A History of Agriculture in India v1.c3.4

v1.c3.4

Agriculture can be properly understood only in the light of the evolution of life and the material culture of man. Man is part of an unbroken stream of life. That stream in the dawn of life on earth manifested itself in the form of single microscopic cells. Hundreds of millions of years later, after transformation through forms of polyps, of worm-like creatures, of lancelets, it flowed through thousands of generations in the form of fish. It emerged on land as the amphibian. The amphibian evolved into the reptile. It covered itself with hair, acquired warm blood and fed its young with milk, and it transformed itself to become fully mammalian. Four-footed, tailed and hairy, it took to the Eocene forests. It grew into lemur, into monkey, into ape; and finally hominid. The hominid grew to the dignity of man.