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A History of Agriculture in India v1.c26: Chapter 20. The Later Vedic Period

A History of Agriculture in India v1.c26

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Contents

Chapter 20. The Later Vedic Period

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YAJUR-VEDA, SAMHITAS AND BRAHMANAS The Age of Iron and Painted Grey Ware The Invention of the Iron Ploughshare and Axe Clearance of Jungles, Expansion of Cultivation

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1000 B.C. to 600 B.C.

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THE invasion of India by the Aryans was not a single action. It extended over centuries, and wave after wave of the Aryans came and poured into India through the passes, viz. Khyber, Gomel, Bolan and Tochi. It seems that about 1100 B.C. a large wave of iron-using Aryans entered India. Slowly, they moved from north-west to east. They entered the area now known as western Uttar Pradesh about 1000 B.C. From about 1000 B.C., the use of iron spread from Baluchistan, Gandhara to eastern Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. It reached eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the seventh century B.C. Apart from iron objects, a grey pottery, known as Painted Grey Ware, is also associated with the later Aryans. The location of some of the important sites of Painted Grey Ware is shown in Fig. 154. This type of pottery has been found in numerous sites in the Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh. It always overlies the layers associated with the Harappan culture.

Samhitas and Brahmanas

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From 1000 B.C. to 600 B.C., a number of Vedic texts were compiled in western Uttar Pradesh. They include the Samhitas and Brahmanas. The collections of the Vedic hymns or mantras were known as the Samhitas. The Rig-Veda Samhita is the oldest Vedic text, on the basis of which we have described the early Vedic age. For purposes of singing, the hymns of the Rig-Veda were set to tune, and this modified collection was known as the Sama-Veda Samhita. In addition to the Sama-Veda, in the post-Rig-Vedic times, two other collections were composed, viz. the Yajur-Veda Samhita and the Atharva-Veda Samhita. The Yajur-Veda contains not only hymns but also rituals which have to accompany their recitation. The rituals reflect the social and political milieu in which they arose. The Atharva-Veda contains charms and spells to ward off evils and diseases. Its contents throw light on the beliefs and practices of the Aryans.¹

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¹ Sharma, R.S. Ancient India, p. 49

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A variety of plants providing food, fibre and medicines find mention Fig. 154. Important Painted Grey Ware sites in northern India. In the Punjab, Haryana and western districts of Uttar Pradesh, a large number of Painted Grey Ware sites have been discovered. Now the northernmost limit of Painted Grey Ware is Jammu in a hymn of the *Atharva-Veda*, addressed to Prithivi, the earth goddess.

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INDIA DISTRIBUTION OF PAINTED GREY WARE

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‘The Earth has her hill-sides and her uplands,
Hers is the wide plain,
She is the bearer of plants of many uses:
May she stretch out her hand and be bountiful to us!’
*Atharva-Veda*, XII, i.

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From *c.* 800- 600 B.C. was a period of great intellectual ferment among the Aryans. Out of the classics of this periods, the first were the *Brahmanas*, which comment on and expound the doctrines of the Vedic hymns, especially in their relation to the ritual of sacrifices. They explain the social and religious aspects of the rituals. To the *Brahmanas* were added the *Aran’-yakas*, “forest books”. The expository appendices to the *Aran’yakas* are called the *Upanishads*, “the sittings down”, or “the sessions”—in which the pupil sat at his master’s feet. They were compiled around 600 B.C. ‘For the first time,’ says Macdonell, ‘we find the Absolute grasped and proclaimed’. The *Upanishads* claimed that *Atma* is the World Soul, of which all individual souls are a part. These forest books were the works of *rishis*, sensitive and highly intelligent men who had relinquished the material world and lived in forests in communion with nature. ‘These *rishis* looked upon nature with the poet’s eye. They symbolized everything, but they revelled also in the gorgeous beauty of dawn and evening, the luxuriance of Indian trees and flowers, the serene majesty of Himalayan mountains, the cascades, the rivers, and the shining lakes.’²

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² Mackenzie, D.A. *Indian Myth and Legend*, p. 34

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The later Vedic literature is the main source of information on the life and culture of the Aryans. We learn about the agriculture and animal husbandry of the period—the crops grown, the implements used, trades, crafts and social system.

The Epics

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The *Mahabharata* and the *Ramayana* are the epics of the Aryan Hindus. According to Winternitz, the epic of *Mahabharata*, whose authorship is attributed to Vyasa, was compiled in 400 B.C., and additions and alterations were made to it up to A.D. 400. Hence the *Mahabharata* cannot be considered a contemporary record of conditions prevailing about 900 B.C. So far as agriculture is concerned, it is safer to rely on archaeological finds.

