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History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c24.s3.t4: (d) Sowing Methods

History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c24.s3.t4

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(d) Sowing Methods

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The earliest primitive method of sowing was that of individual planting or dibbling of seeds into holes made by digging sticks. With the coming of field-tillage the method of broadcasting or scattering was introduced. We can speculate that in neolithic times, when cultivation was generally of the shifting or jhuming type, sowing was done either by dibbling or by broadcasting.

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S.R. Rao (p.79) has identified the figure of a seed-drill on an Harappan seal from Lothal (Randhawa, p.157). This will mean that the Harappans practised line-sowing by using seed-drills. The inference receives support from the pre-Harappan ploughed field exposed by excavations at Kalibangan (Lal, pp. 1-4). The furrows reveal a grid pattern running at right angles to each other, the north-south ones having an average distance of 1.9 meters and the east-west having 30 cm. only. The present practice in Kalibangan in fields with this ploughing pattern is taken to suggest that this was done for mixed cropping, the horizontal furrow for sowing one crop and the vertical for another.

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The Ṛgvedic references are not very explicit about the sowing method. One passage (ṚV. X.9.23) says “Harness the ploughs fit on the yokes, now that the womb of the earth is ready to sow the seeds therein”. Aiyer(p.16) interprets it as showing that seeds were “either sown in plough furrows or broadcast and then covered over by ploughing”. Another passage (ṚV X.101.3-4) has a similar import. “Attach the ‘sira’ (plural) spread apart the yokes, sow the seeds into the prepared womb”. These two passages will suggest that after an initial ploughing the seeds were sown with the help of a plough. J. Bloch also interprets sīram occurring in the passage as a plough used for sowing seed. This is evidence of sowing by a seed-drill plough.

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We do not have an undisputed reference to the method of sowing rice by transplantation before c. 500 B.C. The terms ropaṇa and ropeti occurring in early Pali literature refers to transplantation. In the Aṅguttara Nikāya (I. 239-40) the expression bījani patitthapeti is explained as meaning ‘plants seedling’, patiṭṭhapeti being the forerunner of the present terms bīṭhauni current for this practice in parts of north Bihar and biya (from bīja) signifying seedlings for planting. In the Jain text Nāyādhammakahāo (vii.68, p.85) there is a reference to five paddy grains being sown on a well prepared bed and the seedlings being transplanted twice or thrice.

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The expression for transplanting is *ukkhayanihae* or *ukkhāyanihae* which literally means ‘uprooted and planted’ (Jain, p.122). It has been suggested that the distinction between the Vedic term *vrīhi* and the post-Vedic *śāli* is that the first is grown without transplanting, whereas the second is grown by transplantation (P.B. pp. 122,204). Greek writers refer to the practice of wet paddy production and transplantation. Aristobolus says that rice crop stands in water enclosure and is sown in beds (Majumdar, p.251). Megillus, as quoted by Strabo, mentions that rice cultivation was by transplanting (Majumdar, p.251).

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The usual practice was to sow the seeds after the field had been ploughed. This is indicated by numerous literary accounts, which, in describing the sowing processes in cultivation, speak of the sowing of seeds in a field that has been carefully tilled [*Sat.Br.* I.1.6.3 ; *Cu.V.* VII. 1.2 ; *Mil.* II. p. 269 f(VI.22)]. Generally seeds were scattered by hand (Ray, pp.100, 120). We get an idea of the method of sowing seeds from a verse in the *Mahābhārata* (VII.25.31) which compares it with the throwing of arrows in quick succession. But there were some other methods as well. In the *Matsyapurāṇa* (Ch. 154.404), the Ṛṣis, who approached Śiva for Umā’s marriage with him, when returning, bent their bodies before Śiva as done by a farmer in sowing seeds. This may be interpreted as referring to the practice of line-sowing in which the farmer, in dropping seeds in the furrows, keeps his body in a drooping position. Panini mentions the term *bījakaroti* (V.4.58), which is explained by the *Kārikā* to mean tilling along with the seeds (*saha bījena vilekhanam karoti*). This suggests a device by which a cultivator sows the seeds in the line of tilling through a cone attached to the pole of the plough (Agrawal,p.200). Medhātithi (on Manu II.112) also refers to seeds being sown with the help of the plough.

