants of a large multitude of such village tanks located mostly around the dry zone of Sri Lanka. There were no lengthy canals in these systems. The water that was allowed to collect at the upstream village tank was released to the downstream paddy lots with a tiny feeder canal if at all, as the irrigable areas were quite small. In most cases, the water spilled over from one paddy lot to the other without a channel. The big irrigation canals were utilized only if one needed to take the water to some distant places where there was a shortage of water, or no water at all. Water Resource Management In Water Resources Development, the Water Planners and Engineers have the primary task of matching the available supply of water with its demand. The supply is the natural rainfall of the area, and the people have very little control over it, in spite of rainmaking. Generally, the water sources are found at the headwaters of catchments in the mountainous areas, while the irrigable areas are located downstream many miles away. If the cultivation plots receive the natural rainfall over its cropping period, then there is no necessity of irrigation canals. A good example of this would be the Chena Cultivations that are being practiced in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka even now. Very often, the irrigable areas are located at far distances, many miles away from where the heavy rainfalls occur. Around these irrigable areas, the demand for water exists in different forms such as (1) Demand for water at that particular distant location.

(2) Demand for water at the particular time period of the year. (3) Demand for water with an assured reliability to the cultivator. In order to match these different forms of demand, with that of the natural rainfall supply, we need to build dams, reservoirs, anicuts, barrages, irrigation canals, aqueducts and pipes etc. The dams and reservoirs are needed to store-up the water, the anicuts and barrages are needed to head-up the water along the river, while the canals, aqueducts and pipes are needed to convey the water from one location to another. Another important service that the reservoirs do is the timing and the regulation of the supplies, where the buffer stocks of excess water during the rain spells are stored and released as and when necessary. For the plant growth, it needs a regular supply of water over the duration of the crop, irrespective of whether it is in a drought or otherwise. During droughts or dry spells, the Irrigation Engineers generally adopt various water rationing techniques. They optimize the usage of water in irrigation areas by adopting rotational issues, by minimizing the farmer wastages and the water leakages from dykes etc. Another service that the reservoirs perform is the provision of reliability of an assured supply of water to the farmers. For the farmers to go ahead with the cultivation of their lands with the land preparations, spending money for seed paddy, pesticides, weedicides etc., especially in the Yala Season (April to September) where there is an acute shortage of water in the dry zone of Sri Lanka, the reservoirs do provide a guaranteed supply to them. The farming community could see it in real-time that there is water in the reservoir, even if there is no more rainfall occurring in the next few months for their cultivation to proceed. It is the duty of the Irrigation Engineer to coordinate all the water issue dates and activities, and to run through a successful irrigation crop and reap the best harvest producing the maximum yields. Irrigation Tanks Sri Lanka has a large number of major reservoirs built during the past, mostly in the Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Vanni Districts. They were built by the ancient kings of Sri Lanka, and they have served the nation for very many centuries.

feeds into the distribution channels and supply to the paddy lots. In the history of Sri Lanka, some of these main channels had been referred to as Yodha Ela meaning A Giant Channel. The reason why they were referred to as Yodha Ela is beyond comprehension. Generally, the king would have ordered his subordinates to construct these main channels running through long distances, and because of the sheer quantum of work to be accomplished at that time, without any known mechanised and automated machinery to be utilised, this type of a construction appeared to have been considered as a massive gigantic task, or a Yodha Wedak and thereby they would have referred to these channels as Yodha Ela. This is just one point of view. Another point of view is that because the construction work was entrusted to the so-called Yodhayas (Giants) who lived during the time of the king, those channels could have been referred to as the Yodha Ela. Whatever the nomenclature and identity is, in Sri Lanka we are left over with at least four Yodha Ela in different places in the Dry Zone. Historical The Kalawewa Yodha Ela (KYE) was constructed by King Dhathusena. It was taking water from Kalawewa Reservoir to Tissawewa Reservoir in Anuradhapura. This 52-mile long canal, also known as the Jaya Ganga had been the talking point of many a people around the world. It was not because this was a trans-basin diversion canal transferring water from one basin to another, namely from Kala Oya Basin to Malwatu Oya Basin, but because of the been constructed. This amazingly mild gradient had been found to be of the order of one-foot drop along one-river mile. Even with the modern day survey equipment achieve the said accuracy, and all due credit should go to the ancient canal builders of that era. Unique Feature This KYE from Kalawewa to Tissawewa feeds water to a large number of minor tanks on its way. The essential characteristic of this canal was that it was running ahead or upstream these minor tanks while it feeds them, and it is not running through the tanks or across them. As the KYE is a from the forest cover along its length are addition to the releases from Kalawewa. This particular aspect is different from the present day irrigation channels, as they are mostly double-banking where only the releases from the upstream reservoir are being conveyed down. The modern irrigation channels could be stated to be running in isolation when going through its length of conveyance, where as the ancient KYE mingles with the environment and picks up on its way, the natural sub-surface banking. KYE has existed harmoniously with the environment functioning for nearly 1500 years, while the modern irrigation channels introduced by the British to Sri

