12/05/2016
“Naubad” is located 4km north west of Bidar fort city towards Udgir. This is an area serviced by the City Municipal Council of Bidar. Naubad is mostly a residential and institutional area. It’s here that the third surang bhawi system or karez system of Bidar is located. During the Bahmani period there was probably a scheme for developing a village at Naubad. As their normal practice they wanted to equip Naubad with adequate water supply before initiating the development of settlement. The ruling class may have employed Persian engineers or local water diviners for exploring water resources. The Aliabad Spring (near present Siddheshwar temple) was the site chosen for construction of surang bhawi.
The areas having hard laterite on the surface and basaltic Deccan trap below form ideal conditions for developing the surang bhawi System. The water diviners may have mapped the area well and decided to construct along the fracture line. This might have been done during summer when the water table is low. Traditional methods of water diving with help of biological indicators and sixth sense of water diviners are part of normal custom in these parts. Once mother well is established a surface survey was done to establish the distance of each vent and direction of karez gallery. In line with the mother well several wells at near about equal distance might have been dug to further establish the water table.
The construction of Surang Bhawi was laboriously done on the laterite plateau. The hard laterite provided ideal conditions for cutting through vertically and horizontally. For removing debris, air circulation and light at approximately every 50 meters, vertical shafts were constructed. The vertical shafts are 15 to 17 metres (before restoration was initiated) deep on an average.
The recordings made by Gulam Yazdani indicated the existence of 21 vertical shafts or air vents. But there are about 27 visible vertical shafts or air vents inclusive of branch gallery. A number of vertical shafts have been closed for one or other reasons. The some of the air vents are provided with masonry lining (historically without any mortar) and 2 ft high parapet (parapet is mostly modern entity). The average dimension of the air vent is 4 m sq. Lack of maintenance, thick vegetation growth, and run-off erosion has led to collapse of parapets.
As described by Yazdani, “The Karez at Naubad was probably given up owing to death of king or due to some other causes”. This is evident in their present state. Probably, if the Naubad settlement had come up, the karez would have been well maintained and traditional knowledge prevailed to this day.
Naubad Surang Bhawi has a total length of 2.56 km from Karez Mouth to Mother Well including the branching. The well at Nirmithi Kendra complex forms the junction well. The branch is approx 800 meters in length. Further in all probability it branches into two stretching along the Naubad Embankment. This mud embankment is historic, probably built before the Bahmani rule. Naubad Bhandara (reservoir) created by this embankment is the groundwater recharging tank collecting all the runoff from surrounding slopes. The infiltering water from tank keeps feeding the surang bhawi gallery with perennial flow of water. Thus, this Surang Bhawi system can be called as “qanat-e-Saddi” (based on classification presented by .....).
The average depth of Surang Bhawi gallery from surface is 20 meters and air vents located approx 50 meters interval. The distance mentioned here are surface measurements connecting aerial distance between vents, the gallery length may vary as it zig zags through the geology.
The entire gallery is still not being accessible and has hindered the measurement of gallery. Above this a basalt stone lined adit of 90m length runs from the mouth to a collection tank. The average depth of adit is 4.5ft.
The water further flows down as streams to a natural collection spot about 2 – 3 km from the mouth. Many smaller streams join and further moves on ahead to join the river.
It’s also believed that there is a terracotta pipe line running from surang bhawi to “Shikar- Gah” (re-discovered by V Govindan kutty and team during surveys).
A detailed study was carried out by geographer and researcher V Govindan kutty during 2012-2013 and has published the work in the form of a report “Conservation of Naubad Karez System and Cultural Landscape” which was submitted to Government of Karnataka and further actions reports were submitted through 2013 and 2014 which was even vetted by Sr. Archaeologist and during May 2015 rejuvenation work of karez was initiated under the leadership of Kunjambu ettan from Kasaragod Kerala, a water diviner and surangam practitioner, moreover a water warrior. Today the Naubad Surang Bhawi is accessible upto vent 9 without any hindrance from the mouth. Debris removal work is one and probably by end of mid next year the full length will be ready to get recharged with water.
