The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c17.153

v1.c17.153

In agriculture and pastoral pursuits progress was doubtless made. The plough was large and heavy: we hear of as many as twenty-four oxen being harnessed to one: it had a sharp point and a smoothed handle. In addition to irrigation, which was known in the Rigveda, the use of manure is referred to several times. In place of the indeterminate *yava* of the Rigveda many kinds of grain are mentioned, and *yava* is restricted, in all probability, to the sense 'barley.' Among those names are wheat, beans, corn, sesamum from which oil was extracted, *Panicum miliaceum, frumentaceum,* and *italicum, Wrightia antidysenterica, Dolichos uniflorus, Ervum hirsutum, Coix barbata,* and various others. Rice, both domesticated and wild, was much used. The seasons of the different grains are briefly summed up in the Taittirīya Saṃhitā: barley, sown no doubt, as at present, in winter, ripened in summer: rice, sown in the rains, ripened in autumn: beans and sesamum, planted in the time of the summer rains, ripened in the winter and the cold season. There were two seasons of harvest according to the same authority; and another text tells us that the winter crops were ready in March. The farmer had, as now, constant troubles to contend with: moles destroyed the seed, birds and other creatures injured the young shoots; and both drought and excessive rain were to be feared: the Atharvaveda provides us with a considerable number of spells to avoid blight and secure a good harvest. Cucumbers are alluded to, perhaps as cultivated; but there is no certain reference to tree culture, though frequent mention is made of the great Indian trees like the Açvattha, the *Ficus religiosa*, and the Nyagrodha, the *Ficus indica*, and the different forms of the jujube are specially named.