A History of Agriculture in India v2.c61.s2: Cereals Which the People of India Sow and Use for Food
A History of Agriculture in India v2.c61.s2
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Cereals Which the People of India Sow and Use for Food
v2.c61.s2.1
After describing the fruit-trees, Ibn Battuta gives a detailed account of cereals which Indians sow and use for food. ‘The Indians sow twice a year,’ states Ibn Battuta. ‘When the rain falls in their country in the hot season they sow the autumn crop, and harvest it sixty days later. Among these autumn grains in their country are kudhrū (Paspalum scrobiculatum), a kind of millet, which is the commonest of the grains in their country; qal, which resembles the type of millet called anlī; and shāmakh, which is smaller in the grain than qal, and often grows without being sown. It is the food of the devotees and ascetics, and of the poor and needy. They go out to gather what has sprung up of this plant without cultivation; each of them holds a large basket in his left hand and has in his right a whip with which he beats the grain so that it falls into the basket. In this way they collect enough of it to supply them with food for the whole year. The seed of this shāmakh is very small; after gathering, it is put out in the sun, then pounded in wooden mortars; the husk flies off leaving its pith, a white substance, from which they make gruel. They cook this with buffalo’s milk and it is pleasanter, prepared in this way, than baked as bread; I used often to eat it in India and enjoyed it.
v2.c61.s2.2
Other grains are māsh (Vigna radiata), which is a kind of pea, and mung (V. mungo) which is a species of mash, differing from it in having elongated grains and in its clear green colour. They cook mung with rice and eat it with ghee; this dish they call khichri and they breakfast on it every day. It takes the place with them of harīrā in the lands of the Maghrib.
v2.c61.s2.3
Then there is lubiyā (Vigna unguiculata), a kind of bean, and mūt (Cyperus rotundus), which resembles kudhrū but has smaller grains. It is used as fodder for draught animals in that country and fattens them; the barley in their country has no strength in it, and fodder for the animals is furnished by the mūt or else by chickpeas, which they pound and soak with water before feeding it to them. In place of green fodder, too, they feed them with māsh leaves, but first each animal is given ghee to drink for ten days, three to four pounds a day, and is not ridden during this time, and after that they feed it with māsh leaves, as we have said, for a month or so.
v2.c61.s2.4
The cereals which we have mentioned are autumn crops. When they harvest these sixty days after sowing them, they sow the spring cereals, which are wheat, barley, chickpeas, and lentils. They are sown in the same ground where the autumn crops are sown for their land is generous and of good heart. As for rice, they sow it three times a year, and it is one of the principal cereals in their country. They sow also sesame and sugarcane along with the autumn grains that we have mentioned.¹
v2.c61.s2.5
¹ Gibb, H.A.R. The Travels of Ibn Battuta, pp. 609-612