Ancient Indian Water Resource Engineering

Water is been a basic need for establishment of a civilisation. As all the ancient civilisations like Indus Valley Civilisation, Egypt, Mesopotamia etc are situated on the banks of different rivers or different water sources. Water is not only used for drinking but also be used for different purposes like Agriculture, Cooking, Washing, Medicinal Purposes and for Various Traditional Rituals etc. Depending on the chemical and physical properties and also on few other factors, our ancients had classified water into several groups. They had also made a thorough study of varying effects of conserving water belonging to different conditions. An attempt has been made here to bring out all the above details based on ancient and medieval Sanskrit texts along with details related to methods of exploration of underground water, their preservation and storage of surface water etc. In the present day background, it will be interesting and also helpful to know how people of ancient India maintained the quality of water, methods of purification and storage of water etc. in a scientific and simple manner.