Krishna anicut · Telugu History

The Krishna anicut is the masonry dam across the Krishna at Vijayawada (then Bezwada).¹ Here, at the head of the delta, the river passes through a gap 1,300 yards wide in a low range of hills.¹ The dam turns the river into a network of canals that spread across the delta.¹ It was built under Captain Orr between 1852 and 1855.²³

About the sources. The main account is Gordon Mackenzie’s Manual of the Kistna District (1883), which follows the project year by year from official papers.⁴³ The Imperial Gazetteer of 1908 adds the figures for the canals in 1903–04.⁵ Both are official works, written by the government that built the dam.

Before the dam

Before the anicut, farmers on both sides of the river below Vijayawada already drew water from it.⁴ They led it through old channels into tanks on the slopes of the delta.⁴ In 1792 Major Beatson pointed out how well the district suited irrigation.⁴ The astronomer Michael Topping was sent to study it the next year, but he died at Machilipatnam in 1796 before he finished.⁴

The question came back after the “terrible famine” of 1832.⁴ Mackenzie writes that the famine was said to have cost the Guntur district a loss of revenue estimated at Rs. 2,27,00,000.⁴ It was also noticed that during the worst of the famine the river was often full.⁴ See Famines, floods and cyclones.

Planning, 1839–1850

Captain Buckle reported on a dam across the river in 1839.⁶ Captain Best studied it again in 1841, and Captain Lake in 1847.⁶ Arthur Cotton, then a major, endorsed Lake’s views.⁶ A committee reported on 26 January 1849, and the Court of Directors in London sanctioned the project on 5 January 1850.⁶

The committee looked at several sites.⁶⁷ Higher up, at the places the manual calls Muktiala and Chintapalle, the river bed was too deep.⁶⁷ Ibrahimpatnam, below the Kondapalli hills, would have needed a dam two and a half times as long.⁷ So the committee chose Vijayawada, where stone was at hand on both banks.⁷ The estimate came to Rs. 7,49,165.⁷

Building, 1852–1855

Captain Orr of the Royal Engineers took charge and wrote his first report in July 1852.² On 14 December 1852 all was ready to start building, but the next day the river rose 16 feet and broke into the foundations.² In July 1853 it rose 39 feet, topped its banks and flooded the whole delta.² After that flood Rs. 23,000 was sanctioned for an embankment up to Ibrahimpatnam.²

By the end of March 1854 the front wall reached right across the river.³ In April and May cholera spread among the workers.³ Mackenzie calls the shortage of labour “the great difficulty” of the work.³ He quotes a letter of the Collector of Machilipatnam from February 1854.³ It complains of a daily fall in the number of “forced labourers”, even though the Tahsildars (revenue officers) had been fined.³

Work started again in December 1854, now with English wagon wheels and cranes.³ It was finished in May 1855.³ Orr’s final report, dated 9 August 1855, gave the total cost as Rs. 7,48,765.³

The dam

The finished dam was a great wall of stone in mortar, built on wells sunk into the river bed.⁸ It was 3,715½ feet long from wing to wing.⁸ Its crest stood 20 feet above the deep bed of the stream.⁸ Below it lay an apron of nearly 400,000 cubic yards of rough stone, some blocks weighing as much as 6 tons.⁸ A masonry bridge on the dam was planned but given up.²⁸ In 1883 road traffic still crossed the river by ferry.⁸

In 1903–04 the system had ten main canals, 372 miles long, of which 307 miles were navigable.⁵ They joined the Godavari canals to the north and the Buckingham Canal to the south.⁵ That year they watered 616,760 acres of government land, besides a large area in the zamindaris (estates) for which there were no exact figures.⁵ The total capital cost had reached 149 lakhs of rupees.⁵

Where the sources disagree

Dates. The Imperial Gazetteer of 1908 says the dam “was begun in 1853” and “finished in 1854”.⁵ The Kistna manual of 1883 follows the work from Orr’s first report in July 1852 to its close in May 1855.²³
Cost. Orr’s final report gave Rs. 7,48,765.³ Mackenzie notes that a Government Order of 24 October 1881 gave Rs. 7,26,872 instead.³

Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 167, “Kistna River” (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
Mackenzie, Kistna District (1883), p. 256 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
Mackenzie, Kistna District (1883), p. 257 and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³
Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District (1883), p. 253 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸
Imperial Gazetteer: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 168, “Kistna Canals” (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Mackenzie, Kistna District (1883), p. 254 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Mackenzie, Kistna District (1883), p. 255 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Mackenzie, Kistna District (1883), p. 258 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