Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c5.61

c5.61

How was this agriculture actually carried on? Ploughing was, as it even now is, done with ploughs drawn by an oxen-pair.⁴ The folk expressed the idea of ploughing as the "making two of one."⁵ After ploughing, clods in the earth were broken,⁶ and soil was turned with spades.⁷ Nothing definite can be gathered from the stories as to how and wherefrom water was supplied to the fields. It is however presumed that, even though the artificial irrigation such as digging long canals was for all practical purposes unknown in those days,⁸ the presence of large rivers and tanks and wells must have been made use of much in the same way as to-day. Much of course depends on rains which were uncertain. Water was taken through conduits (nikkham sukuṇḍalam), 'the green grass clothing it about.'⁹ Seed was sown at usual time,¹⁰ and to the grown-up crops, the proverb gave the title 'guhya' because they could cover the crow out of sight.¹¹ When ripe, the crops were cut and corn threshed on a prepared floor (khalamandala)¹² and then taken to the granary.¹³ Beyond this, we do not know anything about agricultural methods, such as the use of fertilisers and the adjustments and rotation of crops, existence of which may however readily be conceded.