Food Sources: Earth, Water, and Air - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 69

this, fi āzī Malik seems to have con-
structed canals in Multān and Dipālpūr
units. Baranī adds that in every territory
where fi āzī Malik served as governor,
he constructed canals for the progress of
agriculture there.
The credit for constructing a number
of canals in the region between the river
Sutle ¡ and Dihlī goes to Fīrūz- · āh.
First, the vast arid tract of Haryānā, where
only one crop was raised during the
rainy season in a year, attracted the royal
attention. In 755/1354, he laid down the
foundations of the city of iār Fīrūzā
(modern iār) and then constructed a
double system of canals, the headwa-
ters of which were drawn both from the
Sutle ¡ and the ⁄ amunā rivers. The
Sutle ¡ canal, named Ūlū ∞ - ‡ ānī, flow-
ing through Rupar and Sirhind town,
met the ⁄ amunā canal called Rā ¡ īwāh
near the new city of iār Fīrūzā. Both of
them passed via Karnal. At iār Fīrūzā,
they discharged their water through a
single channel into the ditch around the
city. Yayā Sirhindī supplements · ams-i
Sirā ¡ Afīf when he informs us that the
construction of canals started in 756/1355.
Besides the ⁄ amunā and Sutle ¡ canals,
he mentions another canal cut from the
Sutle ¡ , the waters of which were con-
ducted up to ⁄ ha ¡ har (a town in Rohtak
Distr.), irrigating a vast arid tract of 96
sq. miles. In 757/1356, another canal was
excavated from the Ghaggar river. This
flowed past the fort of Sirsuli (town) and
reached Harni ‡ erā. The most impor-
tant canal was the ⁄ amunā canal (later
called western ⁄ amunā canal ) that was
also cut from the ⁄ amunā and conducted
to the capital city of Fīrūzābād. Besides,
the Salīmā canal (later ‡ ānpūr ka nālā )
was dug in the Siwālīk hills and the waters
of Sirsūlī and Salīmā were diverted into
it. It flowed past · āhābād town (to the
south of Ambālā). Like their master, some
of Fīrūz · āh's nobles also appear to have

excavated irrigation channels in their
iā s, e.g. the Sīrat-i Fīrūz- · āhī informs us
that ‡ ān-i ⁄ ahān Mabūl planted gar-
dens and constructed canals, serais and
bazars in his iā.
The Mu ∞ al historians furnish infor-
mation about the repair of the old and
the construction of new canals. According
to Abu 'l-Fal, first · ihāb al-Dīn Amad
‡ ān repaired the Fīrūz- · āh's ⁄ amunā
canal, as it had silted during the early years
of Akbar's reign. Later, another officer of
Akbar, Nūr al-Dīn Muammad Tar ¶ ān,
had the same canal repaired a second
time. The reign of · āh ⁄ ahān witnessed
the digging of new canals in different ter-
ritories. · āh ⁄ ahān also increased the
length of Fīrūz- · āh's ⁄ amunā canal by
reopening it in the hills at ‡ irābād, and
brought its water up to · āh- ⁄ ahānābād
(Dihlī). This came to be known both as
Nahr-i bihi ª t and the Nahr-i fay . · āh
⁄ ahān's noble, Aālat ‡ ān, built a
dam on the Karnāl stream and made its
water flow into a channel so that the land
around might be irrigated.
During the same reign, a number
of small canals were built in the upper
Bārī Dōāb (Pan ¡ āb), the best-known of
which was the · āh-nāhr . It was brought
from the Ravi in the hills near Ra ¡ pur.
It flowed as far as Lāhawr, covering 84
miles. Two other canals were led off from
the same point, one to Pahānkot and the
other to Batālā. Alī Mardān ‡ ān is also
credited with the construction of a canal
from the Tavī river for watering his gar-
dens at So £ rā near Wazīrābād in the
upper Račna Dōāb which was 30 miles
long. The canals were constructed in the
regions of Multān and Sind also during
the same reign.
In South India as well, the canals
seem to have been a common means of
irrigation since ancient times. Evidence
available suggests that brick embank-
ments were built to protect them from