Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c6.s1.11

c6.s1.11

1. *The produce of the land.*—Nearly all cultivation was done on land which furnished food for men and fodder for animals.¹ It is difficult to speak of the size of an average holding or even of the proportion of the population which took to active husbandry. We can roughly state that leaving aside those who were engaged in domestic labour and crafts, all others took to cultivation on land. There are no detailed references to the system of cultivation then in vogue, but probably it was not very different from the present system.² The agricultural produce of the country as a whole could not have been very different from what it is to-day except for the newly introduced cultivation of tobacco, tea, coffee and the extension of jute crop and the like. It appears, however, that medicinal herbs, spices and fragrant wood were grown in larger quantities, and found a market in and outside India. Pulses, wheat, barley, millet, peas, rice, sesame and oilseeds, sugarcane and cotton were the chief crops.¹ The area round about Kara and Manikpur (near Allahabad) was considered to be exceptionally fertile and grew good quality rice, sugarcane, and wheat which were exported to Delhi in great quantities.² As a result of canal irrigation introduced under Firuz Shah Tughluq, the area round Hissar and Firuzabad added to the existing cultivation of sesame and pulses the culture of wheat and sugarcane.³ Among other improved crops, the rice of Sirsuti was reputed for quality and found a ready market in Delhi.⁴ The usual method of storing the stock of grain was in grain-pits or khattees which preserved the grain for a very long time.⁵