Previous Year Question

The correct answer is Chandragupta Maurya.

The earliest known initiative for water resource management in the Girnar region was undertaken during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya. His provincial governor Pushyagupta constructed the famous Sudarshana Lake by damming rivers and streams flowing from the Girnar hills.

The Sudarshana Lake was not merely a water-storage reservoir. An irrigation system also developed around it, and it became an important basis of agriculture and water management in the Saurashtra region. Therefore, the beginning of systematic water resource management in this region is associated with the reign of Chandragupta Maurya.

Later, during the reign of Ashoka, his Yavana governor Tushaspha improved and extended the lake by providing conduits and drainage arrangements. This shows that the work was developed further under Ashoka, but the original construction had already taken place earlier.

Around 150 CE, after heavy rainfall and a storm damaged the embankment, the Western Kshatrapa ruler Rudradaman I repaired the Sudarshana Lake. Later, during the reign of Skandagupta, the reservoir was again restored after another breach in the embankment.

Thus, the sequence is clear—construction under Chandragupta Maurya, improvement under Ashoka, repair under Rudradaman, and another restoration under Skandagupta. Therefore, the first initiative in water resource management is attributed to the reign of Chandragupta Maurya.