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*(e) Transplantation*

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Kālidāsa (*Raghuvamśa*, IV.20,37) makes an apt reference to the practice of the seedlings of *śāli* being uprooted and then transplanted at another place. The *Kṛṣi-Parāśara*, in laying down the processes in cultivation, has in mind the details of paddy cultivation. It prescribes the procedure of transplantation (*ropaṇa*) (verses 183-185)¹⁸. It envisages the sowing of seeds for transplantation (verses 169,172). It classifies seeds into two, those which are sown and those which are later transplanted. Sowing is free from defects, but transplantation is attended with maladies. For transplantation seedlings are not to be gathered (*bījakarṣaṇa*) from full grown (*vṛksarūpam*) paddy plants, because all seedlings, grown hard in fields, do not yield fruit. Seedlings are to be transplanted one cubit from one another in Karkaṭa (Śrāvaṇa), half a cubit in Siṃha (Bhadra), and four fingers apart in Kanya (Asvina). The text requires the cultivator to perform the *kattana* (possibly meaning thinning out) of paddy in the month of Āṣāḍha and Śrāvaṇa, without which there is an indifferent and poor growth of paddy. But *kattana* and plantation are not to be done in a low land (verses 186-88). The removal of weeds (*niṣṭṇikaraṇa*) from paddy is to be done between Kulīra (Śrāvaṇa) and Bhādra. Agriculture suffers loss due to weeds. Agricultural produce from which weeds are removed becomes highly fruitful (verses 189-92). The text further advises that in Bhādra water is to be drained off, preserving it up to the roots only. This will keep paddy free from disease (verses 193-94). Water is to be preserved in Āśvina and Kārtika (verses 196-97).

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Varāhamihira records some practical hints about transplatation of trees. Plants that have not put forth branches are to be transplanted (praropayet) in the winter, those that have put forth branches, in the beginning of winter, and those that have developed trunks, at the advent of the rainy season (Bṛh. S. 54.6).

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The trees are to be transplanted (saṅkrāpanaviropana) after plastering them from their root up to the branches with ghee, uśīra, sesamum, honey, viḍaṅga, milk (kṣīra) and cowdung (ibid.7). To emphasise the importance of transplantation the person was required to be pure and clean and to perform religious rites. The transplanted trees are to be watered both morning and evening during summer, on alternate days in winter, and during the rainy season when the soil becomes dry (ibid.9).

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Varāhamihira (Bṛh.S. 54.12-13) brings out the importance of proper spacing in planting trees. The best kind of planting is that in which the trees are planted at a distance of twenty cubits (hastas) from each other, the middling one when they are sixteen cubits apart, and the worst when they are at a distance of twelve cubits from each other. Trees that grow too close and touch each other do not yield adequate fruits owing to their roots entwining and injuring each other.

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In its chapter (282) on Vṛkṣāyurveda the Agnipurāṇa deals with the planting (ropana) of trees. It mentions the religious rites to be performed and the asterism under which it is to be done (verses 3-4). When the earth is dry, the planted trees are to be watered each morning and evening in summer, on alternate days in winter, and in the night in the rainy season (verses 7-8). It considers a distance of twenty cubits (hastas) between the trees to be best, of sixteen to be middling, and of twelve to be the inferior most. Trees planted too close become fruitless, hence they are to be chopped off in the beginning (verses 8-9).

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The Vṛkṣāyurveda of Surapāla gives directions about the plantation of trees in the section called vapanavidhi (the method of sowing). Trees are to be sown or planted on a land which is even and pleasant and in which flowers, sesamum and Masa have been scattered (verse 63). The distance of fourteen, sixteen or twenty cubits between trees is considered respectively to be bad, middling and excellent (verse 64). The interval between thickets (gulmas) may be four or five cubits and that between Puga (arecanut) etc. two or three cubits (verse 65). If the gap is larger than prescribed, there is danger to the trees from storm and, if it is less, the fruits will be poor (verse 66). Sowing and especially planting of mangoes, pomergranates etc. and pumpkin gourds Alāmbuka is to be done in a pit measuring one cubit all round, dug long back, dried, filled with cow-bones and cowdung, well burnt and allowed to cool down naturally, and then after removing the ashes irrigated with carcass water (kuṇapa) and filled with manure (verses 67-69).

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The Vṛkṣāyurveda of Surapala mentions the months for planting various trees; Kṣirikā, mango, pomergranate, and Bakula etc. in Śrāvaṇa, Rāja, Kośāmra¹⁹, and Lakuca etc. in Bhādra, (verse 87), Golla and brinjal (Vārtāka) etc. in Āśvina, majoram (Phanijja), Satapattrika, coriander (Dhānyaka) and Mūlaka etc. in Kārttika (verse 88), Paṭola etc. in Phālguna, Karkāruka etc. in Caitra and plantain etc. in Vaisakha under Sukra (verse 89). In Āṣāḍha all sorts of seeds may be sown and trees may be planted at will. Sahas (Mārgaśīrṣa), Sahasya (Pauṣa) and Māgha are forbidden for sowing etc. (verse 90).

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