Q. The irrigation device called ‘Araghatta’ was
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[A] a water bag made of leather pulled over a pulley

[B] a large wheel with earthen pots tied to the outer ends of its spokes

[C] a larger earthen pot driven by bullocks

[D] a large water bucket pulled up by rope directly by hand.

Answer: B
Notes:

Exp) Option b is the correct answer.

Option b is correct: In India, the irrigation device called araghatta or arahatta was one wheel with pitchers or pots of clay attached around the rim of the wheel. It was also called ‘Ghanti-Yantra’. Araghatta is a Persian wheel, a mechanical water-lifting device, used in medieval India to lift water from wells for irrigation.

  • The essential part of the araghatta was the ghati-yantra or the device with pitchers, usually mounted on the wheel, but not attached to its rim. The ghati-yantra as an irrigation device is therefore often held as a pot garland.
  • The araghatta seems to have drawn water from a reservoir which in turn received its water from an irrigation well. The spokes (arakas) of a wheel was a revolving apparatus though it does not refer to any gearing mechanism enabling the conversion of the horizontal rotary motion into a vertical rotary motion. The latter feature which became visible from the fourteenth century onwards, represented the typical Persian wheel or the saqia.

Source:

https://www.egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/73310/1/Unit-11.pdf (Pg. 206)

https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/73909/1/Unit-17.pdf (Pg. 288)


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