Vanaspati: Plants and Plant-Life as in Indian Treatises and Traditions c6.s2.2

c6.s2.2

Our survey of the genesis and development of ancient Science of Agriculture shows that after it has reached a certain state of perfection there has been no further improvement in the method of cultivation, no accurate observation and no useful experiment. The scientific principles underlying the Art under unfavourable political circumstances came to be forgotten and agriculture instead of being a concern of the State, a matter of expert knowledge, came to be the occupation of the lowest strata of the population with the result that the fertile India noted by Megasthenes and others for its absolute absence of famine became repeated scenes of dearth and famine during the Mohamedan rules again and again, and many times during the British rule too.