History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c26.s3.t5.4

v1.c26.s3.t5.4

The other sugarcane-crushing device is the roller mill with rotating cylinders, which has now all but superseded the kolhu.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.