Abstract

Domesticated rice (Oryza sativa), typically a water-intensive crop, is widely cultivated in the semi-arid zones of South India and Sri Lanka and is a staple among sedentary populations in these regions when the opposite should prevail in light of environmental constraints. This paper investigates the origins of large-scale rice cultivation in South India and Sri Lanka and the attendant innovations in hydraulic technologies using a wide range of sources but with a special focus on Tamil ”Caṅkam” texts, the earliest surviving textual corpus for the Dravidian language family.

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