Khadin

Also called: Dhora · Topic: Water Resources of India: Availability, Use and Conservation · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 1 "The Story of Indian Farming"; Class 10, Ch 3 "Water Resources"

Meaning

A khadin (also called dhora) is a traditional runoff-farming system of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, credited to the Paliwal Brahmins. A long earthen bank is built across the bottom of a slope. Rainwater running off the higher ground collects behind the bank and soaks into the field, and a crop is then grown on the wet soil.

It matters because it shows how people farmed in the Thar desert with very little rain. It is also a common matching-pair question in UPSC Prelims, alongside johad, taanka and kund.

Explanation

How it works (cause → process → result)

• Cause: little rain, quickly lost.
• Western Rajasthan gets very little rain.

• When it does rain, the water runs off the slopes and is lost.

• Process: catch the runoff on a field.

• A long earthen bank (embankment) is built across the bottom of a slope.
• Runoff (rainwater that flows over the ground instead of sinking in) from the higher ground collects behind the bank.

• The water stands on the field for some time and slowly soaks into the soil.

• Result: a crop grows on stored soil moisture.

• The soil stays moist after the water has soaked in.
• Farmers sow a crop on this moist bed, often wheat.
• The water is stored in the soil itself, not in a tank or a pond.

Parts of a khadin

• Catchment: the higher, sloping ground that sends rainwater downhill.
• Earthen bank: the long bank across the bottom of the slope that stops the runoff.
• Khadin bed: the field behind the bank, where the water collects and the crop is grown.

Type and conditions it needs

• Type: runoff farming. It is a way of farming with stored soil moisture, not a drinking-water store and not an irrigation canal.
• Conditions:
• Low rainfall: it belongs to the group of systems for areas with below 50 cm of rain.
• A slope, so there is higher ground to supply runoff.

• Soil that can hold moisture behind the bank long enough for a crop to grow.

• Fit to place: like other traditional systems, it was built for the local rainfall, slope and soil.

Who built it

• It is credited to the Paliwal Brahmins of the 15th century.
• NCERT lists khadin among India's traditional water-structure words, along with kul, kund, ahar, pokhar, arakere, kolam, surangam, tadagam and eri.
• The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) recorded such systems in its book Dying Wisdom (1997).

Where it occurs

• Jaisalmer, western Rajasthan, in the Thar desert. This is the place most linked with the khadin.
• It belongs to the low-rainfall (below 50 cm) belt of traditional systems. Other systems in this belt:
• Taanka: Bikaner, Phalodi and Barmer
• Kund: open ground near Thar villages
• Johad: Alwar and eastern Rajasthan

• Virda: Rann of Kutch, Gujarat

• Map tip: put the khadin in the far west of Rajasthan (Jaisalmer). Put the johad in the east (Alwar).

Don't confuse with

• Johad (Alwar, eastern Rajasthan): a crescent-shaped (half-moon) earthen check dam or a dug-out pond. Its main job is to recharge groundwater, which helped rivers such as the Arvari flow again. A khadin's job is to grow a crop on the wet field behind the bank.
• Taanka (Bikaner, Phalodi, Barmer): a household underground tank filled with rain from sloping roofs. It stores drinking water (palar pani). A khadin is an open field that stores water in the soil.
• Kund (Thar villages): a covered, circular underground pit with a saucer-shaped catchment around it. It is a water store, not a farming system.
• Ahar-pyne (South Bihar): the ahar is a basin with embankments on three sides. It is filled by pynes (channels) from seasonal rivers, and its water irrigates paddy. A khadin is filled only by local slope runoff and is used for crops such as wheat.

Prelims Hooks

• Khadin → Jaisalmer, Rajasthan → Paliwal Brahmins (15th century). This is a standard matching pair.
• Khadin = runoff farming: an earthen bank across the bottom of a slope. The crop (often wheat) is grown on the moist bed after the water soaks in.
• Trap: Khadin → Jaisalmer, but Johad → Alwar. Do not swap the two Rajasthan systems.
• Trap: the khadin stores water in the soil for farming. The taanka and kund store water underground for drinking.
• Classification: the khadin is in the low-rainfall (below 50 cm) group, with taanka, kund, johad and virda. It is not in the mountain group (kul, zing) or the floodplain group (inundation channels, dong).
• Also called dhora. NCERT lists khadin among traditional water-structure names.

Mains Points

• Fit to place (GS-I: how geography shapes human adaptation):
• The khadin uses scarce desert runoff and stores it in the soil, so no canal and no pump are needed.

• This makes it low-cost, low-energy and lasting. A single large project for every region cannot match this fit to local rainfall, slope and soil.

• Why traditional systems declined (GS-III):

• State-built canals and tubewells replaced local systems. In western Rajasthan, the Indira Gandhi Canal reduced the use of taankas.
• Community groups that maintained the structures broke down, and many tank beds were encroached or filled with silt.

• The results are overused groundwater, flooding in cities and harsher droughts.

• Revival and the way forward (GS-III):

• JSA: Catch the Rain, launched on 22 March 2021 with the theme "Catch the rain, where it falls, when it falls", includes the renovation of traditional water bodies [3].
• Mission Amrit Sarovar (2022) aims to build or revive 75 water bodies in each district [2]. MGNREGA permits farm ponds, check dams and desilting.
• Next steps: restore user groups, map traditional structures with GIS (geographic information systems), and use them to make the Jal Jeevan Mission's water sources last.

Related concepts

• Ancient hydraulic structures of India
• Kallanai
• Traditional water harvesting systems
• Guls and kuls
• Inundation channels
• Johad
• Taanka
• Kund
• Ahar-pyne
• Eri

Read more

• Hydraulic heritage and traditional water harvesting