A History of Agriculture in India v1.c19.s7: Food Crops
A History of Agriculture in India v1.c19.s7
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Food Crops
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The Harappans cultivated bread wheat (*Triticum aestivum*), *T. sphaerococcum*, barley (*Hordeum vulgare* and *H. hexastichum*), sesame, peas (*Pisum sativum* var. *arvense*), melons, date-palm, and species of *Brassica*. Cotton was an important crop and the centre of origin of *Gossypium arboreum* lies in the Indus Valley. These crops are dealt with in the following account.
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Wheat. Among the cereals wheat and barley were recorded from Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. The association of these two cereals in the archaeological remains of Mesopotamia, along with other evidence, has led to the belief that there was some contact between the Indus Valley and Mesopotamian civilizations. Helbaek has pointed out that wheat and barley have been cultivated together from the very beginning of village-farming in western Asia.
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Luthra has shown that the wheat recovered from Mohenjo-daro belongs to *Triticum vulgare* (*T. aestivum*), *T. compactum* and *T. sphaerococcum*.
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*Triticum aestivum*, the common bread wheat, *T. durum*, the macaroni wheat, and *T. dicoccum*, the emmer wheat, are the three important species grown in India. *T. sphaerococcum*, which was cultivated in the past in the Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, has now gone out of cultivation and has been replaced by the more high-yielding bread and macaroni wheats. *T. compactum* was reported to have been cultivated in India (Howard, 1916).
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*T. sphaerococcum* is a wheat of great antiquity and has been found in the excavations at Mohenjo-daro dating back to 2300 B.C. (Fig. 90). It is supposed to have originated in the north-western area of the Indian subcontinent. It appears that in ancient India the cultivation of *T. sphaerococcum* was widespread. It has high resistance to drought and this factor has contributed to its success. *T. sphaerococcum* appears to be a derivative of *T. aestivum*.
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Percival states, ‘Like its ally *T. compactum*, this race *T. sphaerococcum* probably arose as a mutant among the progeny of an early hybrid. Its peculiarly small round grains very closely agree in form and size with Buschan’s *T. compactum globiforme*, the naked-grained wheat, most commonly grown in various parts of Europe in Neolithic times, and it is possible that the race now confined to India is a remnant of an ancient stock.’
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Percival again states, ‘This race, which I received from India and parts of Persia, is referred to by Howard to *T. compactum* Host, but the latter so far as I am aware does not occur in India.’⁶
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⁶ Percival, J. *The Wheat Plant*, G. Duckworth & Co. Ltd, London, p. 463, 1921
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According to Ram Dhan Singh, Vavilov concurred with Percival’s view. Ram Dhan Singh referred to the later extensive work of Ellerton, who made a world-wide collection of wheat species and cultivars, and says that though Ellerton’s collection did include a specimen of *T. sphaerococcum* derived from the Euphrates region of Iraq and Percival’s earlier collection included a sample from Iran, both are considered to be importations from India. It appears that Wimshurst (1920), who wrote a paper on wheats and barleys of Mesopotamia, held a similar view.⁷
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⁷ Singh, R.D. *Triticum sphaerococcum* Perc. (*Indian Dwarf Wheat*), *Indian J. Genet. Pl. Br.* 6: 34-47, 1946
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Barley. All barleys, wild and cultivated, belong to the same potentially interfertile population and are grouped under one species, *Hordeum vulgare*. There is now overwhelming evidence to show that barley was domesticated from a two-row progenitor resembling *H. vulgare* subsp. *spontaneum* in the Near East region around 8000 B.C. (Harlan, 1968, 1969). The barley culture in India appears to have come from western Asia (the Near East in European terms), and can be followed with fair certainty across northern India and then southwards (Raikes and Dyson, 1961; Sankalia, Subharao and Deo, 1953; and Vishnu-Mittre, 1974). The series of archaeological finds from Ur and Mohenjo-daro have now pushed back the antiquity of India’s relations with western Asia to the third millennium B.C. At that time the ancient Indus cities were in regular and intimate contact with the Sumerian cities of Iraq (Sen, 1963).⁸
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⁸ Bakshi, J.S. and Rana, R.S. Barley in *Evolutionary Studies in World Crops—Diversity and Change in the Indian Subcontinent* (Ed. Sir Joseph Hutchinson), p. 47
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A few grains of barley have been found mixed with wheat at Mohenjo-daro and identified by Luthra (1936) as *Hordeum vulgare* var. *nudum*. In low frequency they are also found mixed with wheat at Chanhu-daro (Vishnu-Mittre, unpublished). The material from Harappa is referred to as *H. vulgare* var. *hexastichum* (Vats, 1940). In contrast to the low frequency of barley found at the above sites, a sizeable quantity was found at Kalibangan (Fig, 87, bottom right). Mohenjo-daro material, as mentioned above, is dated 1750 B.C. from the late levels, whereas Kalibangan material is dated 2090-2075 B.C. (Agrawal and Kusumgar, 1968 a, b). There is reason to believe that barley was cultivated throughout the Harappan period from 2300 B.C. to 1750 B.C.
