A History of Agriculture in India v1.c20.s2.13

v1.c20.s2.13

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.