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A History of Agriculture in India v1.c36.s6: Bana's Observations on Agriculture in Harshacharita

A History of Agriculture in India v1.c36.s6

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English

Contents

Bana's Observations on Agriculture in Harshacharita

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Bana's *Harshacharita* provides a vivid picture of Indian society, manners and customs, climate, crops, ornamental plants and domestic animals. These are based on inside knowledge of a native with a keen sense of observation.

Autumn

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Bana thus describes autumn, when the rains stop and paddy ripens. 'It was the beginning of autumn, when the clouds are thinned, when the *cataka* is distressed, when the *kadamba* duck gives voice—the season deadly to frogs, robbing the peacock of its pride. Then the caravans of *hamsas* are welcomed back, the sky is like a whetted sword, the sun brilliant, the moon at her clearest, tender the array of stars. The rainbow of Indra fades, the girdling lightning is at rest, the waters run hued like lapis lazuli, the clouds rolling light as mists leave Indra unemployed. Then closes the *Nipa*, the *Kutaja* has no flower; budless is the plantain, soft the red lotus, the blue lotus exudes honey; the water-lily is a joy, the nights are cool with the *Cephalika*, the jasmine becomes fragrant; the ten regions are all ablaze with opening night lotuses, grey are the winds with *Saptacchada* pollen, lovely clustering *Bandhukas* form an unexpected evening glow. The horses have undergone lustration, the elephants are wild, the herds of oxen intoxicated with ferocity. The range of mud diminishes, young sand isles bud forth by the river banks. The wild rice is parched to ripeness, the pollen is formed in the *Priyangu* blossoms, the cucumber’s skin is hardened, and the reed grass smiles with flowers.’

Products of Assam

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Bana describes in detail the presents sent to Harsha by the heir apparent of Assam through a messenger, Hamsavega by name. The king inspected an elaborate umbrella brought by the messenger. Bana states, ‘This having been first inspected by the king, the servants in due order displayed the remaining presents. Among them were famous ornaments inherited from Bhagadatta and other renowned kings, ornaments which crimsoned the heavenly spaces with the light of the finest gems: the prime of sheeny crest jewels: pearl necklaces: silken towels, pure as the autumn moon’s light, rolled up in baskets of variously coloured reeds: quantities of pearl, shell, sapphire, and other drinking vessels, embossed by skilful artists: loads of Kardaranga leather bucklers with charming borders, bright gold-leaf work winding about them, and cases to preserve their colour: soft loin-clothes smooth as birch bark: pillows of *samuruka* leather, and other kinds of smooth figured textures: cane stools with the bark yellow as the ear of millet: volumes of fine writing with leaves made from aloe bark and of the hue of the ripe pink cucumber: luscious milky betel nut fruit, hanging from its sprays and green as young *harita* doves; thick bamboo tubes containing mango sap and black aloe oil, and fenced round with sheaths of *Kapotika* leaves, tawny as an angry ape’s cheeks: bundles contained in sacks of woven silk and consisting of black aloe dark as pounded collyrium, *Goçirça* sandal stealing the fiercest inflammation away, camphor cool, pure, and white as bits of ice, scent bags of musk oxen, *Kakkola* sprays, clove flower bunches, and nutmeg clusters, all bristling with masses of ripe fruit: cups of *ullaka*, diffusing a fragrance of sweetest wine: heaps of black and white chowries: carved boxes of panels for painting, with brushes and gourds attached to hold the paints: curious pairs of *Kinnaras*, ourang-outangs, *jivanjivaka* birds, and mermen, with necks bound in golden fetters: musk deer scenting the space all round them with their perfume: female *chamara* deer, used to running about the house: parrots, *carikas*, and other birds enclosed in gold-painted bamboo cages and chattering copious wit: partridges in cages of coral: and rings of hippopotamus ivory, encrusted with rows of huge pearls from the brows of elephants.’

