Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c5.134

c5.134

Let us now turn to forest-lands (vanapacārā).⁶ India of those days seems to have been richly gifted with forest tracts. Almost the whole of the country was covered over with a large variety of trees. Arboriculture, as a science akin to agriculture, may not have been recognised to its fullest measure, but the beneficial influence of forests does not require any human agency. They were, as they always are, of much economic value. They provided the country with materials (bhaṇḍam) for the construction of houses, vehicles, shops and various kinds of implements and the like. Various kinds of timber, bamboo, creepers, fibrous plants like those mentioned before, leaves like those of betel, wild flowers, medicinal herbs and roots were to be found in plenty. And for these the Vanacarakas, or the foresters, roamed about⁷ the wood-workers, the basket-makers, workers in bamboos, and the carpenters sallied forth far and wide from their abodes.⁸ Above all, the forest-trees were an unfailing source of fuel for the community,⁹ and of a living to the wood-gatherers (kaṭṭhahārakas).¹⁰ A Jātaka,¹¹ moreover, informs us that self-sown paddy (sayañjāto sāli) was to be found in the forest regions of the Himalayas. Similarly honey, of which we read frequently as eaten with rice, was most probably obtained in the forests from the wild beehives.¹²