Kasaragod is said to have been the seat of a big palace in the past.
Although there is no evidence of a palace, Bekal Rama Nayak, a local
Kannada writer has traced the etymology of the word Bekal to Baliakulam
meaning big palace. The term Baliakulam came to be known as Bekulam and
later as Bekal. From inside the fort a secret tunnel leading right into
the sea can also be found here.
The popular meaning of qasr, an Arabic word, is a royal palace, garrison
or mansion. But qasr might have originated from the Sanskrit word
kasaaram. This word can be found in usage in India, Africa and the
Middle East.
Alcázar
Many of the cities of Spain have an alcázar, which means Spanish castle.
They are fortified structures built in the 14th and 15th centuries. The
term is derived from the Arabic word al-qasr, which means castle/
fortress. It is a group of buildings surrounded by walls. Generally
rectangular in form, alcázar have easily defensible walls and massive
corner towers. Inside the alcázar was a large open space (patio)
surrounded by chapels, salons, hospitals, and sometimes gardens. This is
considered both as a fortress and as a palace. A chain of fortresses was
built during Ptolemaic and Roman times. The settlement known in ancient
times as Takhoneourit is one of them. To the Greeks, it was Tchonemyris,
meaning ‘The Great Well’. Being a major water source in antiquity the
town would have been a stop- over to many a traveller overnight. The
remnants of the well can still be seen adjacent to the mudbrick
enclosure wall on the western side. The availability of water in this
part of the oasis enabled the town to grow large and added to its
prosperity. It is here that the cemeteries of the ancient community are
to be found. A major desert route which led from Qasr el-Zayyan to Esna
during Roman times, testifies to the importance of the settlement which
consitutes the lowest part of the Kharga depression, at 18m below
sea-level.
Kasai River in the southwestern Africa is a famous example. The river
rises in central Angola and flows east and then north and continuing
northwest through Congo, empties into the Congo River on the border
between Congo and the Republic of the Congo. But in the Middle East
Kasaram is spelt as qasr. There are several place names with qasr as
pre/suffix such as Qasr Libya, Umm Qasr (Iraq); Al Qasr (Egypt), Qasr
Azraq, Qasr Hraneh (Jordan); Qasr Naous (Lebanon); Qasr Ibn Wardan
(Syria). In India we have several such place names. Apart from Kasaragod
in Kerala we find that the place name occurs in other parts of India:
Kasar, Kasara, Kasaram, Kasara Pier, Kasarda, Kasare, Kasareddipalli,
Kasarhalli, Kasari, Kasari River, Kasarjaola, Kasarkod, Kasar Sirsi, Kas
Balari, Kasalran- Jammu and Kashmir; Kasan (Haryana); Kasandra
(Gujarat); Kasangi- Madhya Pradesh; Kasar (Rajasthan); Kas, Kasa Khurd,
Kasal, Kasar Sirsi, Kasara, Kasarda, Kasare, Kasarhalli (Maharashtra);
Kasal, Kasaram, Kasareddipalli (Andhra Pradesh). On India’s east and
west the following place name occurs: Kasar occurs in Bangladesh, Bosnia
Hercegovina, Croatia, Indonesia, Kenya, Pakistan, Philippines, Turkey.
Ras Kasar (Eritrea); Shatt al Kasar (Iraq); Sungai Kasar (Malaysia -2);
Wadi al Kasar-udan; Wadi al Kasar (Yemen); Kasara (Chad-2); Kasara
(Namibia); Kasari, Kasari Saar, Kasaritsa, Kasara, Kasariy, (Estona);
Kasara (Bulgaria); Kasara , Kasarikhola (Bangladesh); Hadjer Kasara
(Chad); Gora Kasara, Kasaradon (Georgia); Foho Kasarae (East Timor);
Kasarafam (Cameroon); Kasarami, River Kasara, River Kasaragu (Nigeria);
Kasarai (Papua New Guinea); Kasaraj Ljusnes, Maji i Kasarajt (Albania);
Kasaral El Barke (Mali); Kasarama Creek (Guyana); Kasanamba Hill
(Malawi); Kasaranga (Solomon Islands); Kasarangan (Indonesia); Kasa-ri,
Republic Of Korea (5); Kasari- Mauritania; Kasari (Uganda); Kasari
(Burkina Faso); Kasari, (Democratic Republic Of Congo); Kasar Koh,
Kasari Laghab, Kasari, Pakistan (3); Kasaria (Tunisia); Kasalia (Kasaria
Stream) (Zambia); Kasarichi (Belarus); Kasari-wan, Kasari-saki, Kasari,
Kasari-machi, Kasari-saki, Kasari-mura (Japan); Jazirat al Kasarinah
(Egypt); Kasaringa, Kasarini Estate, (Kenya); Kasarinvaara, Kasari
Seamount- Underwater Feature; Kasariselka (Finland); Kasa River-
Philippines; Kasarka, (Russian Federation); Kasarcilar, Kasarkoyu
(Turkey); Kasara, Kasar Lakbir (Morocco); Kasarlija (Bosnia
Hercegovina).
