History of Agriculture in Ancient India

MG CHANDRAKANTH

UAS Bangalore

Origin of life – 15 billion years ago • Biologists: Life evolved from mere hydrogen 15 billion yrs

ago with the "Big Bang“ expanding cloud of hydrogen gas • Hydrogen transformed into all other chemical elements • 4 billion yrs ago, earth's atmosphere consisted methane,

ammonia, hydrogen, water • Geologists: Earth originated 4.5 - 4.6 billion yrs ago.

Characterized by a crust enveloping the interior (mantle). Earth is 79% of the total volume of the crust.

• Cambrian period: 542–488.3 million years ago: • Indian Precambrian : 2/3rds of Indian Peninsula

comprises Precambrian rocks . Indo-Gangetic plains are between Precambrian rocks of Peninsula and deformed suites of Himalayas

• Precambrian rocks of Himalaya are tectonised due to collision of Peninsula with the Asiatic mainland

Hindu view of creation

• Brahma ,Vishnu, Shiva create for 'propagating life’ Vishnu - 'preservation' ; Shiva - 'destruction’

• Vishnu Dasavataras depict evolution (for eg. of mathsya, koorma, varaha)

• Rigveda (Nasadiya Sukta) questions - Who knows then whence it first came into being? whether he formed it all or did not form it, Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not. -(Rig Veda 10.129.1-7)

• Upanishads: universe and Earth, along with humans, creatures undergo repeated cycles (pralaya) of creation and destruction

Mesolithi paintings of Cattle, buffaloe

MESOLITHIC Hunters and Gatherars (end of Palaeolithic and beginning of Neolithic,

10,000 BC to 1710 BC) • Characterised by small stone implements – microliths

• Mesolithic sites are in Langhnaj (Guj), Sakri (MP), Ellora (Mh), … Raichur(Ktka)

• Domestification of dog – dog entered the ecological system of man - universal companions

• Cultivators of Indus valley had a dog (pariah dogs) • Rock paintings (MP) indicate use of horse, cattle, elephant, • Food habits : 19 plants - roots and tubers (eg shathavari, diascorea (yams,

tubers), 17 plants for juice (Madhuca longifolia, ..), 25 plants – leaves for vegetables (Amaranthus, Moringa, …), 10 plants – petals cooked as vegetables – Sesbania (agase), 63 plants – fruits eaten raw, ripe, pickled (Aegle marmelos, Emblica,), 5 spp of Ficus as figs, Tamarindus indica pods for pickels, Mangifera eaten raw , ripe, Madhuca for liquor, Honey of Apis mellifera as main sugar source

• Gatherers of wild berries and fruits, roots

Neolithic age – Major agri revolution 7500 – 6500 BC

• Neolithic agri revolution : grains dibbled with pointed sticks – sowing by women

• Wheat, barley, rice, millets, maize • Domestication of animals – sheep, goat, cattle, pigs, horse, donkey

– Belt cave excavations revealed • dung for manure, sheep hair as cloth • Houses built of sun dried bricks, lime plastered walls, floors with

smooth stones • Hand made clay pots for storage of grains • Basketary • Sickle invented for harvesting crops • Skill of grinding, polishing stone implements, • Utilization of fire • Wood working, manufacture of pottery, textiles.. • Man settles in villages – thought of food security, and had leisure

Terracota toy cart

Harappan agriculture • Cultivation of Wheat, barley, cotton

• Size of Harappan towns – indicator of plough agriculture – use of bullocks for draught

• Wheel – crowning achievement of prehistoric carpentry

• 2300 BC wheeled cart

• 2900 BC – wooden plough

• Balarama (brother of Krishna) – plough as weapon(?)

• Ox drawn sledges

Mohanjodaro Bullok seal

Granaries – best evidence of agriculture in harappan areas

• Sling balls to scare animals, pests to protect crops

• Granaries

• Food crops – breat wheat, barley, sesame, peas, melons, date palm, Brassica spp.(like cauliflower), lotus, pomegranate, lemon, coconut

• Cotton –grown, spun, woven

• Deodar, rosewood – for coffins

• Fall of Harappan culture – due to deforestation

Stone axe

Burazhom – Neolithic relict culture 2375 BC

• Megalithic site, Burzahom in Srinagar

• 2000 tools recovered in excavation

• 1500 stone objects – axes, harvesters, polishers, pounders, chisels and mace heads

• Dog burials – dogs buried on oval pits, also wolf, wild dog, ibex(wild goat)

The tussar silk moth

Silk spun out

Crop cutting

• Crop cutting instrument with two holes

• Weed seeds found – Trifolium, Ipomea, Euphorbia, of dry pastures, waste lands, cultivated fields, associated with wheat, barley

• Shifting cultivation – Jhuming,

• Polished stone axes, their use

Domesticated birds of Harappan civilization

Harappa -Seals and toys of Domesticated animals

Neolithic, Chalcolithic settlements – millets, pulses, silk in south India : 2295 BC – 1300 BC

• Millets – coarse grains – jowar, bajra, ragi • Ragi – hardiest rainfed crop, grain can be stored

upto 50 yrs. • Ragi found in 1800 BC • Fox tail millet (setaria italica), Kodo millet, kutki

(now grown only in the Himalayas) • Silk • Pulses – Masur, lentil; black gram, green gram,

khesari, lathyrus spp, • Oilseeds – linseed, castor, • Fruits – Ber, Amla, (1600 BC),

Culture

‘one who yokes 8 oxen to a plough is a pious man, 6 oxen.. is a business man, 4 oxen.. is a cruel man, two oxen.. Is a beef eater’ – MSR 297