How did forts help in maintaining the Maratha empire?
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The Maratha Empire or the Maratha Confederacy was a power that dominated a large portion of the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. The empire formally existed from 1674 with the coronation of Shivaji as the Chhatrapati and ended in 1818 with the defeat of Peshwa Bajirao II at the hands of the British East India Company. The Marathas are credited to a large extent for ending Mughal rule over most of the Indian subcontinent.[4][5][6][note 1]
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In the olden times, people knew the importance of water and had devised a number of techniques to manage and conserve water resources. These efforts not only met the drinking water needs of the people, but also helped the survival of livestock and agriculture in areas where perennial rivers were absent and the population depended on rains and often faced water scarcity or droughts.
The annual droughts in Maharashtra have put immense pressure on the available water resources. Add to it, the inability of the government to provide adequate and potable water to people in both rural and urban areas, the need to explore other decentralised and localised means of harnessing and conserving water only got more crucial. Rainwater harvesting is one such method [1].
Water scarcity is not new in India, though it has reached an alarming state now. A peek into our rich history will give us many lessons on how our ancestors dealt with the changing weather patterns and the water demands by designing water-harvesting structures based on the unique topography of the region.
Lessons from the forts
A classic example of the ancient ingenuity in designing water-harvesting structures to meet the needs of people living in hilly and mountainous areas is the techniques used in ancient hill forts of Maharashtra. Many were constructed during the reign of the Maratha warrior of the 16th century, Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. The forts were designed to provide strategic advantage against the enemy, the Mughals [2].Every hill fort functioned as an independent town where everything--from groceries to armour-- was available in sufficient amount to sustain in times of an attack by the enemy. Similarly, water, too, needed to be stored efficiently, considering the impracticality of carrying water to the fort on the hills for the daily needs of the people [3]. A number of structures, such as underground water tanks, reservoirs, cisterns, and artificial lakes, were constructed on these forts [3].
Water-harvesting structures
The hill fort of Sinhagad in Pune has many water tanks built within its structure. “These are actually rock-cut cisterns called take or tanks that accumulate and store rainwater. These tanks were created when the rocks needed for the construction of the forts were extracted from the ground. A total of 48 such take can be seen in the fort. At some locations, there are dressed stone walls around these tanks to increase the height and the storing capacity of the tanks,” says Joshi. These tanks stored water for four to six months, following the rainy season.
The annual droughts in Maharashtra have put immense pressure on the available water resources. Add to it, the inability of the government to provide adequate and potable water to people in both rural and urban areas, the need to explore other decentralised and localised means of harnessing and conserving water only got more crucial. Rainwater harvesting is one such method [1].
Water scarcity is not new in India, though it has reached an alarming state now. A peek into our rich history will give us many lessons on how our ancestors dealt with the changing weather patterns and the water demands by designing water-harvesting structures based on the unique topography of the region.
Lessons from the forts
A classic example of the ancient ingenuity in designing water-harvesting structures to meet the needs of people living in hilly and mountainous areas is the techniques used in ancient hill forts of Maharashtra. Many were constructed during the reign of the Maratha warrior of the 16th century, Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. The forts were designed to provide strategic advantage against the enemy, the Mughals [2].Every hill fort functioned as an independent town where everything--from groceries to armour-- was available in sufficient amount to sustain in times of an attack by the enemy. Similarly, water, too, needed to be stored efficiently, considering the impracticality of carrying water to the fort on the hills for the daily needs of the people [3]. A number of structures, such as underground water tanks, reservoirs, cisterns, and artificial lakes, were constructed on these forts [3].
Water-harvesting structures
The hill fort of Sinhagad in Pune has many water tanks built within its structure. “These are actually rock-cut cisterns called take or tanks that accumulate and store rainwater. These tanks were created when the rocks needed for the construction of the forts were extracted from the ground. A total of 48 such take can be seen in the fort. At some locations, there are dressed stone walls around these tanks to increase the height and the storing capacity of the tanks,” says Joshi. These tanks stored water for four to six months, following the rainy season.
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