Previous Year Question
With reference to the economic history of medieval India, the term ‘Araghatta’ refers to
Correct Answer: C
Detailed Solution
Araghatta was a water-lifting wheel used for irrigation. Pots or vessels were attached to the wheel. As the wheel rotated, these vessels collected water from below, carried it upward and supplied it for irrigation.
Araghatta was not a technology that suddenly appeared only in the later medieval period. Kalhana's Rajatarangini also refers to araghattas in contexts involving the lifting of water from rivers and wells. In their earlier forms, such devices could be operated manually by hand or foot.
Later, this water-lifting technology developed through the use of animal power and a gearing mechanism. This made continuous lifting of water from deeper wells possible. The more developed system came to be known as the Persian Wheel or rahat. Thus, instead of treating every historical form of Araghatta as mechanically identical to the later Persian Wheel, it is more accurate to understand it as part of an evolving tradition of water-lifting wheels.