Lanka had operated only for about 160 years the most. The other Yodha Ela is the ElaheraMinneriya Yodha Ela (EMYE). By constructing an anicut across Amban the EMYE. After about 20.5 miles from the Elahera Anicut along the EMYE, a bifurcation structure has been constructed at Diyabeduma. As the name Diyabeduma Minneriyawewa and Giritalewewa, and

construction of this Elahera Canal had been done by King Vasabha during (65-109) AD. King Aggabodhi II who reigned from (608-618) AD is recorded to have improved the canal, and extended the supplies to Giritalewewa & Minneriyawewa. Later King Vijaya Bahu (1055- 1110 AD) had repaired the canal and improved the works. This EMYE had been put into good use, by King Parakrama Bahu I, who achieved during his reign (1153-1186) AD. King Aggabodhi II (608-618 AD) who constructed the Kantalewewa, also constructed another Yodha Ela. This is referred to as Minneriya-Kantale Yodha Ela (MKYE), and it is conveying water from Minneriyawewa to Kantalewewa. The MKYE is 20 miles long and it has been built in order to augment the water supply to Kantalewewa. This service had been further extended by supplying the water to another reservoir called Vendarasankulam located near Kantalewewa. Needless to say that all these reservoirs are used essentially for irrigation purposes. The other Yodha Ela originates from the Minipe Anicut feeding the Left Bank of the Mahaweli Ganga. The Minipe Anicut across the main Mahaweli Ganga had been constructed by King Aggabodhi I (575miles of this Minipe Yodha Ela (MYE). This MYE, which is also known as the Pabbatana Canal, was further extended to a length of 47 miles by King Sena II who reigned during (853-887) AD. References: 1. O.A. Gunawardane and R. P. de Silva, A Short History of Irrigation Engineering in Sri Lanka up to 2000 AD, Open University, Nawala. Sri Lanka, 2002 2. Palitha Manchanayake & C.M. MaddumaBandara, Water Resources of Sri Lanka, Natural Resources Series No.4, National Science Foundation, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1999 3. S. Arumugam, Water Resources of Ceylon its Utilisation and Development , A Water Resources Board Publication, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1969

Basawakkulamawewa in Anuradhapura. This had been built by King Abhaya who reigned from (414- 394) BC, as per stone inscriptions. King Devanampiyatissa, had built the Tissawewa in Anuradhapura during his period (247-207) BC. King Mahasen had built quite a few reservoirs such as Huruluwewa, Mahakanadarawewa, Padaviyawewa, Kaudullawewa, and Minneriyawewa during his period (276303) AD. King Dhathusena (459-477 AD) built the Kalawewa Reservoir, while the King Parakrama Bahu I (1153-1186 AD) built the famous Parakrama Samudraya in Polonnaruwa. Yodha Ela Concept The water is conveyed from a reservoir, through a sluice to the main channel, which

Palitha Manchanayake

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DECEMBER 2010 PAHANA - LIGHT & LIFE