A History of Agriculture in India v1.c19.s1.3

v1.c19.s1.3

Allchins, relying on Lambrick, who, according to them, had personal knowledge of Sind, describe as follows how crops were grown in the river-rain tract of the Indus. "The principal foodgrains, that is wheat and barley, would have been grown as spring (rabi) crops: that is to say, sown at the end of the inundation upon land which had been submerged by spill from the river or one of its natural flood channels, and reaped in March or April. In modern practice such land is neither ploughed nor manured, nor does it require additional water. Lambrick remarks that ‘the whole operation involves an absolute minimum of skill, labour and aid of implements.’ Other crops, including cotton and sesamum, would be sown as autumnal (kharif) : that means they would be sown at the beginning of the inundation and harvested at its close, in autumn. For this fields surrounded by earth embankments would be required, most probably along the banks of natural flood channels. Although this method is more precarious than the former, both exploit the natural fertility of the alluvium, and the annual inundation. Both systems are still in use.¹ According to my experience of cultivation in the riverain areas of the Punjab, when the land has appropriate moisture or wattar, as it is called, land is ploughed, seed is sown and the soil is smoothened with a plank. The practice followed by the Harappans could not have been different. For the proper sowing of crops, soil has to be stirred and seed has to be covered.