Why had an artificial system of irrigation to be devised in India during sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ? Mention one such system.
1. Monsoons remained the backbone of Indian agriculture, as they are even today. But there were crops which required additional water. Artificial systems of irrigation had to be devised for this.
2. Irrigation projects received state support as well. For example, in northern India the state undertook digging of new canals (nahar, nala) and also repaired old ones like the shahnahr in the Punjab during Shah Jahan’s reign.