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A History of Agriculture in India v1.c26.s9: Crops

A History of Agriculture in India v1.c26.s9

Language
English

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.

Cites (4)