History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c26.s3.t7: Salt

History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c26.s3.t7

Language: English

Salt

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*Types and uses:* Salt is not mentioned in the *Ṛgveda*, but thereafter many types are recorded. Five kinds, first mentioned in the *Vinaya Piṭaka* (Prakash, Om, 1961, pp. 58-86), and later by Caraka (Ibid), are the more important. These are rock salt, sea salt, *viḍa*, *audvida* (probably the same as the *udbhedaga* of Kauṭilya) and *sauvarcala*. Suśruta has nine others (Ibid), most of which appear to be other mineral salts of sodium and potassium. Kauṭilya mentions “salt from the Sindhu country”, but whether any of the other special regional salts now recognised were known cannot be ascertained. These include the *kurkutch* of Maharashtra and Gujarat, *kuppa* and *baragara* (in large cubes) from Gujarat, *paṅga* of West Bengal, the pink *kyar* and *resta* of Rajasthan, and the *mapi* or *vajni* of the east coast. These contain impurities in varying proportions which alter their taste and colour.

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From *Sūtra* times, salty foods were not permitted to students, widows and newly-married couples for three days (Ibid). Use of *viḍa* and black salt was interdicted during a *śrāddha* (Ibid, pp. 102-131). Sea salt was always rated superior to other salts as a food (Ibid, pp. 132-167).

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*Production and sale:* Details of production are lacking, especially for varieties other than sea salt. The latter was probably obtained, as it is now, by solar evaporation in long shallow beds along the shore, fed by the incoming tide; the crystallised salt was simply raked off. In Kauṭilya’s account, salt manufacture was scrutinised by a special superintendent, the *lavaṇādhyakṣa* and carried out under a system of licences for which either a fixed fee was paid, or a share of output retained (Monahan, 1924, p. 54). Salt that was received by government as its share was sold by the superintendent, profit being ensured by the difference of 5 percent between the royal measure and the common measure. One-sixth of all imported salt went to the king, and was sold by the superintendent to the public, with a profit made both in measuring the quantity and in selling it.

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*Salt in south India:* The Sangam literature of the first six centuries AD is quite forthcoming. Activities of people living in different localities are set down, and this includes salt-making in the coastal littoral. Mention is made (*Rasanayagam*, 1926, pp. 130-160; Srinivasa Iyengar, 1932, pp. 253-300) of “hearths of stones left by the salt vendors”, and of “white salt manufactured in clayey beds”, certainly by evaporation. Salt must have been extensively made, and five names are recorded for salt beds, namely *nanuguppalam*, *alkkar*, *uvarkkalam*, *uvalagam* and *kazhi* (Srinivasa Iyengar, 1930, pp. 57-70). The more important places of manufacture were Markanam, Kanyakumari, Variyur, Aythurai and Bapatla (Ibid). No varieties other than sea salt seem to be recorded. Salt sellers went round villages with headloads crying out the price, (Rasanayagam, 1926, pp. 130-160), and salt was transported across the peninsula in carts by producers moving about with their families (Arokiaswami; 1972). Salt was exchanged for various other commodities like rice, and both salt and honey were principal measures of value (Pillay, 1975, p.284).

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*Cold water and ice*

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Evaporative cooling in really porous clay jars was a time-honoured technique of cooling water. The use of saltpetre for cooling water was apparently introduced by Akbar, according to Abul Fazl. A scene from the Harṣacarita, describing the ministrations to the dying father of the emperor in Kannauj (Upadhyaya, 1947, p. 216), refers to whey for a gargle being kept “in a new vessel besmeared with wet clay”. The same passage states that “buttermilk was freezing in pails packed with ice”. This could have been brought from the Himalayan heights by river and land in relays, as was later the practice of Mughal emperors. However the making of ice may not have been unknown in the area, to judge by a description recorded in Allahabad in 1775 by a resident English scientist (Dharampal, 1971, p. 219). During three months of winter when the temperature was close to, but never below, freezing point, boiled water was poured a couple of centimetres deep into small shallow porous vessels and the latter placed in long, shallow pits, well insulated at the bottom and sides, that were scooped out in quiet and windless surroundings. Overnight ice would form, sometimes all the way through, and this was collected and kept in insulated storage for use all the year round.

Linked texts (11)

Carakasaṃhitā — Agniveśa (Āyurveda) & Caraka, Sanskrit
Suśrutasaṃhitā — Suśruta & Nāgārjuna (siddha/alchemist), Sanskrit
Matsyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra — Kauṭilya, Sanskrit
Vallālacarita — Ānandabhaṭṭa 1510, Sanskrit
Harṣacarita — Bāṇabhaṭṭa, Sanskrit
Vinayapiṭaka — Pāli
Sūtra — Sanskrit
Ṛgvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa — Vālmīki, Sanskrit
Vaḍḍārādhane — Śivakoṭyācārya, Kannada