The Ponds Are Still Relevant

by Anupam Mishra

It is probably one of the greatest books in Hindi (Original) which talks extensively on the subject of water conservation and preservation of environment. The book focuses on how to save the ancient water resources which have been neglected for quite a long time in India. This book holds a place in the list of best thirty books that have been published so far. This book has been translated in almost all Indian languages and quite a few foreign languages as well. There also exists a Braille version of this book. When it got published, it attracted the attention of a huge chunk of people and around two lac copies of books are known to have reached people across various places. The book, basically a report based book talks about how every household in arid regions could have their own water harvesting facility, a technique that has been in place for centuries. His approach towards life was something we do not find easily in the modern times. Moreover, this book has no copyright and can be reprinted and republished as and when one wants to. It is intriguing as to how this book could have had such an impact on the public, and on the society as a whole.

Genres: Nonfiction, India, History, Environment

88 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Anupam Mishra was an Indian Gandhian, author, journalist, environmentalist, and water conservationist who worked on promoting water conservation, water management and traditional rainwater harvesting techniques.

Reviews

[Aditya Shukla]

इस पुस्तक के बारे में दो बातें कहनी अति आवश्यक हैं - बहुत श्रम और शोध करके लिखी हुई अत्यंत महत्वपूर्ण पुस्तक। इस पुस्तक में अनुपम मिश्र ने भारत में तालाब की समृद्ध परम्परा की पड़ताल की है, पाठकों के सामने सुंदर गद्य में लिखे हुए रोचक तथ्य प्रस्तुत किए तो हैं ही साथ ही पुरातन भारतीय समाज की संरचना और उसके धीरे-धीरे हुए पतन की भी आवाज़ सुनाई देती है। आज जब संसार में हर ओर जलवायु संकट की समस्या पर सवाल जवाब होने लगे हैं, जहाँ कितने ही शहर पानी के घनघोर संकट की ओर अग्रसर हैं, यह किताब हमारे सामने एक आईने की तरह प्रस्तुत होती है और हमें न सिर्फ़ अपने समाज की उस गौरवशाली परम्परा का बखान करती है बल्कि पानी के मौजूदा और आने वाले संकटों की ओर बहुत ही नज़ाकत से इशारा करती है।

[Ashish Iyer]

Amazing book on history of Ponds(or lakes) with Indic terms.
Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Recommended.

[Ishani]

This was a beautiful read, beautiful.

The elaborate details about the need, the construction, maintenance, conservation of water in such simple words simply take you back to the lost ages. A beautiful country erupts in your mind - tranquility ran everywhere in the form of water and peace was in everyone’s minds.

If a society as ancient as before 1000 B.C. can have this huge amount of understanding of nature, talent, perseverance and dedication towards serving & maintaining a society, extrapolating this it is very easy to understand how well balanced, self sufficient and far sighted Indian civilization itself was as a whole.

Of course, everything went berserk with repeated invasions in India. But what is unfathomable is the unwillingness of independent India not to restore the lost talent. The erosion in our minds in the name of “education” & “progressive” attitude is nothing but a reflection of how deep seated the seeds of British colonization has been and still is.

If not to learn, at least to imagine a lovely peaceful, healthy and a prosperous society please read this book and spread awareness.

Another highly recommended!

[Hemant]

मैं पुस्तक का विवरण नहीं दूंगा चूंकि लेखक के शब्दों का लोप करना पुस्तक के साथ अन्याय होगा। कुछ विचार जिन्होंने मुझपर अत्यधिक प्रभाव डाला केवल उन्हें ही प्रस्तुत कर रहा हूँ।

20 वीं सदी के आरम्भ में, वर्षा ऋतु शुरु होने से पहले देश में लगभग 11-12 लाख तालाब हुआ करते थे। (पृष्ट.11)[3] लेकिन इतने तालाब आए कहाँ से? एक कहानी है, किसी राजा ने एक किसान से कहा था, ” यह सोना और पारस पत्थर तुम ही रखो। जाओ, इससे अच्छे-अच्छे काम करते जाना, तालाब बनाते जाना। ” कहानी सच्ची है, ऐतिहासिक है – नहीं मालूम, पर लोगों के मन में बसी हुई है । समय के साथ परंपरा बढ़ी। बनाने वाले लोग आते रहे और तालाब बनते गए।

Complete review at https://hemantkmr.wordpress.com/2017/...

