Neeruganti - The guardian of a life force Under the peepal

For centuries, adivasi and other local communities throughout Karnataka sustained the ancient human-made tanks and the channels that connect them. These tank systems nourished the region’s agriculture and transformed its landscape. Since the times of the Vijayanagara Empire (1336-1646), farming families have relied on this innovative irrigation system to cultivate myriad crops both for self-consumption and for selling in the market. 

The waters from the tanks have breathed life into the ecosystems that sustain rural indigenous communities throughout the state, and the Neeruganti have been tending to this life force. Under their care, these tanks sustained the lives of all those connected to them.

The tanks were once the centre of diverse rural ecologies, economies, and spirituality. As conductors of not only the labour that sustained tanks infrastructure, but the cultural practices that honour its deities, the Neeruganti wove the threads that formed the fabric of the local community.