The Economy of a Forest Settlement in Central India

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Harsha had marched into Central India to recover his sister, Rajyashri. Bana describes in detail the economy of a forest village in the black cotton soil region of Madhya Pradesh. Bana states, ‘The next day he set out with the horse in search of his sister, and in a comparatively few days’ march reached the Vindhya forest. Entering, he saw while still at some distance a forest settlement, distinguished by woodland districts turned grey by the smoke from granaries of wild grain in which heaps of burning *Ṣaṣṭika* chaff sent up ablaze. Wherein were huge banyans, encircled with cowpens formed of a quantity of dry branches; tiger-traps, constructed in fury at the slaughter of young calves; zealous foresters violently seizing the axes of trespassing wood cutters; and Durga arbours built of tree clumps in the thickets. The outskirts being for the most part forest, many parcels of rice-land, threshing-ground, and tilth were being apportioned by small farmers, and that with no little vigour of language, since it was mainly spade culture and they were anxious for the support of their families. No great amount of coming and going tramped the earth owing to the difficulty of ploughing the sparsely scattered fields covered with *Kaca* grass, with their few clear spaces, their black soil stiff as black iron, the branches bursting from the tree trunks set up here and there, their growths of impenetrable *Cyamaka*, their wealth of *Alambusa*, and their *Kokilaksa* bushes not yet cleared away. Near the tillage scaffolds constructed above ground suggested incursions of wild beasts.

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‘In every direction at the entrance to the forests were drinking arbours made of wayside trees, which by their coolness seemed to dispel the summer heat: arbours, where the shade was dappled by fresh shoots made grey by the dust of travellers’ stamping feet, where were *Nāgasphuṭa* bushes planted in the vicinity of freshly dug tanks bedecked with bunches of *Sal* flowers easily obtained from the woods, tiny huts formed of close-woven wattles, heaps of crocks dotted with meal and encircled by twisted braids of flies, stones of rose-apples (*jamun*) which travelling folk had eaten scattered on the ground about them, masses of *Dhuli-Kadamba* flowers with the pollen formed, wooden stands surmounted by an array of bristling water jars to steal away thirst, cool porous vessels with dripping bases for allaying weariness, pitchers black with moist aquatic plants for the purpose of keeping the water cold, bits of pink gravel taken from ewers to cool the air, cups having pink flowers tied by straw whisps about their necks, tree trunks bristling with bunches of juicy young mango fruit forbidden to wither by bundles of dew-besprent twigs, and successive troops of resting pilgrims drinking the water.

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‘In other places again blacksmiths were almost intensifying the heat by burning heaps of wood for charcoal. On every side the prospect was filled with the inhabitants of the district, who dwelt in the surrounding country, entering woods to collect timber and enveloped in the provisions guarded for them by old men stationed in the hamlet houses of the vicinity. Their bodies they had anointed to prepare themselves for their hard sylvan toils. On their shoulders were set strong axes, and about their necks hung their breakfast bundles. They wore ragged clothes for fear of thieves. Their water they bore in jars having mouths covered with corks of leaves and attached to their necks which were encircled by triple collars of black cane. Strong oxen marched before them in couples.

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'Ranging on the outskirts were hunters, who grasped snares with intricate loops formed of animals' sinews, and bore coiled traps and netted nooses fastened to a quantity of screens used in shooting wild beasts. Fowlers roamed hither and thither, loaded with cages for falcons, partridges, *kapinjalas*, and the like, while their boys loitered about with aviaries hanging from their shoulders. Troops of childish trappers wandered in eager pursuit of female sparrows caught with twigs whereon a little castaway pulse broth was smeared. Young hunters, practising bird-catching, coaxed on a tribe of dogs frightened at partridges hidden in clumps of grass.

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'There were people moving along with bundles of *Cidhu* bark, hued like an old ruddy-goose's neck, countless sacks of recently uprooted *Dhataki* flowers of the colour of red ore and of cotton plants, plentiful loads of flax and hemp bundles, quantities of honey, peacocks' tail-feathers, wreaths of compressed wax, barkless *Khadira* logs frilled with hanging *Lamajjaka* grass, large bundles of *Kustha*, and *Rodhra* yellow as a fullgrown lion's mane. Village wives hastened en route for neighbouring villages, all intent on thoughts of sale and bearing on their heads baskets filled with various gathered forest fruits.

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'Here and there the preparation of unsightly fields of barren soil was being effected by numerous lines of wagons, bearing heaps of manure from old dust heaps and yoked to strong young steers, while to the creaking of their loose and noisy wheels were added the angry cries of the dust-grey ploughboys who sitting on the poles urged them on. The surrounding country was black with numerous sugarcane enclosures, showing wide carefully tended branches, buffalo skeletons fixed on stakes to scare with their sharp points the rabbits which devastated the rising buds, and high bamboo fences which the antelopes lightly leapt when startled by ox-drivers' sticks which the watchers hurled at them.

