History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c26.s1.t1.3

v1.c26.s1.t1.3

For dehusking grain a pounding and shearing action is needed. A mortar firmly fixed in a large hole built into the brick floor was unearthed at Harappa (Sankalia, 1977, p. 254), and a row of brick-lined pounding platforms with a central hole at Mohenjodaro (Sankalia, 1987, pp. 39-54). Stone mortars have been found at chalcolithic sites and at Mohenjodaro (Sankalia, 1977, p.254). A panel at Sanchi showing village activity depicts a woman, using a long (probably wooden) pole, pounding something in an hourglass- shaped mortar almost certainly made of stone (Dhavalikar, 1965). The Lakṣmaṇa temple at Khajuraho, of the 10th century A.D. shows what appears to be a wooden mortar and pestle (Prakash, Vidya, 1967, p.127). In the Daśakumāracarita of the 6th or 7th century A.D., a detailed description occurs of a cooking episode (Kale, 1925, pp.111-115), in which a girl polishes dehusked rice by gentle pounding in "a mortar of arjuna wood having an upright pole, not very deep or spacious, stirring it up again and again with her fingers, and striking it with the heavy pestle of khadira, with its end covered with iron plate and even-shaped, and with the slenderness of its middle part noticeable, her arms fatigued with the up and down motions". The southern origin of the author Bāṇa is inferred from the characteristic iron-covered tip of the pestle; this also finds mention (Rasanayagam, 1926, pp.130-160) in one of the songs of the Tamil anthology, Paṭṭupāṭṭu, placed about the 3rd century A.D., which describes "white rice well cleaned in pounders set in iron rings"