A TERRACOTTA RING-WELL AT PORDA IN GUJARAT

Author(s): Nalinaksh Pandya

Source: Proceedings of the Indian History Congress , 2002, Vol. 63 (2002), pp. 1208-1210
Published by: Indian History Congress

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44158192

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 A TERRACOTTA RING- WELL AT PORDA
IN GUJARAT
Nalinaksh Pandya

The wells lined not by bfick or stone but by terracotta rings are
known as the ring-wells. These are found in excavations in many
parts of Indian subcontinent such as shahbazgadhi (NWFP Pakistan)
in the north to Arikamedu (Pondicherry) in the south and from
Mahasthan (Bangladesh) in the east to Brahmanabad (Sindh,
Pakistan) in the west. A list of these sites was prepared by M.G.
Dikshit1 and was later enlarged by B.M. Pande.2 In the Anand district
(a new district carved out of Kheda district) of Gujarat, particularly
in Khambhat Borsad and Tarapur talukas, these have been in use
upto the present times, but are fast going out of use due to the
increasing application of modern structural methods.
In a ringwell, the handmade rings of fired clay arc used to line
the wellshaft. Nagara near Khambhat is the village where they are
manufactured by potters and supplied to other villages. They are
called Cudas by the local potters. These uniform rings are not cast
in a mould but are handcrafted piece by piece by them with their
elementary tools, then dried to solidify and finally baked in a kiln to
make stronger and durable, thus ready to transport to the site of
construction.3

These ready ring units (complete or in segments) are laid in a

wellshaft in courses from the bottom upwards right upto the ground
level. No mortar is used to join them. Since each ring is of uniform
shape and size, these fit perfectly in the vertical alignment and stay
firmly fixed in their position by the lateral force of the surrounding
soil. In comparison with a masonry well in which each layer is made
up of a number of separate stones or bricks, a ringwell with its curved
shape forms a stronger retaining wall against the lateral pressure of
earth. The ringwells which first appear at Hastinapur in the 5th
century BC in Period III of Northern Black Polished Ware, provide
a prototype of modern prefabricated structure, i.e. units that have
been manufactured before arrival at the building site.
The topic of this paper is the ringwell found at the village of
Porda in Petlad taluka of Anand district. It is the first such well
found in Petlad taluka. The site is located in Indira Nagári, a village
pasture developed in 1978 as a housing colony for scheduled caste
called Baraiya. The well was found accidentally by the inhabitants

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 Archaeology 1209

in the summer of 2001 while digging in a lo

by curiosity, they dug up the well complet
It has the depth of 7.70 metres and the di
There are 22 rings arranged successively in
bottom. The width of each ring varies bet
which is about 3.S times the size of the rin
of Nagara i.e. 10 centimetre, in the well, t
The thickness of the band increases from 4 centimetre at the lower
end to 7 near /the upper end where it sticks out as 3 centimetre thick
girdle projecting 3 centimetre inside the well in a circle. In addition
to providing a broad base for the upper ring, the girdle acts as a
buttress against the thrust of the retained soil.
A remarkable feature of this well is a horizontal hole opening
into the eastern side at the bottom. According to the well diggers,
there was a miniature earthen pot placed at the mouth of this hole.
The hole is so narrow that a daring man who tried to enter it could
do so in a lying position and his toes could not reach any vertical
surface even when his body lay inside the hole upto his chest. He
reported that the roof of the hole was lined with kankar.
The question that arises now is about the function of this unusual
well. That it is not a well to draw water is a fact proved by the
absence of a well curb, a well head and a platform, so typical of any
waterwell, at its mouth. Bpsides, the wątertable in this village is
much lower (25 metre deep) than the depth of this well.
Then, is it, as suspected by most of the village people, an entrance
to a secret underground passage that the horizontal hole looks like?
We must bear in mind that any secret passageway in a level country
like this, has to run at least for the distance of a kilometre or so to
prevent detection of the person using it. The narrow hole in which a
lying man cannot bend his knees or turn his body, and in which even
a crawling movement becomes a trying task, such a speculation stands
a chance.

The only option left is that of a dry well or a soakpit, because

the ringwells are found to be used for this purpose at many places.
The modern soakpits are lined with courses of evenly spaced single
brick row to quicken the soaking of sewage into the ground. But the
ring-wells have no hollow spaces or perforations in the rings to
facilitate such absorption and it is only through the unpaved bottom
ground that the sewage can percolate. Here, I have a suggestion. The
horizontal hole found on a side at the bottom of this well may be an
additional device to Accelerate sewage absorption in the ground.

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1210 ¡HC: Proceedings , 63rd Session, 2002

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1 . M.G. Dikshit, Tripuri , 1952, pp.25-26.

2. B.M. Pande, 'Ringwells in Ancient India* , Bulletin of the Deccan College
Institute , Poona, 1966, p.227 ff.
3. For the method of production and other related aspects of the ring-well
Mehta, 'Ring-wells: Method of Construction', Journalofthe M.S. University of B
XVII, 1, April 1968, p. 138 ff.
4. In addition to the width of the rings the rings of this well also differ from t
Nagara in their construction. The Nagara rings are made in segments wher
rings are complete without any joint. This shows that the rings of the Porda we
the product of the Nagara workshop.

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