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Built in Mughal Times
The Mughal rulers left behind a great legacy of well-engineered water works all over India, especially in central India. A typical example is the old water works of Burhanpur on the banks of the Tapti river in Madhya Pradesh


Burhanpur needed a lot of water. It was an important trade centre and was strategically located. In 1615 AD, the local ruler Abdul Rahim Khan invited a Persian geologist, Tabkutul Arz, to investigate the recharge valley in the Tapti plains. Arz did his groundwork, and devised a system.

The Burhanpur scheme consists of bhandaras or storage tanks, which collect groundwater from the underground springs flowing from the adjacent Satpura hills towards the Tapti. The groundwater is intercepted at four places northwest of Burhanpur, and then flows through subterranean conduits to a junction - a chamber called jail karanj. Here is stored the town's water supply.

The system today is considered defunct. But not by the people who use its air shafts as wells and draw water.
 
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