Water has a pervasive influence on the various facets of human life, including the supporting ecosystem. Apart from capping human needs in terms of its consumption, production, and cleaning roles, it has a place in a wide range of spheres from the cultural and the religious to the metaphysical. The literature dealing with the technical and mundane aspects of water, such as the hydrological, ecological, economic, and managerial, is vast, and growing fast. But the writings on the cultural, mythological, and literary aspects of water are not much, and their growth too is rather slow.
Mainstream issues
This book, which belongs to the latter category, has succeeded in linking some of the less studied aspects of water with some of the mainstream issues. In a sense, it is an unusual work that looks at water from a new and much larger perspective.
The book is a collection of papers presented at the ‘Festival of Water' held at the India International Centre in 2004. The introductory segment aside, it has separate parts dealing with the rivers, the sea, the management of water, and the culture of water.
The introduction has a highly inspiring discussion of water as it figures in the Vedas and Hindu mythology and an essentially photographic account of the river Kaveri's 785-kilometre long journey from its origin in Kodagu district of Karnataka to the point where it joins the Bay of Bengal, Poompuhar in Tamil Nadu.
The geo-political and political aspects of the Himalayan and Narmada rivers, as also the health and livelihood requirements of people living in the thousands of islets in the Brahmaputra come in for a detailed discussion in the next part. How Indian cinema has employed water and the rivers as a metaphor is also presented here, providing a lighter touch, as it were, to the whole debate.
Cultural encounter
Water, particularly the sea, as a medium of cultural encounters and as the basis for the formation of transnational communities and cultures is the focal theme of the third part. The chapter that deals with the Indian Ocean from a historical and ecological perspective represents an important contribution to its maritime history. The other two chapters in this part provide some important ethnological evidence for the pre-Portuguese maritime crafts of India and trace the historical evolution of the composite culture of Goa.
At the core of the fourth part of the book is the imperative of ensuring an efficient and equitable water management, a requisite for meeting the livelihood and quality of life requirements of a growing population. The ways in which water supply has to be augmented and water demand be managed; how the Indira Gandhi canal in Rajasthan impacted the livelihood of the people (here, translations of some interesting poems have been used with great effect); and the strong, intimate link that exists between the quality of water and the human health and quality life — all these have been examined in depth.
Inspiration for music
The cultural dimensions of water are dealt with in the concluding part of the book. How water has been the source of inspiration for popular music and poetry comes across sharply. The songs of the boatmen of Kerala, Vanchipattu (sung while taking part in the boat race) and of Bengal, Bhatiali , and their origins are described in the first two chapters, while the third is primarily a discourse on a collection of poems, original and translations, written by different authors, and are either inspired by or relate to water and allied subjects.
Taken as a whole, the volume — a compilation of essays on a wide range of themes — has succeeded in projecting a water-centric picture in all its richness and variegated dimensions — cultural, religious, political, ecological, et al — on an inter-disciplinary canvas.
Written in a language that should make it accessible to the lay readers, it is a welcome addition to the literature on water, thanks to its spiritually and culturally fulfilling metaphor.
I have no hesitation in commending the book as a complementary reading material for post-graduate students and as reference material for researchers in water-related and environmental areas.