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The Kalibangan material consists of small and large grains and some of them are twisted, indicating that they were produced in two lateral rows and suggesting that they belonged to the six-rowed barley. The collection includes both naked and hulled forms.
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More or less contemporary with the Harappan civilization, records of barley have recently been discovered from the Gangetic plain, from Atranjikhera in Uttar Pradesh dated to 2000-1500 B.C. (Chowdhury, Saraswat, Hasan and Gaur, 1971) and from the Neolithic of Chirand, Bihar, estimated to date from 2500-1800 B.C.⁹
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⁹ Vishnu-Mittre, Palaeobotanical evidence in India, in *Evolutionary Studies in World Crops—Diversity and Change in the Indian Subcontinent* (Ed. Sir Joseph Hutchinson), pp. 18, 19
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Thus, although the Indo-Aryans appear to have brought with them their staple foodgrain (*yava*), the wheat and barley material of the Indus people was also adopted by them, generating new variability required for more intensive cultivation. It may well be that barley came to India not once but on several prehistoric occasions, either through the trade routes or along with immigrating people.
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In the plains and at low altitudes in the hills, only six-rowed hulled barleys are grown commercially. At higher altitudes, however, where barley replaces wheat as a staple crop, hull-less six-rowed types are grown.¹⁰
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¹⁰ Bakshi, J.S. and Rana, R.S. Barley, in *Evolutionary Studies in World Crops—Diversity and Change in the Indian Subcontinent* (Ed. Sir Joseph Hutchinson), pp. 47, 48
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An indirect evidence of the cultivation of foodgrains, such as wheat and barley, by the Harappans is provided by terracottas and saddle querns. In a terracotta from Mohenjo-daro, we see a woman kneading flour (Fig. 89). This is how wheat-flour is kneaded even at present in India. In Fig. 88 is shown saddle-quern recovered from the Harappan settlement, Sector 17, Chandigarh. *Sil* and *vatta* are the descendants of the saddle-quern and are used for grinding spices in Indian homes. Saddle-querns were possibly used for grinding roasted barley. Roasted barley-flour mixed with sugar is the *sattu*, so much relished by the people in the [Figure: INDIA WHEAT AND BARLEY GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF RECORDS TOGETHER WITH DATES IN THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT ● WHEAT ○ BARLEY BURZAHOM 1300 BC HARAPPA 2500-1700 BC 2300-1750 BC KALIBANGAN 2000 BC MOHENJO-DARO 2500-1700 BC 2300-1750 BC CHANHU-DARO 2300-1750 BC ATRANJIKHERA 1200-600 BC 2000-1500 BC CHIRAND 2500-1800 BC KAYATHA 1380-1305 BC PANDU RAJAR DHIBI 1000 BC MAHESHWAR 1600-1440 BC NAVDATOLI 1500-1000 BC SONEGAON 1340-1290 BC TER 200 BC INAMGAON 1370-1026 BC]
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Fig. 75. Geographical distribution of wheat and barley, together with dates, in the Indian subcontinent Fig. 76. Wheat cultivation in the Neolithic period and in the present age (After Vishnu-Mittre)
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INDIA WHEAT CULTIVATION
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MODERN WHEAT CULTIVATION
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Himalayas.
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Gram (*Cicer arietinum*). Gram (or *chana*, as it is called in Hindi) is the most important of Indian pulses. It is grown in the arid areas of the Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh.
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Carbonized grains of gram have been recovered from Kalibangan, a Harappan site in Rajasthan (Fig. 87, *top*)
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Thus we find that all the three major food crops of north-western India, viz. wheat, barley and gram, were cultivated by the Harappans. It is in this very area that they achieved dominance in the cropping system in due course (Fig. 75).