[Chandar]

A long and rich tradition of water conservation has existed in India for millennia, and continues in a few isolated areas of the country to this day, tenuously sustained by age old rituals and practices.

Anupam Mishra has lovingly documented the various skills that go into constructing ponds, reservoirs and wells, the various sub-castes that specialized in specific skills, and which turned up in their surnames like Gazdar, Silaut and so on, the incredible tales of how some of these magnificent structures came to be, and their tragic decay and drying up in recent times. All because the interests of the people and the 'administration' have now diverged. Society has relinquished its responsibility for maintenance of infrastructure and outsourced it to a government that is clearly not up to that task.

This invaluable book is now also available in an English imprint under the title 'The ponds are still relevant'.

[Amit Tiwary]

यह एक किताब नहीं है, यह एक दस्तावेज़ है। श्रधेय अनुपम जी का आभार। उन्होंने आँखें खोलने की बड़ी निष्ठा से प्रयास किया।
उनका जीवन, उनके कार्य सदैव याद किये जाएंगे।

उनकी आत्मा के शान्ति की प्रार्थना।

[प्रिया वर्मा]

पाँच सितारे देने की ही बाध्यता है रेटिंग में, अन्यथा यह किताब इस तरह के श्रेणीकरण से बहुत आगे और बेहद पठनीय है. कैसे हमारे पूर्वजों के लिए पानी की एक-एक बूंद मूल्यवान थी, कैसे वे उनके संचयन के लिए एकजुट होकर प्रबंध करते थे और कैसे तालाब बनते थे!

यह किताब अपने मुखपृष्ठ से लेकर आगे बढ़ते प्रत्येक पन्ने के साथ, लेखक के प्रति मुझमें श्रद्धा भरती गई, क्योंकि अतुलनीय रिसर्च की गई होगी इसे लिखने के पहले.

सामाजिक शिक्षक की तरह है "आज भी खरे हैं तालाब".

[Manish Punia]

Being from rajasthan, I was total to relate what is described in books. I can remember stories from my grandparents and parents, which all were shaped around ponds. Our area don't have big ponds like described in book. Everybody used to contribute in maintain the ponds, had separate pond for different purpose, like for drinking water for human and drinking and bath for animals. For drinking water ponds some area around pond was restricted for defecation. For house hold water mainly dependent on pond's water. Later some well came into picture. Around 2000 most people started using wells for irrigation. By this time ground water is almost exhausted. Existing wells don't have water for irrigation. people trying new bore-wells in hope of finding better ground water at deeper level, 10-20% people succeed.


What I liked about existing pond system.How it played a role in bounding the society. And how accessible were these resources to every body in society. I do love technology, but in most of cases technology is luxury. And everybody doesn't have that kind of luxury. It creates better and balanced society, when basic things is available to common man.

We can't deny that in past society had better connection or more bonding, and now we lost that. That bonding and connectivity was necessity of that time. Technology made humans powerful, no more human help is required in the it was required earlier. It justifies how we lost the connection in society and lost an affordable, society connecting and environment friendly technology of ponds.


Interestingly, in last 5 years I observed. When there is no ground water in deep level too, people started to moving for kund (under ground rain water storage tank). This is people started taking care of individual needs. In our area we never had kund earlier, that is ever common rain water storage unit all across the rajasthan.