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The *Mahabharata* war was fought at Kurukshetra in Haryana. Basham’s guess that it took place in the beginning of the ninth century B.C. seems to be reasonable. It was a war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, both of them belonging to the Kuru tribe. The five Pandava brothers, Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva, sons of Pandu, had their capital at Indraprastha. The Purana Qila of New Delhi was later on built on this site. The Kurus headed by Duryodhana had their capital at Hastinapur, an Iron Age site in the Meerut District of Uttar Pradesh. The weapons used by the contestants were probably bows, iron-tipped arrows, spears and swords. Chariots drawn by two or more horses were their war vehicles. Each chariot carried two warriors armed with bows and arrows. The Pandavas won the war, and Yudhishthira became the king of the Kurus and reigned at Hastinapur.

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The *Ramayana* is dated between 200 B.C. and A.D. 200. The author of the *Ramayana* was the sage Valmiki. Briefly, the story is as follows: Dasaratha was the king of Ayodhya. His eldest son Rama was married to Sita, daughter of King Janaka of Mithila in Bihar. Janaka is called *Sira-dhwaja*, ‘he of the plough-banner’, because his daughter Sita sprang up ready-formed from the furrow when he was ploughing the ground and preparing for a sacrifice to obtain offspring. The legend indicates the esteem in which agriculture was held.

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Kaikeyi, the younger and favourite wife of the ageing Dasaratha, prevailed upon him to banish Rama and to install her son Bharata as the king. Rama, a dutiful son, accompanied by Sita, and his younger brother Lakshmana, left for the forest. For a while, they lived in Chitrakut in the Banda District, and later in the Dandaka forest, near modern Nasik, on the banks of the Godavari. Sita was carried away by Ravana, king of Lanka. She was recovered after a lengthy war in which Rama was assisted by South Indian tribes, whose totems were bears and monkeys.

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Sita was banished by Rama and she was in exile at the hermitage of Valmiki, where she gave birth to twins, Kusha and Lava. Ultimately, Sita came to Rama and she declared her purity in a public assembly. She called upon the earth to verify her words. The ground opened and received the daughter of the furrow.

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The *Ramayana* represents the expansion of Aryan culture in Bihar, the Deccan and South India. According to some, it describes events which are later than those of the *Mahabharata*. It represents a state of society more refined than that of the *Mahabharata*.

Mastery of Iron Technology

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Invention of the iron axe and the ploughshare. The mastery of iron technology is an outstanding achievement of mankind. Iron ores are widespread as compared with copper. Smelting of iron ore gave a hard metal to which copper or bronze are no match. This was a big step forward in metallurgy but was not easy to achieve. Without carbon this new metal had not the sharpness or hardness of copper or bronze. It was only gradually, through trial and error, aided by lucky accidents, that the high temperature of 1535°C required to smelt iron, and the use of a catalytic flux to produce a slag and thus separate molten iron from impurities were slowly achieved. The iron metal so produced was yet soft and spongy in comparison with copper or bronze. It was not until the achievement of the characteristic hardness as a result of the admixture of carbon with iron in proper proportion that the special properties of iron were fully realized.

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The invention of the socketed iron axe gave an efficient tool to man which enabled him to clear jungles for cultivation. It was with the use of fire and iron axes that the Aryans cleared the dense jungles of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

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The hard clayey soil of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar could not be easily cultivated with wooden ploughs. When the wooden ploughs were provided with iron ploughshares, their efficiency increased. This improvement enabled the Aryans to cultivate virgin lands, thus leading to greater mastery over food production. It almost led to a Green Revolution, which was sparked off by the invention of two most important tools, viz. the socketed iron axe and the iron ploughshare. In due course, all small tools of agriculture, viz. sickles and hoes, were also manufactured from iron.

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Painted Grey Pottery. The Painted Grey pottery was first isolated in a stratified context in 1946 from Ahichchhatra in the Bareilly District of Uttar Pradesh. At Rupar, it overlies the Harappan pottery and bronze implements. The Painted Grey Ware has also been recorded from the Purana Qila of New Delhi, from Hastinapur in Meerut and from a number of sites in the Punjab. Its other important sites are Panipat and Sonepat in Haryana, Baghpat, Alamgirpur, Atranjikhera, Mathura, Shravasti and Kausambi in Uttar Pradesh, and Noh in the Bharatpur District in Rajasthan. The northernmost site is at Manda in Jammu. The antiquities of Period III of Manda include glass bangles, a terracotta horse with a saddle, iron daggers and arrow heads, and copper-antimony rods and stone rotary querns.

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Excavation at Atranjikhera in the Etah District was undertaken by the Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University, under R.C. Gaur. Period II, extending to a height of 4 metres, was characterized by the occurrence of the Painted Grey Ware in association with plain grey, black-and-red, black-slipped and red wares. The other finds included iron arrow and spear-heads, bone styluses, gamesmen, beads and terracotta discs.

