Avata, a word occurring several times in the Rigveda,1 denotes a well, artificially made (khan ‘to dig’) in contrast with a spring (utsa), though the latter expression is also applied to an artificial well. Such wells were covered by the makers,2 and are described as unfailing (a-kṣita) and full of water.3 The water was raised by a wheel (cakra) of stone, to which was fastened a strap (varatrā), with a pail (kośa)4 attached to it. When raised it was poured (siñc) into buckets (āhāva) of wood.5 Sometimes those wells appear to have been used for irrigation purposes, the water being led off into broad channels (sārmī suṣirā).6[Footnote] 1) i. 55, 8; 85, 10. 11; 116, 9, 22; 130, 2; iv. 17, 16; 50, 3; viii. 49, 6; 62, 6; 72, 10, 12; x. 25, 4; 101, 5. 7. Cf. Nirukta, v. 26. [Footnote] 2) Rv. i. 55, 8. [Footnote] 3) Rv. x. 101, 6, etc. [Footnote] 4) Aṃsatra-kośam, Rv. x. 101, 7, is best thus rendered. For the stone wheel (aśma-cakra) which was above (uccā-cakra), see Rv. x. 101, 7; viii. 72, 10. For the varatrā, see Rv. x. 101, 6. Perhaps kū-cakra in Rv. x. 102, 11, is another name for the wheel, but cf. St. Peters- burg Dictionary, s.v.[Footnote] 5) Rv. x. 101, 6. 7. [Footnote] 6) Rv. viii. 69, 12. Cf. Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, 156, 157; Geldner, Vedische Studien, 2, 14.