This volume uses long-term anthropological fieldwork, oral histories and detailed archival work to explore the changing ecology, political significance and cultural meaning of water in south India.

It argues for a more historically grounded understanding of landscapes, rights and rules or resource use. At the same time the book indicates the importance of water in the idioms and organizations of power, whether of kings, colonial bureaucrats or development institutions. Through this work the reader not only encounters the intricate technology, ecology and politics of water in south India, but also the colonial, ecological and development visions that have and continue to be the centre of important policy debates on the relationship between state and society.