Arthashastra rain gauge
Pluviómetro del Arthashastra
- Date
- c. 300 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Pataliputra (Patna), Bihar, India
- Credited to
- Treatise attributed to Kautilya
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The Arthashastra prescribes placing a vessel (varshamana) in front of storehouses with a mouth one aratni (cubit, about 45 cm) wide to measure rainfall, and tabulates expected amounts for each region. It is the oldest written reference to a systematic measurement of rainfall.
The text was compiled between the 3rd century BCE and the 2nd century CE; in Korea (1441) the first surviving standardised network rain gauge was established.
What it led to
- planning of sowing and taxation according to rainfall
- state agrarian statistics