A History of Agriculture in India v1.c35.s6: A Kitchen-Garden
A History of Agriculture in India v1.c35.s6
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A Kitchen-Garden
v1.c35.s6.1
Describing the duties of a loyal wife and a kitchen-garden, Vatsyayana writes: "A virtuous woman, who has affection for her husband, should act in conformity with his wishes as if he were a divine being, and with his consent should take upon herself the whole care of his family. She should keep the whole house well cleaned, and arrange flowers of various kinds in different parts of it, and make the floor smooth and polished so as to give the whole a neat and becoming appearance. She should surround the house with a garden. In the garden she should plant beds of green vegetables, bunches of the sugarcane, and clumps of the fig tree, the mustard plant, the parsley plant, the fennel plant. Clusters of various flowers such as Trapa bispinosa, the jasmine, Jasminum grandiflorum, the yellow amaranth, the wild jasmine, Ervatamia [Tabernaemontana] coronaria, the nadyaworta, the China rose and others, should likewise be planted, together with the fragrant grass Cymbopogon [Andropogon] schoenathus, and the fragrant root of the plant Vetiveria zizanioides [Andropogon muricatus]. She should also have seats and arbours made in the garden, in the middle of which a well, tank, or pool should be dug.¹ The gardens were kept alive with parrots, mynas and chakoras swinging in cages from the branches of trees.
v1.c35.s6.2
¹ The Kamasutra of Vatsyayana translated by Sir Richard Burton and F.F. Arbuthnot, p. 197
Cites (1)
- Kāmasūtra — Vātsyāyana Mallanāga, Sanskrit