The salutary influence
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Irrigation S E Asian Agri-history 2005, Hist. Geog Dimensions India’s Interaction S E Asia, Hist. Geog Dimensions India’s Interaction S E Asia, Hist. Geog Dimensions India’s Interaction S E Asia
| Ingenious methods of water control and soil conservation in the insular region Short river courses, tectonic instability manifest in volcanoes and earthquakes, tropical monsoon pattern of persuasive insularity, stupendous water body, and overreaching ratio of coastline to land area are the main physical features of insular Southeast Asia distinguishing it from the mainland. Notwithstanding the relative advantage of strategic location at the crossroads of international navigation lying at the root of maritime history of the region, the heavy concentration rather high density of population was directly related to the wet rice cultivation in some parts of insular region as in Kedah (Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok, and Celebes (Indonesia, and Luzon (the Philippines. The elaborate irrigation system, built up over the generations, helped in preserving tenaciously the traditions of the society (Tate, These ingenious methods, though crude and rudimentary in nature, are still found effective as much as the modern irrigation systems to control floods (Dobby, 1958). It is also of much historic interest that these ancient irrigation works of lower genre, testifying to the hydro-agriculture, were essentially maintained by the local people (Fisher, In Malay Peninsula, though rice was one of the main cereal crops, irrigated cultivation was not at all widely practised before the era of Indian acculturation (Fisher, as the Malays for centuries preferred fishing as the main occupation to rice cultivation in riverine and coastal fringes (Spencer and Thomas, 1971). On the contrary, the productive lowlands and volcanic uplands of Java and Sumatra experiencing summer rainfall conditions, became the most preferred sites of habitation for the early man. The Highlands of Sumatra were heavily populated because of the agricultural potentiality sustained by waterworks. In view of the physiographic limitations for large-scale irrigation works, the villagers “had mastered the technique of raising water from streams to higher fields through the agency of bamboo water-wheels” (Colombijin, 1998). East-central Java encompassing two-third of the island in the eastern part, sustained the agricultural prosperity that entitled it to emerge as a key economic region of the Indies (Spencer and Thomas, 1971) as well as a demographic centre of insular Southeast Asia” (Taylor, 1992). Lying at the base of this distinction was the irrigation system that facilitated the cultivation of staple food crops Download 158.72 Kb. Share with your friends:
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