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History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c26.s3.t5: Sugarcane processing

History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c26.s3.t5

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English

Sugarcane processing

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*Crushing devices*: Sugarcane crushers of the barrel type closely resemble the oil press, and the two share a common ancestry. This is hardly surprising since grinding, to effect the expulsion of a liquid (though of different viscosities) is of course the basic operation in both. Sugarcane pressing, like that of oilseeds, may also have arisen as an offshoot of the soma pounding operation.

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In 1885 Grierson notes the similarity (Grierson 1926, pp. 44-60), and a few years George Watt states (Watt, 1972, IV, p. 153) that “the oilpress is identical with that used for the sugarcane but smaller in size”. The Sanskrit word *ikṣu* for sugarcane gave rise to the later words *ikh* and *ukh*, as well as to *ukar* (a vessel for husking grain) and to *ukhli* or *okli*, a small mortar (Platt, 1899, p. 106). Both the terms *kolhu* and *ghāni* are used for the sugarcane press, except, as remarked by Grierson, that the sugarmill is larger, has sloping sides (in contrast to the bottle-shaped pit of an oilpress) and carries no reuti or stirrer (which some though not all oil-presses do). In Marathi the term khali or khalli is used to denote substances as dissimilar as oilcake and sugar (Watt, 1972, VI, p. 502).

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Much of what has been said about the evolution of the oilpress also applies therefore to the sugarcane press. The Buddhist literature mentions sugarcane juice being extracted with a machine (Prakash, Om, 1961, pp. 7-53), and in the Kuṣāṇa-Śaka period (75-300 AD), machine-extracted juice is declared to be inferior, presumably to the hand-extracted product. A Jain manuscript copied at Palam near Delhi in 1540 AD features a drawing of two oxen crushing sugarcane in a typical barrel-shaped ghāni (Daniels and Daniels, 1988, Drawing on p. 502).

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The other sugarcane-crushing device is the roller mill with rotating cylinders, which has now all but superseded the kolhu. This seems to have originated from a similar roller device for removing seeds from cotton (Daniels and Daniels, 1988, Drawing on p. 502). The latter had itself replaced the rocking pin device on a flat board, worked by the hands or the feet, which had long been used for deseeding cotton (Watt, 1972, IV, p. 153) and is depicted in the Ajanta paintings (Roy and Bagchi, 1986,(b),p.129). The sugarcane roller mill probably evolved only around 1500 AD, (Daniels and Daniels, 1988), and is therefore outside the period of the present article.

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Sugar and its products : Harappan cities have yielded charcoal some Saccharum species, though whether this is the sugarcane is uncertain (Vishnu-Mittre, 1974, p. 3). The kusara of the Ṛgveda is thought to refer to it (Prakash, Om, 1961, pp.7-33). The chewing of ikṣu, which is certainly the sugarcane, is alluded to in Atharvaveda, while all the Saṃhitās of the Yajurveda mention the plant (Prakash, Om, 1961, pp. 7-33).

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In the Sūtra literature, the thickening of sugarcane juice to give first phanita, and then guḍa, is noted. The next stage, that of rock sugar (kāṇḍ), finds mention in the writing of Alexander’s companions (Kosambi, 1975, p. 192), who describe “stones the colour of frankincense, sweeter than figs or honey”. From Pundra or north Bengal came the superior variety of sugarcane, pauṇḍraka, and it is possible that sugar technologies were developed in Bengal or Gauda, from which Caraka derives the word guḍa (Prakash Om, 1961, pp. 251-252). In early Buddhist literature (Ibid, pp. 58-86), guḍa is described as being made from sugarcane juice using sugarcane flour (possible ground bagasse) and ashes, perhaps used for clarification. Mention in the Jain cannon of the word matsyaṇḍikā is intriguing, since later this material is defined (Ibid, pp. 132-167) as “globular in shape, like fish eggs”; either it is crystal sugar, or a confection of similar shape. Kautilya mentions all forms of sugar, upto śarkara or granulated sugar, as does Patanjali in the mid-2nd century BC (Ibid, pp. 87-101). Śarkara derives from grit or gravel. and it has been remarked (Kosambi, 1975, p. 123) that the word does not have a “Sanskrit appearance”. China has claimed precedence in crystal sugar production, to which the use of the term chini for sugar would lend support. But the visit of a team from China to the emperor Harsa in the 7th century AD to learn the technique of sugar production is also on record.

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South India obtained a large part of its jaggery from the fresh juice of the spathe of the palmyra palm (and Bengal from the trunk of the date palm), using slaked lime to prevent its fermentation (Rasanayagam, 1926, pp. 130-160). No crushing is involved, and the juice is simply boiled down and when thick poured into coconut halves to set to jaggery or vellam, a word mentioned in the earliest literature. Waving tassels of the sugarcane (“like spears”) are also frequently referred to, and sugarcane processing is mentioned (Gode, 1948, p. 43), but products of the sugarcane seem to have been of lesser importance in south India, even till recent times. Cane sugar crystals have an old name, ayir (also meaning gravel) (Srinivasa Iyengar, 1930, pp. 57-70), but are commonly called śakkarai, a word which is clearly of Sanskrit origin.

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