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The excavations conducted at Hastinapur in 1962 yielded specimens of finished iron objects in the form of nails and knife-blades from the middle levels of the Painted Grey Ware deposit. Earlier, in the excavations of 1950-52, only slags had been found. At the same time, it is to be noted that iron has not so far been found stratigraphically below the deposits of the Painted Grey Ware anywhere. The presence of the bones of a horse at Hastinapur in association with the Painted Grey Ware recalls the traditional concept of the association of the horse with the Aryans. The proven association of iron with the Painted Grey Ware, which is the earliest stratigraphic evidence of iron in India, points to the presence of a second wave of iron-using Aryans in India.

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When one examines the shapes of painted grey potteries, one is struck by the persistence of some designs even in the present. Some potteries and dishes recovered from Hastinapur are shown in Fig. 155. The pot, with a narrow neck, is the present-day *garbi*, now manufactured in bronze metal. The small cup in the foreground is the *katori*. The flat dish in the centre, resembling a *thali*, is suitable for eating rice. Commenting on such dishes from Swat, B.K. Thapar states, ‘This type is very convenient for eating rice and its occurrence in Period III accords well with the literary evidence for rice seems to have been mentioned only in the later Vedic literature.’³

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³ Thapar, B.K. *The Archaeological Remains of Aryans in North-Western India*, I.C.H.R., 1977

The Iron Age in Peninsular India

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Megalithic tombs have been found in large numbers in Peninsular India to the south of the Godavari. This region is marked by outcrops of granite of which megaliths are constructed. Whereas single standing stones (menhirs) are rare, there are dolmens (table-like cists above the ground), menhirs or standing stones (the Deccan and Kerala) and umbrella stones (*topikals*) in Kerala. Sometimes, there are only circles of stones with an underground grave in the centre. These megaliths are funerary structures. Corpses were exposed, the bones were collected and interred in sarcophagi, in urns, in pits or dolmenoid cists. These monuments are usually located on rocky highgrounds close to irrigation tanks and arable land. Sastri believes that this was perhaps the beginning of irrigated rice cultivation in southern India.

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The pottery from these megaliths is black or black and red. The shapes of pottery are simple and utilitarian, viz. globular vessels, flat dishes, bowls and tall lids (Fig. 159). The dishes are very suitable for rice-eating. At Adichanallur in the Tinnevelly District in Tamil Nadu earthen-ware bowls containing husk of paddy, and bronze bowls with rice grains in them have been found.⁴

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⁴ Shastri, N. *A History of South India*, pp. 54, 55

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All the megalithic graves contain iron implements, viz. iron tridents, the favourite weapon of Murugan, a popular deity of the Tamils, and flat iron axes with crossed iron bands for hafting. Axes with ring fasteners, iron arrow-heads, spears and swords have also been found. Among agricultural tools, the discovery of iron sickles is most significant (Fig. 160). Knives, bill-hooks, hoes, wedges and horse bits were also discovered from some sites. As Mortimer Wheeler remarks, a liberal and developed iron industry is the outstanding feature of grave-goods discovered from megaliths.

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Wheeler who excavated the site at Brahmagiri in Karnataka was of the view that none of the south Indian megaliths was earlier than the third century B.C. Allchin⁵ states that one pair of dates from Hallur suggests that the introduction of iron followed between 1050 B.C. and 950 B.C. Horse bones were also discovered in the transitional Chalcolithic-Iron Age levels of Hallur. Allchin observes, ‘The south Indian graves appear as a developing complex with several streams of influence combining in them. First, some grave types are reminiscent of those of Central Asia, Iran or the Caucasus, and could well represent traits brought from these areas by Indo-European-speaking immigrants. Next, some appear as developments of the indigenous Neolithic-Chalcolithic burial customs of the Deccan. A third series points to influences from outside India, and comparable types may indicate the source of the influences. Thus, stone cist graves, with and without port-holes, are found in the Levant, and on the coasts of south Arabia. Pottery sarcophagi occur in Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf region during the late centuries B.C., and legged urns identical to Indian types are reported from the Yemen. The same regions provide evidence of rock-cut graves with shaft-like entrances, in forms strikingly reminiscent of those of the Malabar coast. Strictly speaking, not all these examples are dated with any precision, and therefore they can scarcely provide a firm basis for comparisons; but they suggest that during the first millennium B.C. India received them as influences by dint of maritime contacts with the Middle East. A fourth stream also cannot be excluded, being the possibility of local development in peninsular India itself.’⁵

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⁵ Allchin, B. and R. *The Birth of Indian Civilization*, pp. 229, 230

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It is clear that this iron-using culture did not grow out of the earlier Neolithic culture in South India. The presence of iron in the north at about 1050 B.C. is also significant. The iron-users may have come via the ocean from the Middle East, or they may have migrated from northern India where they were well-established in the period 1100 B.C. to 1000 B.C.