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At very wide intervals were the dwellings of the forest householders, girt with orchards of emerald-bright *Snuha*, entangled with thickets of bamboo suitable for bows, and difficult of access owing to rows of thorny *Karanja*. They had garden enclosures with clumps of *Garmut*, *Gavedhuka*, *Granthiparna*, *Cigru*, *Surana*, *Surasa*, *Vangaka*, *Vaca*, and the castor plant, and a network of *Kasthaluka* creepers, reared upon tall planted uprights, provided a shade. Young calves were tied to *Khadira* stakes fixed in the ground in circular jujube arbours, and crowing cocks more or less indicated the positions of the houses. At the foot of Agasti trees in the yards tanks and drinking vessels for birds had been constructed, and pink masses of jujube were scattered around. The walls were formed of partitions made of slips of bamboo, leaves, stalks, and reeds, while for ornament Gorocana pigment and Kimcuka flowers were used. There were piles of charcoal tied with Valvaja grass, numerous heaps of cotton from the seemul tree fruit, stores of Nala rice, waterlily roots, candied sugar, white lotus seed, bamboos, and threshed rice ready at hand; also collections of Tamala seeds, mats worn from being used to pound ashes and disposed upon heaps of Kacmarya, a wealth of withered Rajadana and Madana fruit, abundance of Madhuka fruit decoctions, pots of safflower in excellent cupboards, no lack of Rajamasha, cucumber, Karkatika, and gourd seeds, and collections of living pets, such as wild-cats, maludhana snakes, ichneumons, calijatakas, and the like.’

Crops of Srikantha (Thanesar Tract)

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Bana thus describes the products of Srikantha region (comprising the Thanesar tract in Haryana). ‘Listen. There is a certain region named Srikantha, peopled by the good, a heaven of Indra. Owing to the number of its land lotuses the ploughs, whose shares uproot the fibres as they scar the acres, excite a tumult of bees, singing, as it were, the excellencies of the good soil. Unbroken lines of Pundra sugarcane enclosures seem besprinkled by the clouds. On every side its marches are packed with corn heaps, like extemporized mountains, distributed among the threshing floors. Throughout it is adorned with rice crops extending beyond their fields, where the ground bristles with cumin beds watered by the pots of the Persian wheel. Upon its lordly uplands are wheat crops variegated with Rajamasha patches ripe to bursting and yellow with the split bean pods. Attended by singing herdsmen mounted on buffaloes, pursued by sparrows greedy for swarms of flies, gay with the tinkle of bells bound to their necks, roaming herds of cows make white its forests, revelling on Vaspachedya grass and dropping milk. Thousands of spotted deer dot the districts. Regions, pale with the dust of Ketaki beds emitting white pollen, gleam like the approaches of Shiva’s City when made grey by the sprinklings of the Pramathas. Pot-herbs and plantains blacken the soil around the villages. At every step are groups of young camels. The exits are made attractive by vine-arbours and pomegranate orchards; arbours, ablaze with Pilu sprays, besmeared with the juice of hand-pressed citron leaves, having flower bunches formed of spontaneously gathered saffron filaments, and travellers blissfully sleeping after drinking the juice of fresh fruit, orchards, where the fruit, ripe to bursting, seems coloured by the beaks of the parrots attacking the seeds, and the flowers are tinged by the cheeks of climbing monkey tribes. There are lovely groves where travelling folks plunder the date-trees, monkeys lick sweet-scented date juice, and partridges tear the Aruka to pieces with their beaks. Not barren are the sylvan hollows of forest pools, refuge of myriad travellers, encircled with avenues of tall Arjuna trees and turbid at the edges through the descent of herds of kine. Troops of camels and flocks of sheep form in hordes under the guardianship of camel boys. Wandering droves of mares, besmeared with the sap of crushed saffron beds, where they roll, with snorting nostrils and uplifted heads drinking in the air, as it were to beget speed in the young lying in their wombs.

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'In such a country is a certain district called Sthanvicvara, blessed, like the world's first youth, with sweet fragrance of lovely flowers in diverse pleasances; bedecked, like the road to Dharma's gynaeceum, with many myriads of buffaloes stained from rolling in saffron; surpassing Tripura, as it were, in having all its people unacquainted with the devastating might of Shiva's arrow; bright, like a replica of the moon world, with rows of white houses plastered with stucco.'

