The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v1.c19.s5.6

v1.c19.s5.6

Concerning agricultural practice as it obtained in ancient Bengal, it is not possible to draw any comprehensive picture. It seems certain, however, that paddy (*dhānya*) was cultivated from a remote antiquity as the staple food-crop of the people. The Mahāsthān Brāhmī inscription probably refers to a rice granary located at Puḍanagala (*Puṇḍranagara*).⁴ The *Rāmacharita* (III. 17) mentions “paddy plants of various kinds” grown in Varendrī. The inscriptions of the Sena kings mention “smooth fields growing excellent paddy,”¹ and “myriads of villages, consisting of land growing paddy in excessive quantities.”² Kālidāsa’s *Raghuvamśa* (iv. 37) affords us a glimpse into the method of rice cultivation. Describing Raghu’s conquest of the Vangas, the poet remarks that Raghu uprooted and replanted them (*utkhāta-pratiropita*) like rice plants. Rice, as is well known, is sown in three different ways—broadcast, by drill, and by transplantation from a seed-bed where it has been broadcast sown. Of these the third method is, as a rule, the least risky and the most profitable. That it was known and practised in this province at least as early as the fifth century A.D. seems clear from the aforesaid statement of the great Sanskrit poet. The different processes of reaping and threshing also appear to have been similar to those prevailing at present.³