INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE, TRADITIONS AND COSMIC VISION OF

PEOPLE RELATED TO WATER MANAGEMENT IN TANK VILLAGES

IN THE DRY ZONE1

Dr. P.B. Dharmasena

Dharmasenapb@ymail.com

Indigenous knowledge evolved for centuries in traditional agriculture is a mixture

of many aspects derived from religious and spiritual origins, cosmic influence
(astrology) and natural phenomena. The Indigenous Knowledge is unique to a
given culture or society. It provides the basis for techniques and practices for
many aspects of rural life such as agriculture, health care, food preparation,
education, natural resource management, social activities etc.

The content of an indigenous knowledge of a country varies depending upon the

needs and problems that the nation faced during the history. It can be categorized
according to its variability of importance. It is an information base for many
aspects in the community such as agriculture, climate, history, tradition,
medicine, religion, belief etc.

Families had become experts and specialists for different purposes. Some
examples are Wedadura (physician), Yakadura (healer), Kammalkararaya
(blacksmith), Dadayakkaraya (hunter) and Gamarala (village headman). They
gave their education to next generation through instructions, apprenticeships and
learning through observation. They preserved their knowledge by writing on
palm leaves and through folk media.

Some of the special features in the traditional agriculture are mentioned below.
i. Risks of farming due to factors such as rainfall, drought, pest and
diseases, damages from wild animals etc. were reduced through adoption
of auspicious times and spiritual powers in farming operations, timely
cultivation, crop management etc.
ii. Maintenance of favouarable environment for crops by adopting relevant
conservation practices.
iii. Maintenance of the land productivity by adjusting the farming practices
with least disturbance to soil and addition of organic biomass.
iv. Adoption of diverse crop combinations in agriculture to cope up with the
variation of climate, soil and other biotic as well as abiotic stresses.
v. Use of simple farm implements with lesser energy consumption
vi. Making use of natural processes to minimal use of inputs in cultivation
i.e. introducing and maintaining crop diversity (to minimize pest attack),
planting Mee (Madhuka longifolia) to attract bats to improve fertility,
maintaining natural vegetation around the tank to conserve water storage
etc.

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Paper presented at the Annual General Meeting of the Soil Science Society of Sri Lanka on 27th
March 2008 at SRICANSOL Resource Center, Department of Soil Science, Peradeniya.
The basic feature of the traditional farming system has become the man-made
small reservoirs (village tanks). Risks of farming due to factors such as rainfall,
drought, pest and diseases, damages from wild animals etc. were reduced through
adoption of auspicious times and spiritual powers in farming operations,
cultivation with cosmic influence, protection of crops using kem krama etc. Land
ownership of the paddy tract is distributed among villagers in a manner so that
each farmer could have similar access and right to the irrigation water. Decision
making on cultivation of a portion of paddy tract sharing proportionately among
farmers (bethma) and early cultivation with dry sowing (kekulama) in water
shortage seasons are good examples of their unity. Cultivation of the upper tank
bed area (thavulu govithena) during extremely dry seasons taking adequate
precaution to prevent sediment flow into tank is an example showing their
cultivation wisdom.

Sustainability of the traditional tank-village system had been maintained in the

past simply not only from structural maintenance. Each and every component of
the eco-system was given due consideration. The attention was paid not only on
macro-land uses such as paddy land, settlement area, chena lands, tank bed etc.
but also on micro-land uses such as goda wala, iswetiya, gasgommana, perahana,
kattakaduwa, tisbambe, kiul-ela etc. . All these were meant for conservation of
resources and efficient management of water.

There are three categories of traditional practices. The first group is based on
astrology, the second on the powers of the spirits and Gods, and the third involves
the chanting of verses and the use of specific symbols. Often these different
practices are combined.

The bethma cultivation practice is adopted in poor rainfall seasons when the
farmers can not cultivate the entire paddy tract by using limited water in the tank.
Farmers gathered and decide to redistribute temporarily the upper portion of the
paddy tract mostly in equal size. This provides a part of their food requirement
otherwise would end up with full abandonment of the paddy cultivation for that
season. The practice assured the equity among landowners. The tank water could
be utilized efficiently without causing crop losses. Such a practice does not
depend on the coming rainfall, which is not certain.

Farmers divided the maintenance works such as cleaning of the bund, cleaning of
the canals, small repairs etc. among themselves to complete works on time. This
reduces the cost, creates sense of responsibility and ownership and accountability.
Performance of works is in good quality and working together could strengthen
the social cohesion. Nevertheless, regular maintenance attending all repairs
ultimately could contribute to efficient water management.

In the traditional kekulama method the dry fields were ploughed with the country
plough (sinhala nagula) to obtain a dispersed soil and burry the weeds. At the
inception of rains dry seeds were sown with the anticipation of more rains soon.
After sowing, the land is shallow ploughed to mix-up the seeds with soil. In some
instances when the fields became adequately wet, the same kekulama could be
practiced but sprouted seeds had to be sown instead.