[Abhinav Yadav]

India has been a country where water, rivers and ponds hold status no less than that of any other divine. Before the arrival of Britishers in India, pond work was controlled by public which provided them pride and rewards. The kings and royals also supported lake diggings under their reign. But when Britishers took over the kingdoms, they did away with the funds for maintenance and new sanctions of ponds. They labelled this activity to be unnecessary and futile. PWD then took over the responsibility of maintaining water bodies and digging new ones. The task proved to be much beyond its capacity. Such mismanagement only has aggravated the water supply in present times.



Author has outlined the terminologies related with lakes/ponds. Sar is an important suffix in names of places. It denotes the place has a been named on some lake. For example Amritsar, Govindsar, Gulabsar, Ghadsisar, etc. He then talks about people traditionally involved in the business of digging lakes. He gives many examples about the lake digging to prove that before modern methods of water management India had a strong self-sustaining system for water supply. He quotes examples from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and south Indian states.

This is a good book to understand the system India once had to manage one of the most important resources for life - water!

[Hirdesh]

AWE INSPIRING !!

This is book utterly flawless, how deeply and dedicatedly Author justified the gems of India.
It defines the Ponds of INDIA and how many types of people has been giving their life to sustain the prosperity of Ponds.
Highly recommended to Educationalist and Environmentalist.

This essay book has not only defined the value of Pond but also remarked why we are helpless to conserve such extreme incredible sources of life.
I loved it thoroughly.

[Avaneesh Kumar]

This is a must read for everyone who is concerned about water conservation.

One of the best books I have ever read

[Mayank Gupta]

Read another book by the same author. This time the culture, tradition and techniques of making a Talab are described in different regions of India. There were around 350 talabs in Delhi, around 39000 talabs in Mysuru etc. were built over the period of time. The interesting thing is that these were not built by some central authority dictating people under it to build it in the different region. The society as a whole had taken up the responsibility of building it and the Raja(state) of that region use to give necessary resources in building and maintaining it. This is totally different from what we see today. It can be understood more clearly after reading the book.

सैकड़ों हजारों तालाब अचानक शुन्य से प्रकट नहीं हुए थे ‍‍।
इनके पीछे एक इकाई थी बनवाने वालों की, तो दुहाई थी बनाने वालों की यह इकाई, दहाई मिलकर सैकड़ों, हजार बनती थी ।
लेकिन पिछले २०० बरसों में नई किस्म की थोरी सी पढाई पढ़ गए समाज ने इस इकाई, दहाई, सैकड़ा, हजार को शुन्य ही बना दिया ।

[Avaneesh Kumar]

This is a must read for every Indian who is concerned about water conservation.

An eye opener. How Indians were highly efficient at water conservation and how this got corrupted and what was the role of Britishers in corrupting the conservation.

I can say so many things but simply saying that - just read it, it is a gem available to you at a very low price. Go for it.

[Venus Sharma]

A distinctive, comprehensive historical take on water management and the relationship that different communities shared with it back in the days. Also, a beautiful representation of the structural aspects of ponds and their significance. Author’s love for the subject and its deep understanding is evident.

[Shiv Pratap]

It was a good read and use of language and research work done by author was very precise .This book really told the importance of water reservoirs in our this so called developing and tech smart society.

[Rana Swarajsinh]

To know the kind of knowledge system we had, what we were, our understanding—read, Aaj Bhi Khare Hain Talab, Anupam Mishra.
.
We, indigenous Indian, were not just hanged on to the 'sustainable development', but the practitioner of 'sensible development' approach.

[Amit Dutta]

यह पुस्तक जल संग्रह के लिए किए गए परंपरागत व्यवस्थाओं से अवगत कराता है। इससे पता चलता है कि हमारे पूर्वजों ने पानी को कैसे बचाकर रखा। आज से कुछ साल बाद जब पानी के लिए हाहाकार मचेगा तब हमें इसकी अहमियत पता चलेगी। पूरे तथ्यों के साथ इस पुस्तक को पेश करने के लिए श्री अनुपम मिश्र जी का धन्यवाद।

[Anuradha Goyal]

This is my top read of the year, or maybe many years. It addresses the problem of water and takes you through a history associated with water https://www.anuradhagoyal.com/aaj-bhi...

