Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c14.54

c14.54

The ripe ears of barley were cut with a knife or sickle, bound into sheaves or bundles, strewn on a threshing-floor, and eventually winnowed or sifted to separate the grain from the chaff. Some form of container or measure was used, for which the word ūrdara is used – Indra is filled with drink as one fills an ūrdara with grain – and one may recall the circular structure interpreted by Vats as a grain-bin in the final (post-Harappā) occupation on the deserted citadel of the type-site in this connexion. Some artificial water-supply is implied by a reference to ‘waters produced by digging’ in one hymn, suggesting wells rather than any more ambitious scheme of irrigation.