282 Salutary influence of irrigation irrigation facilities (to save the growing crops from water scarcity) and for improving the drainage conditions (to save the standing crops from inundation or flooding).
The
people of Funan, which is now called
Cambodia, acquired from the Indians especially the Tamilians of southern India various ideas and techniques including the art of irrigation that ensured economic prosperity necessary for expanding their empire in
the lower Mekong during rd to5
th centuries AD (Tate, 1971). The entire territory was said to have been covered by a network of canals marked by highly developed water control techniques (Coedes,
1966). Later, People of the Chenla who were the successors to the Funanese and who enjoyed the political supremacy until 8
th century, bequeathed agricultural hydraulic system for making the area along the middle
Mekong
and around the Tonle Sap,
prosperous.
The Angkorian dynasty which held sway over Cambodia from 9
th to 15
th centuries had its political power gravitated to the inland around the northern end of Tonle Sap, but not towards the delta. The Khmers
(Cambodians)
of Angkorian era, though inherited the methods of irrigation from
Funan, developed a complex system of water control which formed the economic
basis for the prosperity, power, and prestige of the
Angkorian empire that lasted until 14
th century. The vast and intricate system of reservoirs and canals constituting the Khmer agricultural hydraulics which baffled
the students of Khmer antiques, did not have anything like a parallel in any other part of
Southeast Asia prior to 19
th century.
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