From pre-historic to modern times, engineering has played an essential role in the development of India.
Engineering in the country dates back to pre-historic times. Solar drying of agricultural commodities has been dated to a period of 6,000 BCE. [1] Researchers have also found the evidences of engineering in Indus Valley civilization, dating back to 4th millennium BCE. [2] Types of engineering such as Irrigation engineering, [3] Transportation engineering [4] were also established during this period. Throughout the period 3000 BCE – 1500 BCE, urban cities developed and included advanced developments for that time, such as brick houses, drainage systems, water harvesting, [5] sanitation systems, etc. [6]
Vedas contains the information on about wells, irrigation, dams, canals, and other factors of engineering. [5]
By the period of 1,800 BCE, India had started to produce iron. [7] In 500 BCE, Damascus steel was being produced in the country. [8]
Kallanai Dam, also known as Grand Anicut of Tamil Nadu was originally built around 2nd century CE. Many of the estimated 39,400 reservoirs of Tamil Nadu were built during the period of 500 CE – 1500 CE. [9]
Foundation of the Cooper's Hill College in 1875 aimed to train engineers for British India. Madras University is considered to be the first college of the country, to provide individual courses in mechanical engineering. [10]
According to an estimate in 2010, there were over 3,800 engineering colleges in the country, compared to less than 100 engineering colleges in 1996. [11]
Tamil Nadu is the southernmost state of India. The tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population, Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, who speak the Tamil language—the state's official language and one of the longest surviving classical languages of the world. The capital and largest city is Chennai.
Irrigation is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been developed by many cultures around the world. Irrigation helps to grow crops, maintain landscapes, and revegetate disturbed soils in dry areas and during times of below-average rainfall. In addition to these uses, irrigation is also employed to protect crops from frost, suppress weed growth in grain fields, and prevent soil consolidation. It is also used to cool livestock, reduce dust, dispose of sewage, and support mining operations. Drainage, which involves the removal of surface and sub-surface water from a given location, is often studied in conjunction with irrigation.
Madurai, formerly known by its colonial name Madura is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District, which is governed by the Madurai Municipal Corporation established in 1 November 1866. As of the 2011 census, it is the third largest metropolis in Tamil Nadu after Chennai and Coimbatore in terms of population and 27th largest urban agglomeration in India. Located on the banks of River Vaigai, Madurai has been a major settlement for two millennia and has a documented history of more than 2500 years. It is often referred to as "Thoonga Nagaram", meaning "the city that never sleeps".
Erode District is one of the 38 districts in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It was the largest district by area in the state before the formation of Tirupur district in 2009 and is the third largest by area, as of 2024. The headquarters of the district is Erode. The district is divided into two revenue divisions, Erode and Gobichettipalayam, and is further subdivided into 10 taluks.
The Pandyan dynasty, also referred to as the Pandyas of Madurai, was an ancient Tamil dynasty of South India, and among the four great kingdoms of Tamilakam, the other three being the Pallavas, the Cholas and the Cheras. Existing since at least the 4th to 3rd centuries BCE, the dynasty passed through two periods of imperial dominance, the 6th to 10th centuries CE, and under the 'Later Pandyas'. Under Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan I and Maravarman Kulasekara Pandyan I, the Pandyas ruled extensive territories including regions of present-day South India and northern Sri Lanka through vassal states subject to Madurai. Pandya dynasty is the longest ruling dynasty in the world.
Krishna Raja Sagara, also popularly known as KRS, is a lake and the dam that creates it. They are close to the settlement of Krishna Raja Sagara in the Indian State of Karnataka. The gravity dam made of surki mortar is below the confluence of river Kaveri with its tributaries Hemavati and Lakshmana Tirtha, in the district of Mandya.
Tirunelveli, also known as Nellai and historically as Tinnevelly, is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of the Tirunelveli District. It is the fourth-largest municipal corporation in the state after Chennai, Coimbatore, and Madurai. Tirunelveli is located 624 km (388 mi) southwest of the state capital Chennai, 58 km (36 mi) away from Thoothukudi, and 73 km (45 mi) from Kanyakumari. The downtown is located on the west bank of the Thamirabarani River; its twin Palayamkottai is on the east bank. Tirunelveli and its neighbourhood, Palayamkottai, have been called the Oxford of South India for their colleges. It has several important government offices.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to ancient India:
Kumari Kandam is a mythical continent, believed to be lost with an ancient Tamil civilization, supposedly located south of present-day India in the Indian Ocean. Alternative names and spellings include Kumarikkandam and Kumari Nadu.
The Bhavani is an interstate Indian river which flows through Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, India. It originates from the Western Ghats and is one among the three rivers of Kerala which flows in eastward direction.
The history of science and technology on the Indian subcontinent begins with the prehistoric human activity of the Indus Valley Civilisation to the early Indian states and empires.
