A History of Agriculture in India v2.c61.s2.1

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.