Life in the Early Iron Age in North India

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Banerjee thus describes the pattern of life in the Early Iron Age. It was a period when forts were constructed to safeguard the township against surprise attacks, as exemplified at Ujjain or Kausambi. As the towns grew up on river banks, the advantage of the river waters was also taken to protect the forts with deep moats. The forts were provided with gateways and passages. A fort conjures up pictures of warfare. The equipments of the times were, however, flimsy and consisted of iron arrow-heads, spear-heads and daggers.

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The repertoire of iron objects comprises knives, arrow-heads, spear-heads, wedges and axes. There are indications of local manufacture of iron objects in the form of slags found at Hastinapur. This manufacturing meant indeed not only the mining of ores but also the existence of smithy, involving smelting and forging.

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Fishing must indeed have been resorted to, as indicated by conical terracotta net-sinkers.

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The use of a copper borer points to craftsmanship in wood or metal.

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The articles of toiletry consisted of antimony rods, nail-parers of copper, and of a hollow terracotta object with segmented interior that has been described as a hair-cleaner.

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Among ornaments were glass bangles. This is the earliest evidence of glass manufacture in India.

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Beads were made of materials like agate, carnelian, jasper, glass, copper, bone and terracotta. The beads of terracotta are pear-shaped and often biconal. These were supplemented by ear-ornaments in the shape of convex discs with concave sides, made of bones or agate and brightly polished.

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The weaving of baskets was practised and their impressions upon the soil were preserved.⁶

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⁶ Banerjee, N.R. The Iron Age in India, pp. 196 to 199

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The Caste System. The caste is foreshadowed in the varnas of the early Aryans, but it became a reality in the later Vedic period. The Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas were the white-skinned Aryans. The Brahmanas who expounded the Vedic texts spread the Aryan culture in the newly conquered regions of central and eastern India. The Kshatriyas (Rajanya), who were the rulers and warriors, established the Aryan colonies in the east and the south. The Vaishyas were the agriculturists and traders. Some of them worked as artisans. At the bottom of the social pyramid were the Shudras, the aborigines, who were the farm labourers, hewers of wood and drawers of water. The Shudras were not allowed to read the sacred texts nor to approach the sacred fire. The aborigines who lived in the jungles were the Nagas, who worshipped the cobra (nāga).

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The economic classes of other countries are represented by castes in India. Kosambi states that caste is class on a primitive level of production. Peasant families engaged in agriculture formed a distinct caste. They were served by carpenters, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, weavers, leather-workers, tailors, drawers of water, oil-pressers, etc., who formed distinct castes. This type of division of labour continues even now in rural India. Only in States with modern agriculture and industry there are signs of its break-down.

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Occupations. The passage below in which the names of castes and variety of professions are given indicates the richness and variety of the socio-cultural and economic life of the Aryans of the later Vedic period.

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Fig. 155. Painted Grey Ware pots and dish from Hastinapur, 1000 B.C. to 800 B.C. (Courtesy: National Museum, New Delhi)

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Fig. 156. Young Hariana bulls at the Hissar cattle farm. The Hariana breed of cattle is associated with the Aryans. It is confined to the Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh where the Aryans settled [Figure: Fig. 157. Smelting of iron was a major achievement. Iron provided a hard metal from which axes, ploughshares and sickles were fabricated. This led to great progress in agriculture (Reconstruction from the Museum of Evolution of Life, Chandigarh)]

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Fig. 158. The girl is scaring away birds from a pearl-millet field with a sling (Courtesy: Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi)

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Fig. 159. Black Polished Ware from Yelleswaram, an Iron Age site in Tamil Nadu (Courtesy: Archaeological Survey of India)

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Fig. 160. Iron objects from Megaliths in South India. At the right is a sickle and at the left is a sword. In the middle is an axe with a ring-fastener. At the top is an arrowhead. c. 300 B.C. (Courtesy: Archaeological Survey of India)

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‘Brahmin, Rajanya, Vaishya, Shudra, thief, eunuch, adulterer, dancer, *nattuva* (dancing master), drummer, veena-player, gambler, secret lover, maidens, lovers, flatterer, unbeliever, courtesan, clown, bald-headed one, hairy one, the too tall one, the dwarf, the fat one, village headman, accountant, graceful girl, hunchback, sluggard, sleepy one, the garrulous one, loud musicians, conchshell-blowers, the half-blind one, the deaf one, unmarried elder brother, goldsmith, engraver, potter, chariot-maker, carpenter, bow-string-maker, hunter, keeper of dogs, tanner, trader, iron-smelter, watchman, ploughman, elephant-keeper, shepherd, butcher, rope-maker, author, investigator, physician, the star-gazer (astronomer), inciter to quarrels (war-monger), women who make scented oils, the barren woman, the leper, the mother of twins, the dumb, the lame, the rogue, and a host of others (*Sukla Yajur, Anuvaka*, 396). The list is not however a catalogue of mere names, but a study of the characteristics of each, in which its special feature or character is touched off by an illuminating epithet denoting the object or quality associated with it. Thus, the ploughman with food, the rich man with prosperity, the woodcutter with light (fire), the dancer with music, the star-gazer with scientific knowledge, the investigator with vast knowledge, the thief with darkness, maiden with love, the war-monger with suffering and poverty, the iron-smelter with anger, the adulterer with lust, the sower of seeds with auspiciousness, the courtesan with pleasure, and so on.’⁷