In Kerala the place name, Kasaragod, bears the seal of kasaaram.
Kanjiram and kasaaram rhyme. This might have caused trouble to define
the word Kasargod. Qasr is a palace, fortress or mansion. Qasr Al-Abd
means a palace in the lake. Kasaaram means a land of lakes.
In the article “Biography of the place named Kasaragod”, the word
kasaram has been explained to indicate wetlands. The paper on Qanat
begins with Nalut and qasr. This word rhymes with kasaram. Both are
wetlands. More over wetlands known as qasr can be found through out
Middle East. Castle is from qasr. And qasr might be from kasaaram. It
indicates that the early settlements were in the wetlands like the
homesteads in Kerala. Qasr and castle denotes the people from kasaaram.
In the Aryan migration legend an earlier attempt to enter Kerala was
foiled. Perhaps instead of entering Kerala they might have migrated to
the Middle East. The word Uru becoming Dhow a Sanskrit word is
indicative. All the qasr in the Middle East might be the earlier
agricultural settlements.
Herald of a Hydraulic Civilization
The Banaue Rice Terraces of the Philippines are located approximately
5,000 feet above sea level. They cover nearly 4000 square miles of the
mountainside and are irrigated from springs or reservoirs located in the
forest over 2000 feet above. A ten- meter high dry-stone wall protects
the huge spectacular staircases of narrow fields, carved out of the
mountain slopes. The ancestors of the Ifugaos tribesmen built the first
of these terraces 2000 years ago. These rice terraces supported by
reservoirs and canal systems turned the mountain slopes into massive
staircases of narrow fields each held up by stone retaining walls. These
terraces allowed the hillside to be cultivated without all the soil
washing away.
The way in which these rice terraces were built to fix the landscape
allowing the hillside for rice cultivation on a large scale, in a
terrain generally rugged and mountainous, is a testimony for mankind’s
mastery over his environment. The stairways of terraces stretched across
the vast swathes of the 3,000-meter-high Cordillera mountain range in
Northern Luzon, in the Philippines, cling to mountainsides between 700
and 1500 meters above sea level. They are the product of massive and
highly organized human endeavour through the ages.
Unlike the contemporary construction of Roman aqueducts in Europe, these
water works have remained centres of rice production without any break
till this date. Faultless maintenance and the complex ecology of the
pond-like fields, “combine to make the subsistence systems stable,
self-perpetuating, inherently conservative and nearly indestructible,”
says the American anthropologist Charles Drucker. Several decades ago,
the whole terraces, if laid end to end, could encircle half of the
globe, says Cappleman.
Cardenas identified the hydraulic knowledge, stone and earthwork,
terrace design and maintenance as indigenous rice terracing
technologies, important for the sustainable development of the area. The
study added that hydraulic knowledge includes the use of water as a
construction tool and the building of water conveyance and drainage
structures. Stonework includes the knowledge of different types of rocks
and their properties, the breakage and transportation of rocks, and rip
rapping, or the piling of rocks, to form stable retaining walls.
Often dubbed the “eighth wonder of the world”, these ancient works
gained modern recognition from archaeologists as well as tourists. No
wonder, in an attempt to preserve the ancient wonder that has landed the
Ifugaos and Bontocs on the world map, the UNESCO declared the Ifugao
rice terraces as a World Heritage site in 1995. Many complex
hierarchical societies developed across Asia in the wake of artificial
irrigation by canals and waterworks. Karl Wittfogel, an American
historian of the 1950s, argued that they emerged specifically in order
to organize the large labour forces necessary to create and maintain the
water-supply systems for irrigated agriculture and became the basis of
Oriental agriculture.” Wittfogel said: “Water control necessitated the
centralizing power of government. Until the industrial revolution, the
majority of human beings lived within the orbit of hydraulic
civilizations.”
The Qanats are underground terraces and they irrigate terraced hillsides
across a huge swathe of Asia from western China, through Pakistan,
Afghanistan and Kurdish Iraq to Lebanon and Israel. Thus in the Andes,
the Incas and their predecessors created magnificent systems of
stonewalled terraces. Even today they cover around a million hectares of
Peru. Modelled after Qanats, the filtration galleries in Nazca built for
irrigation purposes are named puquios. It is speculated that the Spanish
conquistadores and their followers introduced them to these regions.
These underground aqueducts made civilization possible in Nasca valley,
and continue to do so today. The native farmers believed that the
underground water that the aqueducts tapped comes from a mountain-sized
sand dune named Cerro Blanco.
The rice terrace is only a tip of an iceberg. Here the original
inventors can be identified. Qanats are a relic form of underground
irrigation important for dryland agriculture, and have been introduced
in many parts of the world. Considered to be the oldest feat of human
engineering, Qanat is found still working in Iran, North Africa, China,
the Arabian Peninsula, and Afghanistan and beyond. The user of Qanats
does not know the origin of the Qanat. They are at a loss on the matter
of details regarding the architect, its place of origin, the dates of
construction and the like. The history of the Middle East countries is
thus shrouded in mystery.
