A History of Agriculture in India v1.c13.s3: Surviving Primitive Tribes in the Mesolithic Stage
A History of Agriculture in India v1.c13.s3
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Surviving Primitive Tribes in the Mesolithic Stage
v1.c13.s3.1
Apart from the stone tools, and cave paintings, some of the surviving primitive tribes provide us with an idea of the mode of life of the Mesolithic people and their food. Of these, the Onge of the Andamans, a Negrite pygmy tribe, are the most primitive. Only about 150 of them survive in the Little Andaman.
v1.c13.s3.2
Although they have now started using iron tips for their arrows and spears, their economy is essentially of the type of the Mesolithic Age, based on hunting, fishing and gathering. Cultivation in any form is unknown to them.
v1.c13.s3.3
"Within the limits of their pre-agricultural technology, the Onge optimally utilise the natural resources of the forest and the sea," states Sinha. From the forest, they procure tuberous roots, yams, jackfruits, pandanus fruits and various types of berries, and also pigs, larvae of insects, birds and honey. From the island creeks and their banks, they get freshwater fish, prawns, and turtle eggs. From the sea, they get fish, turtle, dugong, shellfish and crabs, and sea-borne cocoanut.
v1.c13.s3.4
"The forest provides them not only with the major sources of food but almost all their material requirements. The communal huts and temporary shelters are made from forest products. Other articles of their use—boats, weapons, their scanty body covering, decorative material and medicinal items—are all derived from forest products. Roots, stalks, bark fibres, stems, trunks, branches, leaves, flowers—every part of the tree is used.
v1.c13.s3.5
"There is a distinct division of labour among them. Hunting pigs, dugong or turtle, fishing with harpoons and bows and arrows are men's jobs, while women are mainly engaged in the collection of roots and tubers and fishing with nets.⁴
v1.c13.s3.6
⁴ Sinha, S. Primitive Hunters, Shifting Cultivators, The Times of India Annual, 1974
The Food Habits of the Tribals of Madhya Pradesh
v1.c13.s3.t1.1
The food habits of the tribals provide us with a clue to the type of food consumed by the Mesolithic food-gatherers and hunters. We will now consider the environment and food articles of the tribals of Madhya Pradesh.
v1.c13.s3.t1.2
In the Bastar District of Madhya Pradesh, the important tribal and sub-tribal communities are Maria, Muria, Bhatra, Mahara, Dhakad, and Rawat. In the Betul, Mandla, Sarguja and Chhindwara districts, Gond, Kol and Bharia predominate. The Jhabua District is inhabited by Bhils and Kanjars. These tribes most probably belong to the ‘Proto-Australoid’ group or the so-called Veddoid type.
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Topographically, the regions inhabited by the tribal people are generally hilly and undulating, with high and low plateaus covered with dense and almost inaccessible forests.
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Ecologically, the present forest vegetation represents bio-edaphic series, and very little of the primaeval forest is left. However, some relict areas of the mixed deciduous monsoon forests of *Shorea-Tectona-Diospyros* exist. The dominant tree species in the tribal forest areas are *Shorea robusta*, *Tectona grandis*, *Diospyros melanoxylon*, *Terminalia alata* (*T. tomentosa*), *Madhuca indica* (*M. latifolia*), *Pterocarpus marsupium*, *Buchanania lanzan* (*B. latifolia*), and *Anogeissus latifolia*. The sociability of these species is very high and they occur in closed colonies. The herbaceous ground-floor vegetation consists of a large number of species, many of which provide food to tribal races.
v1.c13.s3.t1.5
In Madhya Pradesh, although rice (*Oryza sativa*) and lesser millets (*Panicum miliaceum*, *Eleusine coracana*, and *Paspalum scrobiculatum*) form the staple diet of the tribal, almost all of them supplement it with seeds, grains, roots, rhizomes, leaves and fruits of numerous wild plants which abound in the forests. Grigson (1949) noted that famine has never been a problem in Bastar, as the tribes have always been able to draw half of their food supplies from the innumerable edible products from the vast forests.
