Chapter TANGUN to TANK of T by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Kehama, xiii. 6.

1883.—“ … all through sheets¹ 124, 125, 126, and 131, the only drinking water is from ‘tankas,’ or from ‘tobs.’ The former are circular pits puddled with clay, and covered in with wattle and daub domes, in the top of which are small trap doors, which are kept locked; in these the villages store rain-water; the latter are small and somewhat deep ponds dug in the valleys where the soil is clayey, and are filled by the rain; these latter of course do not last long, and then the inhabitants are entirely dependent on their tankas, whilst their cattle migrate to places where the well-water is fit for use.”—Report on Cent. Ind. and Rajputana Topogr. Survey (Bickaneer and Jeysulmeer). By Major C. Strachan, R.E., in Report of the Survey in India, 1882–83, App. p. 4. [The writer in the Rajputana Gazetteer (Bikanir) (i. 182) calls these covered pits kund, and the simple excavations sar.]