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According to van der Maesen¹¹, there are 35 wild species of *Cicer* in central and western Asia, one species being endemic in Greece, one in Ethiopia and one in Morocco. *Cicer arietinum* (*chana*) is widely cultivated in the Indian subcontinent, Iran, central Asia, the Mediterranean countries and Ethiopia (Fig. 77). It has also been introduced into Mexico, Peru and Chile.
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¹¹ van der Maesen, L.J.G. *Cicer L., A Monograph of the Genus, with special reference to the Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), its Ecology and Cultivation*, pp. 1, 2 and 11
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The chickpea (*chana*) is one of the oldest and most widely used grains in the Middle and Far East. In the immediate vicinity of cultivated chickpea, especially in Turkey and Syria, wild relatives occur, although not in abundance. In Iran and Afghanistan, the wild relatives are distinguished from the cultivated species by differences in morphological characteristics and the altitude at which they grow.
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The earliest-known occurrence of chickpea and a specimen, probably belonging to a wild species of *Cicer*, were reported from the Hacilar site near Burdur in Turkey. The deposits in these layers were dated by using the ¹⁴C method to about 5450 years B.C. (Helbaek, 1970). For later millennia (*c.* 3300 B.C. onwards during the Bronze Age) the proof of its cultivation was found in Iraq and at Jericho. The late Bronze Age specimens of chickpea were discovered stored in large vessels in Crete. In India the introduction of chickpea may be attributed to the Harappans, who were the earliest to cultivate it.
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Peas (*Pisum sativum* var. *arvense*). Vats (1940) discovered seeds of peas (*Pisum sativum* var. *arvense*) from Harappa.
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Sesame (*til*). Historical, philological, botanical and ethnographical evidences suggest the possibility of an independent origin of agriculture in Africa in the area near the headwaters of the Niger River. Murdock believes that the Mande people who inhabited this area were the first to domesticate sesame.¹² Botanical evidence also suggests that sesame originated in Africa.¹³
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¹² Murdock, G.P. *Africa : Its People and their Culture Histrory*, Edgar Anderson, in *Evolution after Darwin*
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¹³ Joshi, A.B. *Sesamum*, ICAR
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Fig. 77. Distribution of the genus Cicer and the main areas of cultivation of C. arietinum in the Old World. The dotted line encloses the areas where the species of genus Cicer are found. The continuous line encloses the areas where C. arietinum is cultivated (After L.J.G. van der Maesen)
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The recovery of a lump of charred sesame by Vats at Harappa suggests that it was cultivated by the Indus Valley people. They are likely to have received it from Africa direct or via Mesopotamia. Botanical evidence shows an early spread of sesame from Africa to India via the Sabaean Lane.¹⁴
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¹⁴ Mehra, K.L. ‘History of Sesame in India and its Cultural Significance’, in Vishveshvaranand Indological Journal, Vol. V, Pt i
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In Sumer, sesame was frequently mentioned as Se-gis-mi in the clay tablets, beginning from the third dynasty of Ur. It was perhaps introduced there directly from Africa. Both Lothal and Mohenjo-daro people had trade relations with the Sumerians and this might have led to the introduction of sesame. Once grown in India, sesame entered the Indian diet and cookery to such an extent that we hardly feel that it came from Africa. From India it spread to China.
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Rape. The Brassicas cultivated in India are of the oleiferous types, belonging to two species, *Brassica campestris* and *B. juncea*. *B. campestris* has given rise in India to three distinct cultivars: brown sarson, yellow sarson and *toria*. They are cultivated in rather distinct ecogeographical areas, and may be regarded as ecotypes. Collectively, they are known in India as rape, and they constitute an important oilseed crop. *B. juncea* is more vigorous, and is an important oilseed crop. It is known in India as mustard.