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Ethnobotanically, the knowledge about the food habits of various tribes is fragmentary and incomplete. Haines (1916), Mooney (1942), Elwin (1947), Grigson (1949), Roy and Rao (1957), Subramanyam *et al.* (1961) and Jain (1963) enlisted some species.
v1.c13.s3.t1.7
D. K. Tiwari (1977), of the Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University, Jabalpur, prepared a detailed list of wild plant species eaten by the tribals in Madhya Pradesh. He has listed 165 trees, shrubs and climbers. Of these, the first category contains a list of 31 plants whose seeds are roasted and eaten. It includes:
v1.c13.s3.t1.9
Fig. 46. Animals depicted in Bhimbetaka rock-paintings: 1, a wild buffalo; 2, a gaur; 3, a rhinoceros; 4, a boar; 5, a chinkara; 6, a spotted dear; 7, a sambhar, 8, a deer; 9, a blue bull (nilgai); 10, an elephant; 11, a tiger or panther; 12, a tiger (After V.S. Wakankar)
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Avena fatua, Coix lacryma-jobi, Dendrocalamus strictus, Madhuca butyracea, Oryza sativa var. spontanea, Paspalum scrobiculatum and Setaria glauca.
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There are 19 plants whose roots and tubers are eaten after baking, boiling or processing. This category includes: Asparagus racemosus, Arisaema tortuosum, and eight species of Dioscorea.
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There are 17 plants whose juice is taken fresh or after fermenting. This group includes: Caryota urens, Phoenix sylvestris, Madhuca longifolia, Borassus flabellifer and Ampelocissus latifolia (Vitis latifolia).
v1.c13.s3.t1.13
There are 25 plants whose leaves are eaten as vegetables. These include Rotala leptopetala (Ammannia pentandra), Amaranthus spinosus, Bauhinia purpurea, Indigofera glabra (I. pentaphylla), Moringa oleifera (M. pterygosperma), Portulaca quadrifida, Nymphaea nouchali, Nelumbo nucifera and Shorea robusta.
v1.c13.s3.t1.14
There are 10 plants whose petals are cooked as vegetables. These include species of Bauhinia, Sesbania grandiflora, Cochlospermum religiosum and Holoptelea integrifolia.
v1.c13.s3.t1.15
There are 63 plants whose fruits are eaten raw, ripe, or roasted or pickled. The fruits of Aegle marmelos provide delicious food for the forest-dwellers. Buchanania lanzan, the chironji, provides them with delicious nuts. It occurs in many forests in Madhya Pradesh. The fruits of Emblica officinalis (amla), rich in vitamin C, are eaten raw or are pickled.
v1.c13.s3.t1.16
There are five species of Ficus which provide figs for the forest-dwellers. The fruits of the thorny shrub Pithcellobium dulce (Inga dulcis), also called jungli jalebi, are favourites with the tribals. Seedling mangoes (Mangifera indica) are common and are also eaten raw or ripe by both man and monkeys.
v1.c13.s3.t1.17
Tamarindus indica (imli) is a common forest tree whose pods make good pickles. The sepals of mahua (Madhuca butyracea) are greedily eaten and are also fermented for liquor. Morus alba, the mulberry, provides fruit for both man and birds. Besides, the ber, Ziziphus mauritiana and Z. oenoplia, provide delicious fruit. It has been eaten by the jungle-dwellers from the Mesolithic period onwards.
v1.c13.s3.t1.18
So far as sugar is concerned, honey of wild bees, Apis mellifera, was its main source for the tribals. Combs of wild bees are found in all the jungles of India. The rocky cliffs of Bhimbetaka are studded with numerous honey-combs of wild bees.
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Thus we find that, apart from the flesh of wild animals, the Mesolithic people had a variety of seeds, leaves and fruits which they could collect from the jungles. The selections which they made ultimately provided plant material to their successors for cultivation in fields and gardens.