Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c9.t3.8

c9.t3.8

Koṭṭaka was a drying place for fruits, people used to gather fruits from jungles and store them at this place; they carried them in waggons, bundles etc. to cities for sale.⁶⁶ Four methods of ripening fruits are mentioned. Some fruits such as mango etc. were ripened by covering them with husk or straw (*indhana*). *Tiṇḍuka* (a fruit of the ebony tree) and other fruits were ripened by subjecting them to a heating process. The process was that first a hollow was made in which the cow-dung fire was lit; around this other hollows were made which were filled with raw fruits. Those hollows were connected with the central hollow by means of holes and thus the fruits ripened by the heat of the fire (*dhūma*). Then cucumber (*cibhaṭa*) and citron (*bījapūra*) etc. ripened by mixing them with ripe fruits (*gandha*) Lastly, the fruits ripened in their natural way on trees (*vaccha*).⁶⁷