A History of Agriculture in India v1.c26.s2: The Epics

A History of Agriculture in India v1.c26.s2

Language: English

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*.