John Colvin (engineer)

Lieutenant-Colonel John Colvin (20 August 1794 – 27 April 1871) was a British engineer who served the East India Company in India, and who is mainly remembered for his role in constructing canals in northern India. Quotes The Ghaghar river . . . does not in the heaviest season pass in force beyond Bhatnir . . . and the period when this river ceased to flow as one is far beyond record, and belongs to the fabulous periods of which even tradition is scanty... What the country about and west of Raneah [Rania, near Sirsa in Haryana] . . . has been, may be inferred from the numerous sites of towns and villages scattered over a tract, where now fixed habitations are hardly to be met with. I allude only to the vicinity of the bed of the Ghaghar, with which I am personally acquainted;—when the depopulation took place, I am not prepared to say; it must have been long since, as none of the village sites present[s] one brick standing on another, above ground,—though, in digging beneath it, very frequent specimens of an old brick are met with, about 16 inches by 10 inches, and 3 inches thick, of most excellent quality: buildings erected of such materials could not have passed away in any short period. The evident cause of this depopulation of the country is the absolute absence of water . . . Colvin, Major, ‘On the Restoration of the Ancient Canals of the Delhi Territory’, Journal of the Asiatic Society, vol. II, March 1833, p. 107. quoted in Danino, M. (2010). The lost river : on the trail of the Sarasvatī. Penguin Books India. External links Category:1794 births Category:1871 deaths Category:Engineers from the United Kingdom