Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c9.t1.5

c9.t1.5

Agriculture was carried on by ploughing. It is said that p'oughing (*kisikamma*) being done at the right time yields plenty of fruit.⁵ The *Bṛhatkalpa Bhāṣya* refers to the festival in honour of the ploughing deity (*Sītā-janna*).⁶ *Phoḍakamma* is mentioned as a ploughman's profession dealing in ploughing the field.⁷ In a prosperous country the lands were ploughed with hundreds and thousands of ploughshares, and sugar-cane, barley and rice were cultivated by shrewd (*pannatta*) farmers (*karisaya*).⁸ We read of the *gāhavai* Ānanda who limited the cultivable land to five hundred ploughshares, each one ploughing one hundred acres (niyattana) of land.⁹ Three types of ploughshares are mentioned, viz., *hala*, *kuliya* and *nangala*;¹⁰ spade (*kudāla*) was known.¹¹ The fields were guarded by fences.¹² *Samūha* is mentioned as a place situated in a mountain or any other place of safety where the farmers used to store their corn.¹³