Water tank, Srīperumbūdur, India. Coloured aquatint by C. Gold, 1799, after himself.

"The benevolent disposition of the Hindoo people, is most deeply engraven over the face of their country, in the reservoirs. or tanks of water, with which it has been so amply provided, by those of its pious inhabitants who have obtained opulency. Was it not for these generous and patriotic works of art, a great part of the peninsula of India, though intersected by numerous rivers, would probably exist only in the rude and uncultivated state of the African continent. In the hot season, which sometimes continues nearly three-fourths of the year, all, excepting the few large rivers, are exhaled by the sun; a parching wind assists in drying up all vegetative substances; and if cultivation was not nourished by the immensity of water treasured up in these reservoirs from the monsoon torrents, pitiable indeed would be the state of this rich and fertile soil. The whole country abounds with tanks, serving in the neighbourhood of towns and villages, for the purposes of cultivation; and when dispersed along the highways, to soften the toils of the mercantile adventurer, and meliorate the more holy pilgrim's condition; by affording them the means of sustenance, and of performing the religious ablutions, so essential to their happiness. …"—Gold, op. cit.