Social and Rural Economy of Northern India, cir. 600 B.C.–200 A.D. v1.c16.11

v1.c16.11

The ākhyāna portions of the Epics which generally represent later stratá on the original themes show acquaintance with this problem in an aggravated form. A famine compelled the sage Viśvāmitra to abandon the land and his wife who was maintained by Mātaṅga then a hunter (Mbh. I. 71. 31). Droughts continued for many years at a stretch (vahuvārṣikī) extending up to ten or twelve, have found indelible impression in public memory. The Rāmāyaṇa alludes to a hermitess who created fruits and roots and caused the Jāhnavī to flow when the earth was parched by a ten-year drought (daśavarṣān-yanāvṛṣṭyā-dagdhe loke niraṇṭaram, II. 117. 9 f.). The Kuru famine in Samvaraṇa's reign was the result of a twelve years' drought (anāvṛṣṭi-rdvādaśavārṣikī)¹ to which even animals and trees had to succumb and the capital looked like a city of ghosts (Mbh. I. 175. 38-46). Another twelve years' drought in the regions about river Saraswatī caused great affliction to the ṛṣis (IX. 51. 22 ff.). But the most doleful description of a twelve years' drought in the Epics runs as follows: