History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c24.s3.t4.8

v1.c24.s3.t4.8

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).