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⁷ Aiyer, A.K.Y.N. *Agriculture and Allied Arts in Vedic India*, p. 65

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The subdivision of occupations is an indicator of progress in economy. We hear of hunters, of several classes of fishermen, of attendants on cattle, of fire-rangers, of ploughers, of charioteers, of several classes of attendants, of makers of jewels, basket-makers, washermen, rope-makers, dyers, chariot-makers, barbers, weavers, butchers, workers in gold, cooks, sellers of dried fish, makers of bows, gatherers of wood, doorkeepers, smelters, footmen, messengers, carvers, seasoners of food, potters, smiths and so forth. Professional acrobats are recorded, and players on drums and flutes. Besides the boatman appears the oarsman, and the poleman.

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Social Life. On the whole, there seems to have been some decline in the position of women in this period : in one of the Sūtra texts, her wergild is assimilated to that of a Shudra and her lack of proprietary power must have tended to decrease her prestige. The polygamy of the Kings is now fully established; and, presumably, the practice of the sovereigns was followed by the richer of their subjects. On the other hand, the preference for sons becomes more and more pronounced: ‘a daughter is a source of misery, a son a light in the highest heaven.’

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Two important features of later village life in India appears in the forms of the astrologer and the barber. Of women’s work we learn of the dyer, the embroiderer, the worker in thorns, and the basket-maker. The merchant is often mentioned, and the usurer has a special name: it is of interest that the term Sreshṭhin occurs several times, denoting at least a wealthy merchant, and possibly already the word has its later technical sense of the head of a merchant guild.

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The advance of civilization is seen also in the more extended knowledge of the metals; as compared with the gold and the *ayas*, of doubtful meaning, of the *Rig-Veda*, this period knows tin, lead, and silver, of which ornamented bowls are made, while *ayas* is differentiated as red *ayas*, presumably copper, and dark or black *ayas*, which is iron.

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Houses. Houses were constructed of mud, or at best of sun-dried mud-bricks, and no more than barely recognizable lengths of walls in crumbling desolation can be accounted for in the excavated sites. Burnt bricks were not, however, unknown as excavation at Ahichchhatra has shown.

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A variety of wild cane was used, along with the husks of rice, to reinforce the mud or mud-brick walls with plaster, as observed at Hastinapur. As rains were heavy in the region where the Painted Grey ceramic occurs, the roof was thatched.

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Money. There were no coins, though the path to this development was already opened by the use of the *kṛiṣṇala*, the berry of the *Abrus precatorius* (*rati*), as a unit of weight. We hear in the *Brāhmaṇas* of the *śatamāna*, a piece of gold in weight equivalent to a hundred *kṛiṣṇalas*; and such pieces of gold were clearly more or less equivalent to currency and must have been used freely by the merchants, of whose activities we hear so little in the sacred texts. The *nishka*, originally a gold ornament, was also at this time a suit of value; and the cow as a unit was probably in course of supersession.⁸

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⁸ Rapson, E. J. (Ed.) *The Cambridge History of India*, Vol. I, pp. 120, 122, 123

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Clothes. The style of clothing seems to have continued unchanged, though we hear more of the details; among other things are woollen garments, robes dyed with saffron, and silk raiment.

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Sports. The amusements of the day were, as in the period of the *Rig-Veda*, the chariot race, dicing and dancing.

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Food. Various eatables are mentioned in the texts of this period. The *apūpa* is a cake mixed with *ghee* (clarified butter) or made of rice or barley; *odana* is a mess, generally of grain cooked with milk. Special varieties are those made with water, milk, curds or ghee and beans, sesame or meat, and named appropriately, such as "*tilaudana*". A porridge made of grain, barley or unhusked sesame, slightly parched and kneaded, is called *karambha*. Barley-gruel (*yavāgū*) and decoctions of other grains are also referred to.

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Meat-eating seems to be fairly common. The *Satapatha Brahmana* prescribes the killing of a goat in honour of a guest. Generally, meat was eaten on the occasion of some ceremony or other, but such ceremonies were performed almost every day. It appears that the killing of cows gradually came into disfavour. The normal meat-diet consisted of the flesh of the sheep and the goat, the usual sacrificial victims.

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Among the chief products of milk may be mentioned curds (*amiksha*), sour milk (*dadhi*), fresh butter (*nava-nita*), *payasya* or curds consisting of a mixture of sour milk and hot or cold fresh milk, butter, mixed with sour milk (*prishad-ajya*), *phanta*, the first clotted lumps of butter produced by churning, and finally *vajina*, a mixture of hot fresh milk with sour milk. This formidable list of milk-products and their mixtures shows the great popularity of milk.