The theory to drain water out to the surface by gravity to lower land is
the same everywhere. But this ancient technology is known by different
names through out the Arab world. Persian construction techniques are
old and their languages rich in words relating to Qanat technology. Eg.
Qanat, karez, karez, kanerjing, qanat romani, hattaras/ khettara,
marrakesh/ tafilalet, viajes, respiraderos, galleria, Daudi, Iddy, Ainy
falaj, Ghaily, Iddi, Daudi, Aflaj, falaj, Kahn, Foggara, Qarez, Ghayl,
Miyan and Muqanni, Mattock, Madaar, Sharia, Mazhar, Awamir, Madari chah,
Maghsala, Ambar, Badgir; Farsi/ Barjeel, Khettara, Plg, Shallalah
Saghirah, Playa. The list is long. The widespread distribution of qanat
known in different places in their local names has confounded the
question of its origin. The fact that Qanats are known by different
names in different regions may due to the fact that different people
originated it during different point of times. No one knows who
introduced the system first.
These examples of Nalut and the rice terraces of Philippines take one to
the hydraulic civilization of the old world. One thing that we have
forgotten is that these hydraulic civilizations were flourishing on the
east and west of India. 5000 years ago India had occupied an important
position in the world civilization. So, without referring to India, one
cannot demystify the mystery of Qanat.
Prima facie attempt in examining a bunch of words helped to find light
at the end of the tunnel. This attempt if carried out further, will help
to unravel the history of the fraternity that existed between these
countries of the region.
In Kollamcode, a place in Parassala District, in Kerala Tamilnadu
border, there are many water conduits originating from the cave- like
structure. This eruption on the valley of a hillock irrigates paddy
fields surrounded by the hillock. Unlike Kasaragod, the hillock in
Kollamcode is found to be a coconut garden. In ancient times, these
hillocks must have been a forest, which helped capture rainwater to seep
into the soil, instead of washing away. The rainwater thus captured by
the entire hillock gradually and steadily seeps out through these
cave-like holes and conducts to the conduit to be led to the paddy field
for cultivation. No one connects this feature, to be the origin of the
place name Kollamcode. Kulya is water conduit. crodam means cave. As
there is no written source, this argument cannot be authenticated. But
this feature is not unique in Kollamcode alone. This is the feature seen
everywhere in Kerala, wherever there are rain fed paddy fields. But
unfortunately, these water springs are being wiped out by dumping soil
for construction of concrete structures or by altering the water table
level by spoiling the habitation in the hillock. The only difference
between ‘ka’ and ‘ko’ on this feature is linked with the soil. If the
water table is strong its mouth cannot be sealed easily. Once the water
table is dry surangam like structure cannot be constructed in these
hillocks. The only alternative is vertical wells. The laterite soil is
the raison detre for the existence of Surangam in Kasaragod. In the
early days Surangam must have appeared like the structures that we see
today in Kollamcode. But the fluctuations in the water table and the
need for the more water compelled the ordinary men to open the mouth of
such springs to quench their thirst for more water. The special feature
of the laterite soil allowed him to reach the aquifer. But this
experiment with the laterite soil in a very isolated scale might have
begun at an early period. This experiment with the water divination
helped them to settle qasr in the Middle East and beyond.
Conclusion
Great importance attached to irrigation from karizes in Balochistan, can
be gauged from the Baloch saying: “A mosque should be demolished if it
obstructs the course of kariz.”
Sura is water. When water makes its passage through a tunnel, it becomes
a horizontal well. This flowing well is called suramgam. The tunnel
constructed for a flowing well is therefore known in Sanskrit as
sraaveekoopam.
(Persian) Ewer is a water carrier. A kind of ewer made of bell metal
etc, with a spout at the bottom is known as kinti. A kind of pitcher,
with wide spout, especially one used with a basin on washstands is a
water pitcher. Aquarius, the large central constellation in the
equatorial region of the southern hemisphere between Pisces and
Capriconus, is supposedly outlining a man pouring water from a container
in his right hand. This is the 11th sign of the zodiac. A vase usually
of bell metal turned upon the rim with a flat circular bottom is known
as kinti / kinnam. A water pot carried by the ascetics is Kamandalu /
kinti. To dig out, to scoop out is kintuka. The root of the word kinar
is kintuka. Preterite of kintuka is kinti. Perhaps the word kinaru might
have originated from the process of kintuka.
The word Quilon, a southern district in Kerala, is the anglicized form
of Kollam. A Keralite will read the Arab Qanat only as kenat, owing to
his familiarity with the kinar. For him, the common word for a well or a
mine is kinar. K(i)rat, kera(na)t, keni, kerant are some other words
having the same meaning. It is also a household word. The word karez
occurs in Malayalam dictionaries to mean horizontal well. The word
Qanat, pronounced, as ‘kanat’ in Arabic and karez in Pashto is kanerjing
in China, Qanat romani in Jordan and Syria and so on. These are but a
continuation of K(i)rat, kera(na)t, keni, kerant and not otherwise.
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