The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v1.c19.s5.11

v1.c19.s5.11

Another food-crop cultivated was probably sugar-cane. The classical author, Aelian, speaks of a kind of honey expressed from reeds which grew among the Prasioi. Lucan says that the Indians near the Ganges used to quaff sweet juices from tender reeds.⁴ Suśruta (45, 138-40) mentions a variety of sugar-cane called *pauṇḍraka*; and most commentators of Sanskrit lexicons agree that it was so named because it was grown in the Pauṇḍra country (North Bengal). These statements, taken together, naturally suggest the inference that certain species of sugar-cane were cultivated in Bengal from very early times. It is not improbable, as a recent writer has pointed out, that from the term *pauṇḍraka* have been derived such modern vernacular names as *pauṇḍiā*, *pauṇḍā*, *puṇḍi*, etc.—a celebrated variety of sugar-cane cultivated in almost all parts of India.⁵