The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c17.62

v1.c17.62

Agriculture was already an important part of the Vedic economy. The practice of ploughing was certainly Indo-Irānian as the same root (*kṛish*) occurs in the same sense in the two tongues. But it is clear that even in the Rigveda the use of the plough was increasing in frequency. We learn of the use of bulls to draw the plough, of the sowing of seed in the furrows thus made, of the cutting of the corn with the sickle, the laying of it in bundles on the threshing floor, and the threshing and final sifting by winnowing. Moreover, the use of irrigation seems to be recognised in the mention of channels into which water is led. On the other hand, the nature of the grain grown is uncertain: it is called *yava*, which in the later Saṃhitās is barley, but it is quite uncertain whether this definite sense can be assigned to the word in the Rigvedic period.