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*B. campestris* occurs wild as a weed from western Europe to eastern China. The Indian rapes fall geographically midway in the vast geographical distribution of the species. The wild, unspecialized primitive rape became a weed of cultivation, and gave rise to a range of cultivars as a result of three different types of selection in the three main regions of its habitat. In the West, selection for root development gave rise to the turnip. In the Far East, selection for leafy vegetables yielded the great diversity of Chinese cabbages that are classified as *B. pekinensis* and *B. chinensis* (Herklots, 1972). In the mid-region, in India, selection for oil content gave the three oleiferous races, brown and yellow sarson and *toria*. All these types are cross-compatible and they belong, in Harberd’s terms, to the same cytodeme. The Indian oleiferous group appears to have been developed by the differentiation of the brown sarson stock. According to Russian workers, and also according to Singh (1958), eastern Afghanistan and the adjoining areas of Pakistan and north-western India may be regarded as its centre of origin. From this centre, yellow sarson arose through the selection of the yellow-seeded types that were considered to be of superior quality. *Toria* arose in response to selection for adaptability to the [Figure: Fig. 80. Furrow marks of ploughed land on the southern side of KLB 2, Kalibangan, Rajasthan (top)
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Fig. 78. Plough, terracotta, 7 × 19.7 cm. Mohenjo-daro, c. 2300 B.C. (Courtesy: Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay)
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Fig. 79. A seal from Lothal with a picture of a seed-drill (After S.R. Rao)
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The present-day method of ploughing (bottom) very much resembles the ancient one Fig. 81. Terracotta toy-carts from Lothal (After S.R. Rao)
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[Figure: Fig. 82. A toy-cart from Harappa, with solid wheels (left, top), and frame of the toy-cart (left, bottom)
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The bullock-cart in the present-day Sind (right) is not far removed from the Harappan cart]
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[Figure: Fig. 83. A toy-cart from Mohenjo-daro. It was possibly used for carting manure Fig. 84. Toys modelled on wild animals, depicting hare, tiger, pangolin, monkey, crocodile and wild boar (After Mackay)
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Fig. 85. Women pounding barley with wooden pestles in a village home in Haryana. The stone mortar is embedded in the floor. In the foreground is a chhaj for winnowing husk. (Courtesy: H. K. Gorkha, Indian Agricultural Research Institute)
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Fig. 86. Isometric projections of the great granary, Harappa (Courtesy: Archaeological Survey of India)
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[Figure: HARAPPA MOUND F ISOMETRIC PROJECTION OF THE GREAT GRANARY FROM SOUTH-EAST CONJECTURAL RESTORATION OF STORE-ROOM NO. V OF WESTERN BLOCK WITH GALLERY NO. e RAMP WOODEN FLOORING WESTERN BLOCK WOODEN GANGWAY ADDITIONS WITH AIR HOLES PIERS COMMON FOUNDATION WALL EASTERN BLOCK RETAINING WALL ADDITIONS WITH AIR HOLES RETAINING WALL]
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Fig. 87. Carbonized grains of *Cicer arietinum* from a Harappan site, Kalibangan, Rajasthan (*top*). Carbonized grains of *Triticum sphaerococcum* from a Harappan site, Mohenjo-daro, Sind (*bottom, left*). Carbonized grains of *Hordeum* sp., from a Harappan site, Kalibangan, Rajasthan (*bottom, right*) (After Vishnu-Mittre)
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Fig. 88. A saddle-quern recovered from a Harappan settlement, Sector 17, Chandigarh, *c.* 2200 B.C. (Courtesy: Museum of Rural Life of the Punjab, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana)
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Fig. 89. A terracotta from Mohenjo-daro, showing a woman kneading flour [Figure: Fig. 90. Carbonized wheat grains from Mohenjo-daro dated to 1755 B.C. by ¹⁴C method. They compare with those of *Triticum sphaerococcum* (Courtesy: Genetics Museum, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi)]
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[Figure: Fig. 91. Seeds of mustard from Chanhu-daro, Sind (Courtesy: Genetics Museum, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi)]
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[Figure: Fig. 92. A plant of Gossypium arboreum with open bolls. This cotton plant was known to the Harappans ecological situations of Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and the Punjab.¹⁵
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¹⁵ Narain, A. Rape and mustard, in *Evolutionary Studies in World Crops—Diversity and Change in the Indian Subcontinent* (Ed. Sir Joseph Hutchinson), pp. 67, 68
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Sarson oil is used in India for cooking. It is also used for massage, and it is believed to strengthen the skin and to keep it cool and healthy. With camphor it forms an efficacious embrocation in cases of muscular rheumatism, stiff neck, etc. The oil is used for lighting, and the oilcake is a favourite cattle feed. The seeds mixed with hot water form an efficient counter-irritant poultice. The tender leaves and shoots are relished as sag, a favourite food of the Punjabis.
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The seeds of *Brassica juncea* have been recovered from Chanhu-daro, a Harappan site in Sind. A sample of it is preserved in the Genetics Museum of the Indian Agricultural Research Institure, New Delhi (Fig. 91).
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The Harappans at Surkotada in Kutch had found diverse uses of the seeds of several kinds of grasses, sedges, cheno-amaranths, portulacas, and polygonums, perhaps for medicinal purposes or to feed the birds (Vishnu-Mittre and Savithri, 1973-74; Savithri, 1976).