Animals Used for Transport and Warfare

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Harsha gives an order to his army to get ready and march towards Central India. Bana thus describes how the order was carried out. Incidentally we get an idea of domestic animals used for transport and warfare. 'Wicked elephants were loaded with a cargo of utensils hurriedly tossed upon them by travel-practised domestics. Amid the laughter of the crowd helpless corpulent bawds lagged as they were with difficulty dragged along with hands and legs sprawling sideways. Many huge and savage elephants trumpeted as the free play of their limbs was checked by the tightening of the girth-bands of their gaudy housings. A jangling of bells taking place in the elephant troop inflamed all ears with fever. Camels, as sacks were set on their backs, bellowed at the outrage. The carriages of the high-born nobles' wives were thronged with roguish emissaries sent by princes of rank. Elephant riders, deceived as to the time of starting, searched for new servants. Highly honoured footmen led the fine horses of the king's favourites. An array of gay gallants employed thick unguents to draw circular lines of camphor on their persons. To the saddles of marshals were fastened martingales with wooden figures of deer, bells, and reeds attached. Apes were placed among troops of horses whose grooms were entangled in a network of coiled reins. Stablemen dragged along half-eaten shoots to be eaten at the morning manoeuvres. Loud grew the uproar of foragers shouting to one another. Much crashing of stables resounded as the young rearing horses swerved in the confusion of starting. Women, hastening at the call of riders whose elephants were in readiness, presented unguents for the animals' heads. The low people of the neighbourhood, running up as the elephants and horses started, looted heaps of abandoned grain. Donkeys ridden by throngs of boys accompanied the march. Crowds of carts with creaking wheels occupied the trampled roads. Oxen were laden with utensils momentarily put upon them. Stout steers, driven on in advance, lagged out of greed for fodder lying near them. Despairing merchants saw the oxen bearing their wealth flee before the onset of the tumult. A troop of seraglio elephants advanced where the press of people gave way before the glare of their runners' torches. Horsemen shouted to dogs tied behind them. Old people sang the praises of tall Tangana horses which by the steady motion of their quick footfalls provided a comfortable seat. Deckhan riders disconsolately contended with fallen mules.'¹⁰

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¹⁰ Cowell, E. B. and Thomas, F. W. (trans.). The Harshacharita of Bana, pp. 70, 71, 213-215 225-229, 79-82 and 200-201.

Land Revenue

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Regarding the incidence of land revenue, Devahuti observes, 'It was an ancient practice to measure villages for purposes of land-tax in plough measures, i.e. the area that could be turned over with a plough pulled by a given number of oxen. Tax was then fixed on each plough measure. Inscriptions sometimes append numerical adjectives after the names of villages (Sakambhara sapada-laksha). Apparently, the numbers denote plough measures in the territory and the tax from it in a silver panas. Bana's reference to the area of village in terms of siras indicates that the land unit was also known by this name among others. The sira of Harsha's time was probably equal to the Kulya-vapa of the Gupta days. Sankara's commentary on the Harshacharita describes sira as hala (plough). The latter term was employed for land units in Andhra in the third century A.D. Manu's commentators state that as much land as could be cultivated by twelve oxen (double of a 'middling plough') was called kula. Bana's reference also suggests that an average village measured 1,000 plough units, which according to a late text, the Sukraniti-sara, comprised one square praja-patya krosa, or approximately 1,333 acres [450 hectares].

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Land-tax was calculated per plough unit (one and a third acres at one silver karsha-pana a month). As a benedictory beginning to his march of conquest Harsha donated to brahmans a hundred villages, each delimited by a thousand ploughs and therefore capable of yielding tax of a thousand silver panas a month.¹¹

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¹¹ Devahuti, D. Harsha, a Political Study, p. 203

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Allan, J. Haig, T.W. and Dodwell, H.H. *The Cambridge Shorter History of India*, Cambridge, 1943

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Beal, S. *Life of Hiuen Tsang*, London, 1914

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Bose, D.M. and others. *A Concise History of Science in India*, INSA, New Delhi, 1971

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Devahuti, D. *Harsha, a Political Study*, Oxford, 1970

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Edwardes, M. *A History of India from the Earliest Times to the Present Day*, Bombay, 1961

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