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A History of Agriculture in India v2.c67.s8: Peasants

A History of Agriculture in India v2.c67.s8

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English

Contents

Peasants

v2.c67.s8.1

Describing the appearance and dress of the peasants, Babur noted that they were not over-burdened with clothes. 'Their peasants and the lower classes all go about naked,' states Babur. 'They tie on a thing which they call a langoti, which is a piece of clout that hangs down two spans from the navel, as a cover to their nakedness. Below this pendent modesty-clout is another slip of cloth, one end of which they fasten before to a string that ties on the langoti, and then passing the slip of cloth between the two legs, bring it up and fix it to the string of the langoti behind. The women too, have a lang—one end of it they tie about their waist, and the other they throw over their head.’³

v2.c67.s8.2

³ Beveridge, A.S. Babur-nama, pp. 446, 487, 488

v2.c67.s8.3

Babur also made observations on the modes of irrigation prevalent in India. Two methods of irrigation from wells were with the aid of a wooden Persian wheel and a leather bucket drawn over a pulley, the charsa. Babur stated, ‘The greater part of the Hindustan country is situated on level land. Many though its towns and cultivated lands are, it nowhere has running waters. Rivers and, in some places, standing-waters are its ‘runn-ing-waters’.’ Even where, as for some towns, it is practicable to convey water by digging channels, this is not done. For not doing it there may be several reasons, one being that water is not at all a necessity in cultivating crops and orchards. Autumn crops grow by the downpour of the rains themselves; and strange it is that spring crops grow even when no rain falls.’

Persian Wheel

v2.c67.s8.t1.1

‘To young trees water is made to flow by means of buckets or a wheel. They are given water constantly during two or three years; after which they need no more. Some vegetables are watered constantly.

v2.c67.s8.t1.2

‘In Lahor, Dibālpur and those parts, people water by means of a wheel. They make two circles of ropes long enough to suit the depth of the well, fix strips of wood between them and on these fasten pitchers. The ropes with the wood and attached pitchers are put over the well-wheel. At one end of the wheel-axle a second wheel is fixed, and close to it another on an upright axle. This last wheel the bullock turns; its teeth catch in the teeth of the second, and thus the wheel with the pitchers is turned. A trough is set where the water empties from the pitchers and from this the water is conveyed everywhere.

Charsa

v2.c67.s8.t2.1

‘In Agra, Chandwar, Biana and those parts, again, people water with a bucket; this is a laborious and filthy way. At the well-edge they set up a fork of wood, having a roller adjusted between the forks, tie a rope to a large bucket, put the rope over the roller, and tie its other end to the bullock. One person must drive the bullock, another empty the bucket. Every time the bullock turns after having drawn the bucket out of the well, that rope lies on the bullock-track, in pollution of urine and dung, before it descends again into the well. To some crops needing water, men and women carry it by repeated efforts in pitchers.’⁴