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*Sura*, an intoxicating spirituous liquor, is often mentioned. Though tolerated as an ordinary drink, it is often condemned as leading to quarrels and as seducing men from the path of virtue, like dicing and meat-eating (A. VI.70.1). The Sautrāmaṇī sacrifice is of the nature of an expiation or penance for an indulgence in *sura*. Probably, it was prepared from fermented grains and plants. It was kept in skins. The *Yajur-Veda Samhitas* mention a beverage called *masara*, which appears to have been a mixture of rice and *syamaka* with grass and parched barley, etc. *Madhu* primarily means "sweet" as an adjective, and so denotes any sweet food or drink such as the Soma or milk. The sense "honey", though known in the *Rig-Veda*, is only now its most definite sense, and there are taboos against its use by students and women under certain circumstances.⁹

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⁹ Majumdar, R.C. and Pusalker, A.D. (Ed.). *The History and Culture of the Indian People—The Vedic Age*, pp. 457, 458

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Pastoralism. The *Yajur-Veda* helps us to draw some conclusions about the mode of life of the Aryans for the period 1000-800 B.C. and the attached book, the *Satapatha Brahmana*, extends the information to about 600 B.C. 'Even cursory reading', says Kosambi, 'shows that pastoral life formed the basis of Yajur-Vedic society, as of its ritual. Nevertheless, the growing importance of agriculture and of metals is made very clear in a prayer (still recited): 'May for me....milk, sap, clarified butter, honey, eating and drinking at the common table (*sagdhi* and *sapiti*), ploughing, rains, conquest, victory, wealth, riches, prosperity....low-grade grain (*kuyava*) food, freedom from hunger, rice, barley, sesame, kidney-beans, vetches, wheat, lentils, millet and wild rice (prosper through the sacrifice). May for me the stone, clay, hills, mountains, sand, trees, gold, bronze, lead, tin, iron, copper, fire, water, roots, plants, what grows on ploughed land, what grows on unploughed land, tame and wild cattle prosper through the sacrifice (*yajna*)'. 'This may be dated at about 800 B.C., and shows that the Aryans had begun to face new problems of production in the Iron Age.¹⁰

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¹⁰ Kosambi, D.D. *The Culture and Civilization of Ancient India in Historical Outline*, p. 85

Domestic Animals

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We get evidence of domestic animals kept by the later Aryans from some excavations in Haryana. A quantity of animal bones have been found from different levels at Bhagwanpura in the Kurukshetra District. The assemblage consists of a large number of charred bones of cattle. The bones of cattle, sheep, goat, dog and *Equus* were present in the assemblage. Cattle from the lower levels are mostly of massive size. A few of the cattle bones show incomplete ossification. Charred tortoise shells are also present, which indicates that the flesh of the tortoise was eaten. Even at present, Sansis eat the flesh of the tortoise. Cattle bones from the upper levels show a weaker and small breed.

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What was the breed of cattle kept by the Aryans? According to Olver (1938), the Hariana breed of cattle entered India through the northern passes with the Aryans. Ware (1942) also supports Olver's view.¹¹ The Hariana breed is found in Pakistan, the Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. The related breeds are the Mewati, Rath, Ongole, and Krishna Valley. The Mewati breed is found in the Alwar and Bharatpur districts of Rajasthan as well as in the Kosi tract of the Mathura District. The Rath breed is found in the Alwar District of Rajasthan. The Ongole breed is found in Bapatla, Sathanapalli, Vinukonda and Kandukur taluks of the Nellore and Guntur districts of Andhra Pradesh. The Krishna Valley breed is found in the southern areas of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. It is notable that all the breeds represented in this group are located along the route taken by the Aryan invaders stretching from Kalat in Pakistan and then passing through the Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh to south India.

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¹¹ Joshi, N.R. and Phillips, Ralph W. *Zebu Cattle of India and Pakistan—An FAO Study*, p. 87

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However, it is the Delhi-Rohtak-Gurgaon and Hissar tract in which the Hariana breed is found at its best. The Hariana bullocks are short-horned, white or light grey, the body is proportionate, moderately long and has a compact appearance (Fig. 156). The head is carried high, the horns are short and, in castrated bullocks, curving upwards and inwards. The ears, the dewlap and the sheath are small. There is a big and well-developed hump; the feet are small and the hoofs are well shaped, hard and black. The tail is rather short, thin and tapering, and carries a black switch reaching just below the hocks. The Hariana breed is a dual-purpose breed, used both for draught and milk production. The bullocks are excellent for fast ploughing and for road transport. The cows are good milkers.

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Elephants and Horses. Another sign of the new era is the definite references to the keeping of tame elephants, the guarding of elephants being one of the occupations occurring in the *Yajur-Veda* texts. The use of horses for riding had certainly become more common.

