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History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c24.s3.t1: (a) Soil

History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c24.s3.t1

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English

(a) Soil

v1.c24.s3.t1.1

Experience must have made people even in the neolithic phase aware of the suitability of soil in some areas for cultivation. Originally the term ksetra signified an abode and not an agricultural field. In the early Vedic literature it signifies farm land. Urvarā was used for the fertile and anurvarā for the barren land. Kṛṣya was the arable land.

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According to Oldenberg, Khila was the unfertile land which lay between cultivated fields. The nature of the soil as containing sarkara (salty), sikatā (sandy) and aśmān (stony) was recognised. The Vājasaneyī Saṃhitā (XVI.43) mentions lands of many kinds, such as tracts in hill area, open plains, stream land, slopes and undulating regions, flat surfaces with green pastures, low fertile regions and cultivable lands with homesteads (Roy, pp.118-20).

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In ancient India there were special terms to refer to different types of land. Of these, many were based on their properties and characteristics. The consolidated list of such terms occurring in the Amarakośa (II.1.1-5, 9-11) includes bhūmi (soil in general), mṛtsnā (an excellent soil), urvara (a fertile soil for all sorts of crops), ūṣa (salt ground), usara (a spot with lime soil), maru (a region devoid of water), khila or aprahata (untilled or waste land), naḍvān, kumudvān, vetasvān and śadvala (a country abounding in reeds, waterlilies, ratans or green grass), paṅkila (clayey or muddy soil), anūpa (land contiguous to water), śarkarila (soil full of stony or similar modules), and siktila (sandy soil). Some of these appear as early as the Vedic literature. These terms imply an awareness of the properties of the soil and classifying them on that basis.

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In ancient India land was generally classified into three jāṅgala, anūpa and sādhāraṇa, on the basis of the moisture in it. Jangala is dry land, anupa is wet land and sādhāraṇa has moderate or average moisture.

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The classification into jāṅgala, anūpa and sādhāraṇa seems to have been formulated before the times of the Arthaśāstra of Kautilya. It refers to the anūpa and jāṅgala land (AS. II.24.5). This classification was adopted by the authors of medicinal texts. They mention the three types of soils and list the trees characteristic of them.

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Caraka (Kalpa, 6,7) describes jāṅgala as the region which is full of unobstructed open spaces, where a steady and dry wind blows, which is pervaded with expansive mirages, where rivers and rivulets are scarce, which abounds in wells (on account of scarcity of water) and is full of dry and rough sands and big sandy granules. According to Suśruta (Sūtra, 35.35), it presents a flat surface, with its dull monotony enlivened by scanty growth of thorny shrubs and tops of a few isolated hills and knolls, and in which water in springs and wells accumulated during rains becomes nearly drained and strong gales of warm wind blow. Plants characteristic of jāṅgala region mentioned by Caraka are Khadira, Asana, Aśvakarṇa, Dhava, Tinisa, Sallaki, Sāla, Somavalka, Vadari, Tinduka, Aśvattha, Vaṭa and Āmalakī and Sami, Arjuna and Siṃsapa.

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According to Caraka (op. cit.,8), the anūpa region abounds in rivers, is bordered by seas, and is swept by cold wind. It is interspersed with rivers whose banks are decked with Vanjula and Vanira. Mountains are absent from this region. It is thickly overgrown with forest bowers, trees, verdent trees and tender creepers.

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Suśruta (op.cit.34) describes it as the region which contains a large number of pools, is wooded and undulated with chains of lofty hills, is impassable owing to its network of rivers and sheets of accumulated rain-water, and has a gentle humid air.

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Caraka (op.cit., 9) describes sādhāraṇa region as endued with creepers, plants and trees of both the classes, the vanaspatis and vanaspatyas. According to Suśruta (op. cit. 36), it exhibits features common to both the classes, the jāṅgala and anūpa.

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The Suśrutasaṃhitā also accepts the classification of soil into six each, on the basis of their distinctive odour (gandha), colour (varṇa) and taste (rasa) (Sūtra 37.11). It adds another classification according to the qualities of the five elements, earth (pṛthvī), water (ambu), fire (agni), wind (anila) , and sky (ākāśa), being predominant in them, and enumerates their characteristic features (Ibid.4). It describes sādhāraṇa soil as one which is endowed with all the properties (Ibid. 13). For medicinal plants it recommends soil with distinct features (Ibid.2). The classification of land into three types was evidently known to Varāhamihira. He does not give full details about them. But, he has listed sixteen trees that are the characteristic products of anupa land (Bṛhatsaṃhitā 54.11).

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The Vṛkṣāyurveda of Surapāla has a separate section (verses 35- 44)¹³ on determining the ground (bhūminirūpana). It follows the generally accepted classification of land into three: jaṅgala (dry or arid land), anūpa (wet land), and sāmānya (moderate humidity land). It introduces another classification on the basis of colour (varṇa) and taste (rasa).

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There are six types of soils according to their colour: asita (black), vipāṇḍu (pallid), śyāmala (dark blue), lohita (red), sita (white) and pīta (yellow). Likewise, they are classified into six according to their taste: madhura (sweet), āmla (sour), lavaṇa (saline), tikta (pungent), kaṭuka (acrid) and kaṣāya (astringent). The soil, that is full of poisonous matter, stones or ant-hills or is saline, gravelly and has underground water too deep, is not favourable for trees. That soil is praiseworthy which is of mild colour like saphire (indranīla) and the plumage of a parrot, is white like a conch, jasmine (kunda), water-lily (kumuda) and moon, and vies with molten gold and blossoming Campaka. In a soil which is even (sama), contiguous to water, full of sprouts of green trees and grass, trees of all kinds thrive when planted at proper places. The land which is of moderate humidity (sādhāraṇa) and not dry (jaṅgala) nor wet (anūpa) is good and all kinds of trees grow on it without doubt.

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Panasa, Lakuca, Tālī, bamboo, citron (Jambīra), rose-apple (Jambū), Tilaka, fig-tree (Vaṭa), Kadamba, hog plum (Āmrāta), date-palm (Kharjūra), arecanut (Pūga), plantain (Kadalī), Tinisa, red-grape vine (Mṛdvi), Ketakī, coconut and others are trees that grow on anūpa land. Śobhāñjana, Śrīphala, Saptaparṇa, Śephālikā, Aśoka, Śami, Karīra, Karkandhuka, Kesara, Nimba and Soka flourish on jāṅgala land. Citron (Bījapuraka), Punnāga, Campaka, mango, Atimuktaka, Priyaṅgu, Pomergranate are trees that grow on sādhāraṇa land.

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These verses occur in the Upavanavinoda (verses 35-44), which is a part of the Śārṅgadharapaddhati (Raychaudhuri, pp.9-10). They have been evidently borrowed from the Vṛkṣāyurveda of Surapāla.

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Varāhamihira regards soft (mṛdvi) to be good for all kinds of trees. He emphasises the need for preparing the soil before sowing. The first process in preparing the land is to sow sesamum in the soil and, when they grow and have put forth flowers, they are to be uprooted (Bṛhatsaṃhitā 54.2).

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