A History of Agriculture in India v1.c20.s2: Domestication of Birds
A History of Agriculture in India v1.c20.s2
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Domestication of Birds
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A number of terracottas have been discovered from Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, which indicate that the Harappans had domesticated a number of birds. There is a terracotta from Mohenjo-daro in the National Museum, New Delhi, in which a woman is holding a duck in a tender manner (Fig. 111). A terracotta toy depicts a duck. Parrots and parakeets are favourite birds in Indian folk-lore and painting. There are numerous paintings of the Mughal and Rajput schools depicting a lady with a parrot. These are representations of Padmini, with her favourite parrot Hiraman.
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A terracotta from Mohenjo-daro in the National Museum depicts parakeets clinging to a cage (Fig. 110). Parakeets are also depicted in toys (Fig. 111).
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The blue rock-pigeon (*Calumba livia*) is widely distributed in Asia and Europe. It has become a commensal of man, like the dog, and takes shelter in niches and holes in buildings of all types. A terracotta toy from Harappa depicts a pigeon (Fig. 111).
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*Domestic fowl* (*Gallus gallus murghi*). The domestic fowl (*Gallus gallus murghi*) originated in India. Its ancestor, the red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus), is still found in northern India from Kashmir to Assam and in Madhya Pradesh, Bengal, Orissa, Visakhapatnam and parts of the Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh. It is also found in Burma, Thailand, Malaya, the extreme south of China, Sumatra and Java. It is commonly found in sal forests of the Himalayan tarai. The cock has beautiful plumage, tinged with bright red near the throat and the tail (Fig. 112). The hen is brown, shy and silent.
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The domestic fowl mates freely with G. gallus and the progeny is fertile. This free mating indicates its link with the wild jungle fowl.
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The birds which man succeeded in domesticating have certain common traits. The first is a tendency to gregariousness. Wild and solitary birds can be domesticated with great difficulty. On the other hand, the gallinaceous birds are pre-adapted for domestication by their gregarious temperament, the social structure of flocks, their poor powers of flight, and the nature of diet.
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The earliest evidence of domestication of the fowl is from Mohenjo-daro. There are clay figures in which a hen and a chick are shown figuratively (Fig. 111). A number of avian bones were excavated and they are considerably larger than those of the present-day race of fowls.
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Among the seals from Mohenjo-daro, Mackay (1938) recognized one with two birds in the position of fighting. He thought that they were Sonnerat cocks, whereas Gandert (1953) regards them as red jungle fowl. There are clay figurines from the same site and they are intended for the fowl. Most of them are fragmentary, but the evidence is cumulative. There is a cock in a position of display, a fragment with a comb and one which Mackay interprets as a hen with a food dish. This would point to breeding in captivity. This is confirmed by Sewell’s study of the bones which are larger than those of the wild bird. A femur from Mohenjo-daro measures 103 mm compared with 69 mm in the case of the wild bird. The femur of a modern table fowl (coll. Institute of Archaeology) measures 115 mm, which shows that the Indus Valley birds had been bred for size. Full domestication had, therefore, taken place, say, by 2000 B.C.
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At Harappa the fowl is not absent, but there are only two clay figurines that appear to represent a cock and a hen. From Chanhu-daro, clay whistles are known of a shape suggesting small gallinaceous birds.
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It is conceivable that the Indus Valley people kept the fowl only for sport, and that its breeding for flesh occurred later. When the Aryans invaded India, about the middle of the second millennium, the newcomers learnt to admire the cock. The Rig-Veda does not mention it, but the Atharva-Veda and Yajur-Veda do. He is praised for his courage and pride, and as an indicator of time. By about 1000 B.C., it was forbidden to eat the fowl. Evidently, the bird had assumed a religious significance.¹⁵
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¹⁵ Zeuner, F.E., A History of Domesticated Animals, p. 448
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From north-western India, the fowl was taken eastwards and appeared in China towards the fourteenth century B.C.
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The period of the rapid expansion of fowl-keeping was the first millennium B.C. From north-western India, it evidently reached Iran at an early date. Whereas this possibility is implied in the coin evidence from north-western India and its appearance on the Assyrian seals around the eighth century B.C., there is substantial literary evidence in addition. In the religion of Zoroaster, it plays an important part as the guardian of the good against the evil. With his crowing at waking time, the cock became the symbol of the waking day and thus of the light, in general. Hahn believes that the use of the cock as a ‘time-piece’ arose in Indo-Bactria.
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From Iran the domestic fowl spread westwards to Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. It is possible that the Medes, who were subject to the Assyrians from the latter part of the ninth century onwards, brought it into the Euphrates-Tigris Basin. A few seals from the eighth century B.C. show the bird. One found at Nimrud dates from 740 to 710 B.C., according to Mallowan.¹⁶
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¹⁶ Zeuner, F.E. *A History of Domesticated Animals*, p. 445
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Its first introduction into Greece was from Iran in the eighth century B.C. In the sixth century B.C., it spread over the rest of the Greek world.
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In the second century B.C., the fowl had become an economically important bird with the Romans. In Britain it appeared in the first century of the Christian Era.
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The storage of grain and the conservation of live meat in the form of domesticated birds and animals is the major achievement of man in the Neolithic agricultural revolution. ‘Plants capture the radiant energy of the sun and reorganize and store it in the production of seeds and vegetable matter. Animals can utilize the stored energy of plants by eating them and their seeds. By domesticating plants, man gains control over the primary food source for animals. By domesticating animals, he gains control over living organisms that eat plants and greatly concentrate the energy they derive in the form of animal protein. Thus man taps the primary source of food energy by controlling plants, and he assures himself high-protein food by controlling animals.’¹⁷ This led to security in food requirements of man and hence to an increase in his population. Thus, domestication of plants and animals is the foundation of civilization. Only when man is freed from worry of getting food that he starts thinking, and this leads to higher things in life, and the development of science and art and of culture.
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¹⁷ Watson, R.A. and Watson, P.J. *The Domesticator of Plants and Animals*, in *Prehistoric Agriculture* (Ed. S. Struever), p. 10
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Allchin, R. and Bridget, *The Birth of Indian Civilization*, Harmondsworth, 1968
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Cockrill, W.R. *The Husbandry and Health of the Domestic Buffalo*, FAO, Rome, 1974
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Joshi, N.R. and Phillips, R.W. *Zebu Cattle of India and Pakistan*, FAO, Rome, 1953
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Lydekker, R. *Wild Life of the World*, Vol. II, London, 1916
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Mackay, E.J.H. *Further Excavations at Mohenjo-daro*, Vol I, New Delhi, 1943
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Marshall, J. *Mohenjo-daro and the Indus Civilization*, 3 Vols, London, 1927 to 1931
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Piggott, S. *Prehistoric India*, London, 1950
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Prashad, Baini, Animal Remains from Harappa, *Mem. Arch. Survey India*, 51, 1936
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Prater, S.H. *The Book of Indian Animals*, Bombay, n.d.
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Randhawa, M.S. Role of Domesticated Animals in Indian History, *Science and Culture*, Vol. XII, No. 1 1946
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Rouse, J.E. *Cattle of Africa and Asia*, Oklahoma, 1972
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Watson, R.A. and P.J. *The Domesticator of Plants and Animals*, in *Prehistoric Agriculture*, New York, 1971
Cites (3)
- Yajurveda — Sanskrit
- Ṛgvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
- Atharvavedasaṃhitā — Atharvan & Aṅgiras, Sanskrit