During the millennium-long process

Asian Agri-History Vol. 9, No. 4, 2005 277
the same time that the shifting (swidden;
jhum) agriculture had also been extensively practiced in the mountainous-upland areas,
even as early as 500 BC (post-Hoabinian culture) and later as part of the Dong-sonian culture (Bronze and Iron Ages. Rice was one of the crops grown in the swampy lands along the piedmont zones of mainland, solely from the impounded rainwater. Before the dawn of Christian era, as Fisher (conjectured, wet rice cultivation in some favored localities might have been based on the rudimentary methods.
By the time Southeast Asia had begun to experience Indian cultural influence since the early centuries of Christian era, irrigated paddy was grown and the entire economy was based on the monoculture of rice. The fact that the rice cultivation practices had undergone little changes for several ensuing centuries testifies that the hydraulic works benefited both the peasantry and the state.
In many instances, the local peasantries had built small-scale hydraulic works all the time on their own initiative, with their own resources to quote Stargardt (1986) who attributed their survival directly to their capacity of serving the irrigated agriculture.
Ng (1979), though felt convinced of the relationship between the pattern of human habitats and the historical facts of mainland,
underscored the effect of availability of easily accessible sources of potable water on the choice of location for habitation. In general, the secondary alluvial tracts,
endowed with smaller but seasonal rivers and the drier climates became conducive to the ancient settlement process. In this context, it would not be inappropriate to quote Stargardt (1986) who noted that the hydraulic techniques . . . of lowland
Southeast Asia were only capable of governing the waters of secondary rivers and distributing them over a wide area of the landscape, thereby transforming agricultural yields. These hydraulic endeavours, though marked by occasional failures and frequent repairs, survived for centuries and in some cases for millennia.”
An advanced system of large-scale irrigation and water control as a state-organized system was developed on the basis of the techniques of agricultural hydraulics
(Coedes, 1966; Fisher, 1966). About the same time, water control was not all about harnessing the water of either rainfall or from flooding but was concerned with draining off the excess water from the rice fields liable for prolonged period of

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