[Reader-list] Historical Tales - Suyya, the Great Medieval Engineer of Kashmir

[Pawan Durani]

Suyya, the Great Medieval Engineer of Kashmir

Sculpture and architecture flourished in ancient Kashmir. Buddhist,
Egyptian and Greek styles influenced Kashmir architecture, which lives
in the fluted columns, lofty pediments and solid arches of the many
monuments. It is not so well-known that Kashmir was celebrated in
engineering as well.

Suyya was the greatest engineer of medieval Kashmir. He lived during
the reign of Avantivarman (857-884 A.D.), the ruins of whose stone
temples exist at Avantipore, about 20 km above Srinagar, Suyya's great
engineering feats, described in the tale entitled after him, are even
now remembered by the people. The versatile Suyya was a learned
scholar; he first conceived the idea of a sanctuary to preserve
wildlife among birds and animals.

Major de Lotbiniere, who dredged the jhelum at a point where it falls
over a gorge 8 km below Baramulla, in the reign of Maharaja Pratap
Singh, took his cue from and greatly appreciated the skill and
originality of Suyya. Sopore-Suyyapur-a town, on the banks of the
Jhelum, 11 km from Baramulla, commemorates Suyya. He dug so many
canals from the broad-bosomed Vitasta (Jhelum) that it looked "a black
female snake with numerous hoods resting on one body".
(Rajatarangini).
In the 8th century A.D., Lalitaditya Muktapidya had drained Vitasta
(the Jhelum) in the vast vale of Kashmir, because floods caused by
excessive rains would damage the crops. The great emperor also had
many canals dug out from the Vitasta. After Jayapidya, kings of little
virility and vision ruled the Valley. More and more lands were denuded
by or submerged under the mater as the bed of the Vitasta rose in the
course of many decades. The people were unhappy.

Avantipura was the capital of Kashmir. The town was spread about the
two magnificent temples, Avantiswami and Avantasvara. Their noteworthy
ruins, found 20 km from Srinagar on the roadside, interest the
tourists to Kashmir under the foot of a towering craggy mountain, on
arising plateau that flanked the Vitasta and commanded a fine, broad
view of the Valley fields, uplands and encircling ranges of mountains.
Here lived the King of Kashmir, Avantivannan, (857884 A.D.), the great
builder of temples, who was a saint-monarch.

His courtiers and ministers sat about him as he gazed out of the
window. "There, you see the inundated fields;" sadly remarked
Avantivarman, "the Vitasa creeps over more fields like a devouring
serpent. We did much for our people. But how can we rid them of this
menace which is starving them now?"

"Sire," replied the prime minister, Sura, "Your Majesty has got dug so
many canals. Others, blocked up during scores of years of misrule,
when kings and queens were more concerned with their palace intrigues
than with the welfare of the people, were cleared. What more can we
do?"

"Something more has to be done,' persisted the king, "yearly the
Vitasta is rising, overflowing cultivated land and submerging
riverside towns, villages and hamlets."

"Sire", rejoined the minister Prabhakaravarman, " the price of a Khari
of paddy has risen to 250 dinnaras."

The King fell athinking.

The poet Anandavardhana broke the silence, after a while, "Sire, in
Parihaspura I heard of a man who has been saying for years, 'I have a
plan to save Kashmir from floods. I would work it out if I had the
resources.' People say he is a madman."

Avantivarman was interested and said, "Tell us more about him".

"I know no more, Sire," confessed Anandavardhana, "but I can have the
man traced."

Suravarman, the Yuvaraja, supplied the information: "Sire, the man is
a Brahmin, Suyya. They say he wasn't born of a woman's womb. A
Chandala woman, named Suyya, found a baby in a dust heap, sucking its
thumb in a new earthen pot which had a lid on. The lustrous-eyed babe
was not polluted by her with her touch. She had it brought up by a
Shudra wet nurse and she gave her own name to the baby. The boy, as he
grew up, picked up the Vedas and other learning very precociously. Now
he fasts and bathes a lot and leads a very religious life. He goes
about saying he has a plan to do away with the floods of the Vitasta.
People, as Anandavardhana said, call him mad".

"Very interesting", commented Avantivarman.

"Sire", observed Sura, who was thinking out his opinion so far, "I too
have heard about this man Suyya. People's reports and facts may not
agree. We cannot be sure that the man is crazy, unless we know
better".

"Precisely, that is what we feel. Send your spies, Sura, and find out
where Suyya is. Let him be granted an audience before us".

In a few days Suyya was present in the King's court. The courtiers
passed whispering remarks about his strange appearance: he was a very
handsome youth with the large lotus eyes they had heard of. The lustre
of chastity shone bright on his face. He looked a scholar. There was
something extremely individual about him. As he talked to the King in
his serious manner, a silence fell on the court.

To the King's question, he replied, "Sire, it's true that all these
years I have talked that I have a plan to drain the Valley. For the
present, give me only two pots full of dinnaras. With that I will
bring down the inundated waters by one-third their volume".
"He is crazy", the courtiers cut him short.

"Crazy or no ?" rang Suyya's voice. "Trust me with the money 1 want,
great Maharaja. See the result, Sire. I am not a robber to do away
with people's money".

Sura for once did not know what to say. He fidgeted his fingers, a-thinking.

Avantivarman spoke his decision:" Suyya, you will have the two pots of
dinnaras. Our men will go with you".