[Ekita Parmar]

It's a brilliant book on History of Lakes and their importance as water reservoirs.. It's a must read..

[Ravish]

Amazing book

Must read for all humans
who drink water...A very sensitive recollection of our age old water conservation efforts for humankind

[Ayush Tripathi]

Another book which tells us how ancient India was much more advanced and pragmatic than we imagine. I would recommend this book to everyone.

[Somil Daga]

इस किताब के बारे में कुछ भी लिखना कम होगा। बस ये कहा जा सकता है की ये किताब नहीं, एक झलक है भारत के उस इतिहास की जिसमें जल और जीवन, पूरे भारत में, हाथो हाथ चलते थे। लोगो का जीवन तालाबों से, और तालाबों का जीवन लोगो से चलता था। और ये कोई पुराना दौर नहीं, बस कुछ १५०-२०० साल पुरानी तक की बात होगी।

जी हां, आप आशचर्य होंगे ये जान के कि आपके पूर्वज तालाब खोद ते थे, और उनको बनाए रखते थे, उनकी मरम्मत करते थे। तालाब बनाना समाज सेवा मना जाता था, भगवान की तरफ भक्ति माना जाता था। पूरे पूरे गांव साथ मिल कर तालाब बनाने के लिए पैसा इकट्ठा करते, और तालाब खुद बनाते। सारा जीवन तालाबों के इर्द गिर्द गुजरता था। नल तो थे ही नहीं, नल तो अंग्रेज़ जब आए तो अपने साथ ले के आए।

ये परंपराएं, ज्ञान प्रणाली हमने जो खोई है, उसके परिणाम आज दिख रहे है। कई शहरों में पानी रेलवे से तो कहीं पानी दूर नदी से अदा किया जा रहा है। कब तक टिक सकेगी ये व्यवस्था?

इस किताब को पढ़े, २ बार पढ़े, ४ बार पढ़े। पहले तो ये गले में अटकेगी। धीरे धीरे गले से उतरेगी तो पेट में गुड़ गुड़ करेगी। फिर दिल में जा कर खट खटाएगी। पूछेगी आपसे कुछ कठोर सवाल। तैयार रहना।

[Ankit Modi]

तालाबों के इतिहास और पानी के संरक्षण पर लिखी कोई किताब इतनी ख़ूबसूरत हो सकती है, ये मेरी कल्पना से परे था। ये किताब भारत के तालाबों, उन्हें बनाने वालों, और बनाने की रीतियों में छुपे विज्ञान से आपका परिचय कराती है।
ये किताब उन तालाबों की याद दिलायेगी जो आपके बचपन के इर्द-गिर्द थे, पर अब गायब हो चुके हैं।

[Anirban]

In the year 1849, when Punjab was also annexed by the British, a Department for public works was created. But our water conservation system was working efficiently before that. this book goes on with the indian society from the lens of water conservation in the society.
An amazing book.

[Nitin Moorpani]

एक गंभीर विषय पर लिखी एक सरल किताब जो सभी को पढ़नी ही चाहिए।

[Archana Kumari]

Please read this book. It deserves to be read. I have a pdf copy of the book, let me know if you want that.

[Amol Kate]

This book is about the history of water conservation methods in India. Its really nice book about Indian culture of water conservation. How different societies in different part of India figure out about water sources and their preservation. Entire culture like farming, festivals, art and literature have dimension of water and its importance for life. Conservation of water was the responsibility of entire villagers and they were excluded from tax system. Kings also have taken part in building lakes and their preservation but they never put tax on them. When British rulers put Lakes under tax system, people lost their rights on their own lakes. British rulers never took care of lakes and many lakes destroyed by their negligence. Now it’s need of time that we again start making lakes and give them to people so we can conserve water for betterment of society and nature. It’s a good book must read for everyone.

[Rahul Khanna]

Ravish Kumar recommended this book in his show. Very detailed story of ponds. Amazing book.

[Rishab]

eye opening.