Kallanai is an ancient dam built by Karikala of Chola dynasty in 150 CE. It was built across the Kaveri river flowing from Tiruchirapalli District to Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, India. Even though it is nearer to Trichy,the dam is located in Thanjavur district, 15 km from Tiruchirapalli and 45 km from Thanjavur. It is the fourth oldest water-diversion or water-regulator structure in the world and the oldest in India that is still in use. Because of its spectacular architecture, it is one of the prime tourist spots in Tamil Nadu.
The Vaigai is a river in the Tamil Nadu state of southern India; it passes through the towns of Theni, Madurai and Ramanathapuram. It originates in Varusanadu Hills, the Periyar Plateau of the Western Ghats range, and flows northeast through the Kambam Valley, which lies between the Palani Hills to the north and the Varushanad Hills to the south. The Vattaparai Falls are located on this river. As it rounds the eastern corner of the Varushanad Hills, the river turns southeast, running through the region of Pandya Nadu. Madurai, the largest city in the Pandya Nadu region and its ancient capital, lies on the Vaigai. The river empties into the Palk Bay near Alagankulam, close to Pamban Bridge in Ramanathapuram District.
Tirunelveli district is one of the 38 districts of Tamil Nadu state in India. It is the largest district in terms of area with Tirunelveli as its headquarters. The district was formed on 1 September 1790 by the British East India Company and comprised the present Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi, Tenkasi and parts of Virudhunagar and Ramanathapuram district. As of 2011, the undivided district had a population of 30,77,233.
The Chera dynasty, was a Sangam age Tamil dynasty which unified various regions of the western coast and western ghats in southern India to form the early Chera empire. The dynasty, known as one of the Three Crowned Kings of Tamilakam alongside the Chola and Pandya, has been documented as early as the 4th to 3rd centuries BCE. Their governance extended over diverse territories until the 12th century CE.
Tamilakam was the geographical region inhabited by the ancient Tamil people, covering the southernmost region of the Indian subcontinent. Tamilakam covered today's Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and southern parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Traditional accounts and the Tolkāppiyam referred to these territories as a single cultural area, where Tamil was the natural language and permeated the culture of all its inhabitants. The ancient Tamil country was divided into kingdoms. The best known among them were the Cheras, Cholas, Pandyans and Pallavas. During the Sangam period, Tamil culture began to spread outside Tamilakam. Ancient Tamil settlements were also established in Sri Lanka and the Maldives (Giravarus), prior to the migration of Prakrit speakers.
Namakkal District is one of the 38 districts in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The district was bifurcated from Salem District with Namakkal city as headquarters on 25 July 1996 and started to function independently from 1 January 1997. The district has eight taluks (subdivisions): Tiruchengode, Namakkal, Rasipuram, Paramathi Velur, Senthamangalam, Kumarapalayam, Kolli Hills and Mohanur. It has two revenue divisions: Tiruchengode and Namakkal. As of 2011 census, Namakkal district had a population of 1,726,601 with a sex-ratio of 986 females for every 1,000 males and Tiruchengode is the largest city in terms of population. Namakkal district is geographically affiliated to Kongu Nadu region. The district is famous for its large poultry industry, egg production and lorry bodybuilding industry, for which it is often referred to as "Egg City" and "Transport Hub of South India".
Parambikulam Dam is an embankment dam on the Parambikulam River, located in the Palakkad district in the Western Ghats of Kerala, India, ranks number one in India as well as in the top ten embankment dams in the world in volume in the year 2000.
The Anuradhapura period was a period in the history of Sri Lanka of the Anuradhapura Kingdom from 377 BCE to 1017 CE. The period begins when Pandukabhaya, King of Upatissa Nuwara moved the administration to Anuradhapura, becoming the kingdom's first monarch. Anuradhapura is heralded as an ancient cosmopolitan citadel with diverse populations.
The early Dravidian religion constituted a non-Vedic, pre-Indo-Aryan, indigenous religion practiced by Dravidian peoples in the Indian subcontinent that they were either historically or are at present Āgamic. The Agamas are non-Vedic in origin, and have been dated either as post-Vedic texts, or as pre-Vedic compositions. The Agamas are a collection of Tamil and Sanskrit scriptures chiefly constituting the methods of temple construction and creation of murti, worship means of deities, philosophical doctrines, meditative practices, attainment of sixfold desires and four kinds of yoga. The worship of tutelary deities and sacred flora and fauna in Hinduism is also recognized as a survival of the pre-Vedic Dravidian religion. Dravidian linguistic influence on early Vedic religion is evident; many of these features are already present in the oldest known Indo-Aryan language, the language of the Rigveda, which also includes over a dozen words borrowed from Dravidian. The linguistic evidence for Dravidian impact grows increasingly strong as one moves from the Samhitas down through the later Vedic works and into the classical post-Vedic literature. This represents an early religious and cultural fusion or synthesis between ancient Dravidians and Indo-Aryans that went on to influence Indian civilisation.