There was a commotion as Suyya, accompanied by a few soldiers, left
the court, bowing three times, walking backwards, with folded hands
and looking towards the throned monarch.

In Madhavarajya (now called Maraj, the part of the Valley on either
side of the Jhelum above Srinagar), Suyya dropped one pot of dinnaras
in a flooded village, Nankaka, where the water was logged up. The
Maharaja's men thought that Suyya was indeed crazy.

Then Suyya cruised down the Vitasta to Kramarajya (now, Kamraj, the
part of the Valley on either side of the Jhelum, below Srinagar), and
dropped the other vessel of dinnaras near Yaksodara in the Vitasta, at
a point where, in the course of time, boulders, fallen from the
mountainous banks, had bottled up the neck of the river. The result
was that the Vitasta's current had been reversed and water gushed back
into the Valley, overflowing farm, field, garden and town.

At this time many people starved due to the lack and high prices of
foodstuffs. The famished and unemployed peasants living about Nankaka
and Yaksodara heard of the pots of dinmras dropped into the water.
Afloat on inflated skins, they braved the boulders to extract the
dinnaras. The displaced boulders at Nankaka were rushed down by the
torrential water. More water flowed down. The boulders rolled down
from the overhanging mountains had squeezed the Vitasta at Yaksodara.
They were displaced by the people, desperately delving for the
dinnaras. When that happened, some of the water resumed its natural
current. Indeed by this process, the Valley was being drained to
one-third the volume of lake and river water. Many sand-laden fields
were bared as the muddy waters fell in level overnight.

Avantivarman and his ministers saw the working of the 'miracle'. They
did not call Suyya crazy or the like any longer. Suyya did not heed or
love applause just as he had been indifferent to hostile criticisms of
his plans. These were now working after all. That was all that
mattered with him. When much of the flood water was drained, he had a
huge dam constructed; thus he locked the entire Vitasta for a week. In
the meantime, by the organised use of labour of hundreds of men, the
bed of the Vitasta was cleared and the boulders were removed where the
river rolled down between precipices. Stone embankments were
constructed as a counter measure against rolling boulders resuming
their position.

The dam was opened. The mad waters leaped down furiously. The Vitasta
was finally cleared of obstacles to its smooth course "Covered with
mud and asparkle with fish, the land when stripped of water, appeared
like the vault of the sky which when free from clouds dispels the
gloom of darkness and is full of stars".

No one was more pleased at the success of Suyya than the munificent
Avantivarman who freely provided him with money and resources for his
countrywide engineering enterprises. Suyya was appointed the royal
engineer. Highest honours were conferred on him by the King who also
regarded Suyya highly for his meritorious life of chastity and
learning.

New channels were opened out from the Vitasta into the dry interior
where the rains came but precariously. "With several canals thrown out
from the original main stream the river shone like a black female
snake with numerous hoods resting on one body." The site of
Historical Tales of Kashmir the confluence of the Sindhu (Indus) and
the Vitasta was changed by Suyya. The alteration was planned to the
general good of irrigation. Indeed, "he made the various streams,
whose undulating ripples were their tongues, take to any course at his
own pleasure like a charmer of the female snakes".

Next, the dynamic Suyya turned his attention to Mahapadma (Wular Lake)
- the largest fresh water lake in India - into which the Vitasta
flows. At the point where the Vitasta left the lake, the bed was
dredged, with the result that the Vitasta emerged on her course with
swiftness, like an arrow from the mechanism of the bow. Through
mile-long dykes, much of the rich surrounding land, that was submerged
under water, was reclaimed. All types of villages were founded. For
miles around the lake, which seemed to stretch to the horizons, Suyya
founded a sanctuary of birds and prohibited the killing of birds and
fishes. His idea, apart from its humanitarian aspects, was to preserve
rare wild species among birds.
On the banks of the Vitasta where she emerges from the waters of the
Mahapadma lake, Suyya founded the prosperous town, Suyyapura, (now
Sopore), named after him. He founded Suyya Kundala in memory of the
woman whose name he bore. In her name tie also constructed Suyya
Bridge. The philanthropic monarch, Avantivarman, founded many a new
town and village that grew up when more and more canals from the
Vitasta spread across the Valley. Sura founded Surapura. The King and
his minister highly esteemed Suyya, the engineer of untiring industry
and fertile imagination who was also endowed with practical wisdom and
encyclopaedic learning.

Wherever the banks of the Vitasta were vulnerable, strong stone
embankments were constructed. Suyya determined the exact period at
which each and every village would require irrigation. With
indefatigable energy, Suyya decided the extent and distribution of
canal water on a permanent basis. Kashmiri farmers for the first time
achieved the prosperity that was never before known by them. Paddy
grew in such abundance that, in the lifetime of Suyya, its price per
Khari fell from 250 to 36 dinnaras.

"Neither Kashyapa nor Samskarna had conferred benefits such as
conferred with ease on this realm by Suyya of meritorious acts. The
reclamation of the land from water, the bestowal of it to pious
Brahmins, the building of barrages with stones in water and the
suppression of Kaliya, which were achieved by Vishnu in four
incarnations of righteous acts, were achieved by Suyya, who had a mass
of religious merits, in a single birth only." *
*Rajatarangini, Taranga V, 113, 115.

Source:

Tales of Kashmir

by Somnath Dhar

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