Abstract
The setting is the district of Mandya, a low rainfall plateau area of Mysore where large-scale irrigation was introduced from the Krishnarajasagar Dam, beginning in 1931. Wangala is a village in the newly irrigated area, growing sugar cane for a nearby refinery and wet rice and dry garden crops for subsistence. Dalena, a few miles away, lies just outside the bounds of the irrigated region. While most still cultivate their dry lands for subsistence, Dalena's men have moved into a variety of cash-producing occupations in or near the town of Mandya, which has itself burgeoned as a result of the increase in regional productivity brought about by government-introduced irrigation. Dr. Epstein studied the two villages in 1954-56. Her book concerns the differential effects of the regional introduction of irrigation upon Wangala's and Dalena's economic, political, and social organizationthe latter including ritual observances and relations between castes, marital and residential arrangements within castes, and the structure of the family.
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