Agricultural Implements

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The agricultural implements mentioned in the Vedic literature include the plough (*langala*, *phala*, *sira* and *sita*) and *daira*, *srni*. The *langala* was a lace-pointed type, having a smooth handle, whereas the *sira* was a large and heavy plough. Sieve (*titau*) was in use to separate the grain from the straw, and winnowing (*surpa*) was resorted to. *Urdara* was the vessel used for measuring grain.

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The plough (*langala*) was used extensively, drawn by oxen in teams of six, eight or even twelve, and repeated ploughing was resorted to with a view to enabling the soil to acquire the desired tilth. The ploughland was called *urvara* or *kshetra*. Cowdung (*sakrt*) was used as manure and the dried cowdung (*karisha*) was found to be better. The *Kathaka Samhita* describes a process of cultivation as well as of harvesting, using the plough and sickle respectively.

Agricultural Practices

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Generally, in the Vedic period, two harvests a year were gathered. The number of references pertaining to agriculture found in the Vedic literature indicate that the cultivator in the Vedic period possessed a fair knowledge of the fertility of the land, selection and treatment of seeds, seasons of sowing and harvesting, rotation and other cultural practices of crops, manuring for increased production of crops, and the like.

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The Vedic farmers knew the method of improving the fertility of the soil by using the method of rotation. The *Taittiriya Samhita* mentions that rice would be sown in summer and pulses in winter on the same field.¹²

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¹² Raychaudhari, S P., Lallanji Gopal and Subbarayappa, B.V. *A Concise History of Science in India*, pp. 252, 353

Crops

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'In place of the *yava* of the *Rig-Veda* many kinds of grain are mentioned, and *yava* is restricted, in all probability, to the sense ‘barley’. Among these names are wheat, beans, corn, sesamum from which oil was extracted, *Panicum miliaceum*, *Echinochloa frumentacea* (*Panicum frumentaceum*), and *Setaria italica* (*Panicum italicum*), *Wrightia antidysenterica*, *Dolichos uniflorus*, *Ervum hirsutum*, *Chionachne koenigii* (*Coix barbata*), and various others. Rice, both domesticated and wild, was much used. Rice grains have been discovered from Hastinapur (Fig.147). The term used for rice of good quality is *taṇḍula*, *vrīhi* and *śāli*, and for the wild variety, *nīvāra*. The *Taittirīya* even refers to the husked (*karṇa*) and unhusked (*akarṇa*) rice. The seasons of the different grains are briefly summed up in the *Taittirīya Saṃhitā*: barley, sown no doubt, as at present, in winter, ripened in summer; rice, sown in the rains, ripened in autumn; beans and sesamum, planted in the time of the summer rains, ripened in the winter and the cold season. There were two seasons of harvest according to the same authority, and another text tells us that the winter crops were ready in March. The farmer had, as now, constant troubles to contend with: moles destroyed the seed, birds and other creatures injured the young shoots; and both drought and excessive rain were to be feared. The *Atharva-Veda* provides us with a considerable number of spells to avoid blight and secure a good harvest. Cucumbers are alluded to, perhaps as cultivated; but there is no certain reference to tree culture though frequent mention is made of the great Indian trees like the Acvattha, *Ficus religiosa*, and the Nyagrodha, *Ficus benghalensis* (*F. indica*). The different forms of the jujube are specially named.¹³

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¹³ Rapson, E. J. (Ed.). *The Cambridge History of India*, Vol. I

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Bajra, Pearl-Millet (*Pennisetum typhoides*). *Pennisetum typhoides*, commonly known as pearl-millet, bulrush, or spiked millet in English and *bajra* in Hindi, is the most important of all the millets. It is a robust, quick-growing, summer cereal grass with large stems, leaves, and heads. It is efficient in its utilization of moisture and has a higher level of heat tolerance than sorghum and maize. It thrives on light-textured and well-drained soils, but does not tolerate water-logging and flooding as well as sorghum.

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*Bajra* is most extensively grown as a cereal in the drier areas of western and southern India and the southern peripheries of the Sahara in Africa. *Bajra* is one of the principal millets grown in India, next in importance only to *jowar* (sorghum) among the coarse grains. As its grain is a great favourite with sparrows, it is a common sight in Rajasthan and Maharashtra to see girls standing on a *machān* (scaffolding), scaring the birds by throwing earthen balls with a sling (Fig. 158). The total production of *bajra*-grain in India is about three million tonnes. It is drought-resistant and can be grown in tracts of low rainfall. Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Haryana are the main *bajra*-growing States.

