History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.361
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.361
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Great attention was paid to agriculture. In the Sabhāparva 5. 77 the king²⁰² is advised to have large tanks in different parts of the country full of water and to see that agriculture did not depend on the rains alone. Megasthenes (Fragment I. p. 30 of McCrindle's work) notes that the greater part of the soil of India was in his day under irrigation and consequently bore two crops in the year. Even from the Tai. S. V. 1. 7. 3 it appears that two crops were grown in the year (tasmād dviḥ saṁvatsarasya sasyam pacyate). The Vāj. S. 18. 12 contains a list of twelve different kinds of crops such as rice, *yava*, wheat, *māṣa*, sesame, *mudga*, *masūra* &c. and the Bṛ. Up. VI. 3. 13 enumerates ten kinds of grain (grāmyāṇi dhānyāni). In the Hāthīgumphā Inscription of Khāravela king of Kaliṅga (E. I. vol. 20 p. 71) it is stated that (p. 79) a canal which had already been opened in the 103rd year of the Nanda kings (i. e. in the 4th century B. C.) was extended by him in the 5th year of his reign. Rudradāman at great expense from his own treasury without any additional taxation or demand for free labour restored the famous Sudarśana lake near Junāgaḍ (E. I. vol. VIII. p. 36) that had been built by the Governors of Candragupta and Aśoka and been breached by floods. Irrigation had been made use of from Vedic times. Ṛg. VII. 49. 2 refers to rivers and springs naturally flowing and to channels that were dug up.
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South Indian Inscriptions show how the Pallavas and kings of other dynasties built tanks which were named after the kings themselves or after some distinguished chief of the locality and that are in existence even now. Vide S. I. I. vol. II part III, p. 351, E. I. vol. IV p. 152 (mention of tank called 'parameśvarataṭāka'), S. I. I. vol. I p. 150, E. I. vol. VIII p. 145 (for mention of rājataṭāka near which four nivartanas were granted by Cārudevī). The great engineer Suyya under Avantivarman of Kashmir (833-858) successfully dammed the river Vitastā with the result that a khārī of rice which could formerly be purchased for 200 *dīnāras* could be had after the great irrigation work for 36 *dīnāras* (vide Rājatarangiṇī V. 84-117). Kauṭilya (II. 24) refers to the various ways in which crops could be raised with water and the revenue to be demanded in each case, e. g. those who watered crops with manual labour had to pay 1/5th of the produce, those who carried water on their shoulders paid ¼th, those who watered their crops by means of water-lifts or water-wheels from natural springs paid one-third and those who raised water from rivers, lakes, tanks and wells paid ¼th. He notes that sugarcane crops are a heavy responsibility, as they are liable to many evils and entail great expense. Sugarcane had been grown even in the times of the Atharvaveda (I. 34. 5). The Śukranītisāra (IV. 4.
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60) remarks that the king should see to it that there is plenty of water in his kingdom by digging wells, wells with steps, tanks, lakes &c. Megasthenes (fragment XXXIV p. 86 of McCrindle's 'Ancient India') says that some superintend the rivers, measure the land as is done in Egypt and inspect the sluices by which water is let out from the main canals into their branches so that every one may have an equal share of it. Kauṭ. (IV. 3) devotes a special chapter to the king's duty to save the kingdom from national calamities, viz. fires, floods, diseases, famines, rats, wild elephants (or beasts), snakes and evil spirits. He gives practical hints for human and religious remedies and rites against these calamities. The measures against famine suggested by him are: the king may provide the people with seeds and food, start works for those who are distressed, distribute either his own collection of provisions or that of the rich or call for help from his allies, tax the rich and make them disgorge their wealth, migrate to other countries that have abundant harvests. National calamities are called *īti*, which are six: excessive rainfall, drought, rats, locusts, parrots and too close presence of foreign kings²⁰³. The work of Kāmandaka states that calamities are either divine or human and that the first are of five kinds. In another place he gives a longer list of calamities. There are several references in ancient and medieval works to severe famines. In the Chāndogya Upaniṣad I. 10.
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1-3 we have the story of Uṣasti Cākrāyaṇa who took from another's plate *kulmāṣas* that the other had been eating (i. e. he took *ucchiṣṭa* food), when the country of Kurus was overwhelmed with a shower of hail (or by locusts). The Bālakāṇḍa (chap. 9) refers to a famine in the country of Aṅga under Romapāda. The Nirukta II. 10 refers to a drought in the dim past for twelve years in the kingdom of Śantanu. A Mauryan inscription from Mahāsthāna (ancient Puṇḍranagara) shows that Gaṇḍaka coins were distributed and also corn to famine-stricken people (J. A. S. B. for 1932 p. 123). The Sohagpur Copperplate Inscription (of Mauryan times) contains an order of the mahāmātras of Śrāvastī that the *dravya* storehouses were to be spent only in case of drought. Vide Annals of B. O. R. Institute, vol. XI p. 32ff., E. I. vol. 22 p. 1 and J. A. S. B. vol. VII (for 1941) part 2 p. 203. The Rājatarangiṇī records several times the occurrence of famines in Kashmir at different periods (e. g. vide II. 17-54, V. 270-278, VII. 1219 ff). The Maṇimekhalai (chap. 28) speaks of a famine for twelve years at Kāñcī in South India. There was a terrible famine (called the famine of Durgādevī) for twelve years in the Deccan about 1396 A. D. (vide Grant Duff's 'History of the Marāthas' vol. I. p. 43). Vide E. I. vol. 15 p. 12 for a reference to a severe famine in *śake* 1313 when paddy could not be had even at the rate of ten nāḷis a paṇam.