Natural entities and forces , such as Sun,Earth, Rivers, Ocean, Wind, Water, etc. have been worshiped in India as gods since time immemorial. Perhaps it is not a sheer coincidence that the king of these gods is Indra, the god of Rain. Clearly ancient Indians
are aware of the importance of the rain and other hydro-logic variables of the society.
The Ancient Indian Literature contains numerous references to hydrology and its contents suggests that ancient Indians knew the basic concepts of hydrological processes and measurements.The vedic texts which are more than 3000 years old contain valuable information on hydrologic cycle.
Verse I, 32, 10 says that the "Water is never stationary, but it continuously evaporated and due to the minute size of particles we cannot see the up going water particles."
These are the slokas 1 and 2 of Dakargelam ( Chapter 54 of Vraht Samhita). They state the importance of ground water exploration which helps man to ascertain the existence of water. the meaning is as follows :
" The water veins beneath the earth are like vein's in the human body, some higher and some lower. The water falling from the sky assumes various colors and tastes from differences in the nature of the earth."
In Linga Purana a full fledged chapter( I, 36 ) has been devoted to the science of hydrology.
" After being heated by the sun, water contained in most of the materials on earth gets converted to smoke(vapour) and ascends to sky with the air and subsequently gets converted to cloud. thus the combination of smoke, fire and air is the cause of cloud formation. These clouds cause rainfall under the guidance of lord Indra, having thousand eyes."
Similarly, Vayu(51. 14-15-16) states like this:
This Verse explains that all water that goes to the sky with wind by the heat of Sun rays gets converted to clouds and then again after the penetration by sunrays it rains and gets stored into rivers, ponds, oceans etc.
Civil Scholar is a Blog by Aravind Samala on Construction, Environment, Technology, Trends and Innovation.