Vanaspati: Plants and Plant-Life as in Indian Treatises and Traditions c6.t3.136

c6.t3.136

“ But, further, there are usages observed by the Indians which contribute to prevent the occurrence of famine among them, for, whereas among other nations in the contests of war to ravage the soil and thus to reduce it to an uncultivated waste is the practice, among the Indians on the contrary by whom husbandmen are regarded as a class that is sacred and inviolable, the tillers of the soil, even when battle is raging in their neighbourhood, are undisturbed by any sense of danger for the combatants on either side in waging the conflict make carnage of each other but allow those engaged in husbandry to remain quite unmolested. Besides, they neither ravage an enemy’s land with fire nor cut down its trees.”¹ 36 (14).