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Krishnaswamy (1951 and 1962) studied taxonomically and cytologically several *Pennisetum* species as well as interspecific crosses among them (primarily those involving *P. typhoides* × *P. purpureum*) and concluded that the originating centre of pearl-millet was Africa, from where it might have [Figure: Fig. 161. A pearl-millet (bajra) crop in Rajasthan. The earliest record of pearl-millet in India is from Rangpur, Gujarat, 1100 B.C. to 800 B.C.

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Fig. 162. Barley was a favourite crop of Vedic Aryans, and they called it yava. The largest area under this drought-resistant crop is in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan (Courtesy: Punjab Agricultural University)

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migrated to India and might have been domesticated. He points out that only two of the 32 species in section Penicillaria of the genus *Pennisetum* (*P. typhoides* and *P. purpureum*) have been known outside Africa, and no wild species of this genus has yet been reported from India or other parts of Asia.

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The question regarding the African centre which may be the origin of the various species of *Pennisetum* is perhaps more difficult. Wild species occur in both the Abyssinian and West African localities. In the drier regions of Niger, a wild species (*P. molissimum*) occurs which is closely akin to the cultivated species. This is one of the six annual species considered as possible contributing ancestors of the cultivated *P. typhoides*. Several unidentified wild species as well as cultivated varieties were collected in Ethiopia—some at elevations above 2,000 metres—in late 1967. If the species of *Pennisetum* did originate in the Abyssinian region, it may be assumed that a very early migration to West Africa occurred.

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In Africa, its archaeobotanical record is noted at the Nagez phase which dates from 1255 to 105 B.C. It is a Neolithic site. It is not certain whether the grains belong to wild or domesticated species. At Le Baidla I site, 60 per cent of the grain impressions are those of *Pennisetum*, out of which 1/3 exhibit characters of cultivated grain. The site dates from 80 to 105 B.C.

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Archaeological sites in India from which *bajra* has been reported are in States with semi-arid climate. The earliest record of *bajra* is from Rangpur (Gujarat), in Period II, 1100 B.C. to 800 B.C. and from Hallur (Karnataka) between Neolithic and Megalithic periods.

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The introduction of *bajra* in India seems to have taken place during the Painted Grey Ware phase. How far were the Aryans responsible for this introduction can only be conjectured. Perhaps it would be more accurate to assume that *bajra* reached India at a relatively early time about the beginning of the second millennium B.C. but was not extensively grown until the growth in population brought the marginal, drier lands into cultivation.

References

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Aiyer, A.K.Y.N. *Agriculture and Allied Arts in Vedic India*, Bangalore, 1949 Aiyer, A.K.Y.N. *Dairying in Ancient India*, N.I.S., New Delhi, 1950 Allchins, B. and R. *The Birth of Indian Civilization*, Penguin, 1968 Banerjee, N.R. *The Iron Age in India*, Delhi, 1965 Basham, A.L. *The Wonder that was India*, London, 1954 Dani, A.H. *Timargarh and Gandhara Grave Culture, Ancient Pakistan*, Vol. III, Peshawar, 1967 Dowson, J. *A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History and Literature*, London, 1950 Gangopadhyay, R. *Some Materials for the Study of Agriculture and Agriculturists in Ancient India*, Calcutta, 1932

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Gening, V. *Ancient Settelments of Indo-Iranians*, Soviet Land, New Delhi, October 1977 Gode, P.K. *Studies in Indian Cultural History*, Vol. II, Poona, 1960 Harlan, J.R. *Crops and Man*, Wisconsin, 1975 Kajale, M.D. *Ancient Grains from India*, Bulletin Deccan College, P.G.R.I., 1974 Kosambi, D.D. *The Culture and Civilization of Ancient India in Historical Outline* Mackenzie, D.A. *Indian Myth and Legend*, London, 1971 Majumdar, R.C. and Pusalker, A.D. *History and Culture of the Indian People, The Vedic Age*, London, 1951 Max Müller, *Chips from a German Workshop*, Vol. II Piggott, S. *Prehistoric India*, Penguin Books, 1950 Ragozin, Z.A. *Vedic India*, London, 1895 Rapson, E.J. (Ed.) *The Cambridge History of India*, Vol. I (Reprint), New Delhi, 1968 Raychaudhari, S P. and Kaw, R.K. *Agriculture in Ancient India*, ICAR, New Delhi, 1964 Raychaudhari, S.P., Bose, D.M., Sen, S.N. and Subbarayappa, B.V. *A Concise History of Science in India, Agriculture*, I.N.S.A., New Delhi, 1971 Sastri, N. *A History of South India*, New Delhi, 1958 Sharma, R.S. *Conflict, Distribution and Differentiation in Rig-Vedic Society*, Indo-Soviet Symposium, Dushanbe, Oct. 1977 Sharma, R.S. *Ancient India*, Delhi, 1977 Thapar, B.K. *The Archaeological Remains of the Aryans in North-Western India*, Indo-Soviet Symposium, Dushanbe, Oct. 1977 Wheeler, R.E.M. *Early India and Pakistan*, London, 1959

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