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The recent studies found that delaying cultivation without adopting kekeluma
method would lead to high irrigation requirement failing to use a considerable
portion effective seasonal rainfall for the cultivation.

It is evident that more than 2,000 rice varieties were grown in Sri lanka during
the known period of our history. These varieties varied with the location, purpose,
tolerance to soil, water and climatic stresses and their unique taste and aroma. For
example, heenati rice was grown for lactating mothers. Kanni murunga, another
variety, was grown for men going out to work in the fields. Suvandel was
cultivated for its extraordinary fragrance. Monks who did not eat after noon were
given a special variety grown over six to eight months called mawee, which
possesses high-protein content. There were varieties for different meals in the
day, preparations, patients, elders, infants etc. Also there were varieties, which
could stand for salinity (pokkali wee), flood and drought. There is a need to
investigate, classify and use them for breeding purposes depending up on the
purpose and for different environmental conditions.

In the past the devastation experienced in planning of major irrigation schemes

was that all small irrigation schemes have been destroyed and on that macro-level
major irrigation plans were laid down. This has led to burry the traditional
irrigation and farming culture, develop salinity in irrigable lands and create social
and ecological conflicts in the settlements. It has taken long period of time to
realize the consequences of ignoring centuries old irrigation wisdom of the
country and adopting western engineering concepts in rural community
developments. With this background a new irrigation concept has been developed
by the Mahaweli to adopt in future irrigation resettlement programs. This is
expected to adopt in Moragahakanda and Kaluganga Irrigation Projects. The
concept is briefly described below.

The basis of the proposed settlement pattern is derived from the traditional
village settlement patterns found in the traditional regions still exist with slight
changes. Widely studied traditional settlement configuration is known as
‘Kotugama’- the cluster of dwelling houses located encircling a large court yard,
where granaries are built and the community meets in close proximity. The other
generally applied traditional village settlement pattern is known as ‘Diggama’-
literally expressed as ‘long village’ where the dwelling units and the land blocks
fall in a line and usually connected with a foot path. Kotugama represents a
strong communal life whereas Diggama stands as a slight liberal distribution
giving freedom from the much closer communal life. Diggama- the lengthy lay-
out is sometimes evolved as an outcome of the linearity of the valley in which the
villagers closely engage in farming. The lay-out of Diggama characterizes with
its spread of land blocks lying in perpendicular to the bottom line of the valley.
Individual land allotment always consists of the wet paddy tract lying in the deep
valley and the balance in the upward rise along the slope of the land strip. A
diverse mix of land use with different soil types is inherent with this type of lay-
out. It provides the user ideal locations for construction of dwelling houses and
the maintenance of a garden with perennial crops etc. The other inherent quality
found with this lay-out is that its ability to provide the land user with ample
accommodation to look after their farmlands so closely.

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Following features/ characters are included in the new conceptual settlement
model.
i. Main irrigation canal running on an upper contour and functioning as an
elongated reservoir like old Yoda Ela, feeds series of small tanks
(cascade) downstream.
ii. Distribution canal laid along upper contour (the present Mahaweli
design) is replaced by allowing water to flow along the natural drainage.
iii. Flow requirements to small tanks can be predetermined according to the
cultivation schedules,
iv. The irrigable land, homestead and rainfed farming areas (seasonal and
perennial) are positioned along a land strip of the catena. This makes
farmer to have close access to all farming lands and fair distribution of all
kinds of soil,
v. Ecological variation along the catena is not disrupted by the settlement
plan,
vi. The road network is formed by two lateral roads (lower farm tract and
upper road) with tying up cross roads,
vii. Communal lands are planned in the upper areas of tanks to improve
social cohesion among villages,
viii. Natural drainage will continuously act as a live drain facilitating the
drainage flow through tank cascade, and
ix. Ecological conservation is assured in tank surrounding by maintaining
reservations for gasgommana, perahana, kattakaduwa, kiul ela etc.

As stated by Robert Chambers, 1994 indigenous knowledge has different modes

of experimenting and learning. Methodologies and analytical tools adopted in
modern science to accept or reject should be utilized with some modification in
investigating the indigenous knowledge. Interpretation of any observation must
be carefully made giving due consideration to the ‘time tested facts’. However,
inability to interpret any phenomenon does not mean that it is a myth. Many
practices adopted in the traditional communities are blended with religious and
spiritual beliefs and cosmic influence. Thus, it is wise to use a ‘package effect
approach’ rather looking for effects of each component separately. For example,
the nawa kekulama is an improvement of the traditional kekulama considering the
present environment, where it is to be practiced. Irrespective of the unknown and
unseen influence of certain components, the null hypothesis can be tested for the
whole package of kekulama.

A research methodology should be developed to conduct experiments with real

practitioners of the indigenous knowledge and in real environment, where it is
being practiced.