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Agriculture in Prehistory and Protohistory

Recent archaeological findings indicate that rice was grown in parts of the Ganges Valley(Koldhiva) as
early as in the 8th millennium BCE and extended later to other areas, while the cultivation of barley and
millets dates back to the 7th millennium BCE at Mehrgarh in Baluchistan.

Harappa
Crops
 Cereals such as wheat, barley;
 legumes such as green gram, black gram and fenugreek;
 oil seeds such as sesame, safflower, linseed, mustards and castor;
 vegetables of cucumber family and eggplant (brinjal);
 fruits such as grapes, dates, jujube, jackfruit, mango, mulberry and black plum.
 fibre crops such as cotton;
 In the same period, cattle, sheep, asses, goats, dogs, pigs, fowl, etc., were domesticated.

Agri-Tech
 Furrows: Besides, the Harappans practised plough based agriculture: terracotta models of
plough shares (left) was found at Banawali (Haryana) and Bahawalpur, while a field at
Kalibangan (Rajasthan) dated to about 2800 BCE revealed two perpendicular sets of furrows,
suggesting the practice of intercropping..
 Dholavira: Dholavira in the Rann of Kachchh could sustain itself in an arid climate only thanks to
vast reservoirs and water harvesting on a massive scale.
 Harnessing of the flooding potential of Indus.

Textual Sources
 Order: Types of Land-> Rainfall Preditiction->Implements-> Seed->Manure->Cattle->Pest-
>Horticulture
 Agriculture, kṛṣi, is frequently mentioned in India’s ancient literature and some specialized texts.
General Texts: Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra, the Sangam literature of early Tamils, Manusmṛti,
Varāhamihira s Bṛhatsaṁhitā, Amarakoṣa
 Specialised Texts: Parasar’s Kṛṣiparāśara, , Kashyapa’s Kaśyapiyakṛṣisukti, and Surapāla’s
Vṛkṣāyurveda, Paraśurāma’s Kṛṣigītā and texts on horses by Śālihotra and on elephants by
Pālakāpya are also available.

Types of Land
In Vedic age land was classified as (KUDA)

1. Urvara (cultivable land),


2. Khila (barren land),
3. Dhanva (waste land)
4. Aranya (forest).
The Amarakoṣa, a Sanskrit thesaurus, describes twelve types of lands according to the fertility of the
soil, irrigation and physical characteristics. These are: (UUSA-MSSP-JKND)

 ūrvara (fertile),
 ūṣara (barren),
 śadvala (grassy),
 aprahata (fallow),
 māru (desert),
 sharkara (full of pebbles and pieces of limestone),
 sharkarāvati (sandy),
 pankikala (muddy),
 jalaprāya (watery),
 kaccha (land contiguous to water),
 nadīmātṛka (land watered by a river),
 devamātṛka (rain-watered).

In Tolkāppiyam, an early work on Tamil grammar and poetics, five types of land are mentioned:

 mullai (forest)
 kuṟiñci (hills),
 marutam (cultivable),
 neytal (coastal land)
 pālai (barren land or desert)

Rain-Fed and Irrigated Crops


 Since crop production often depended on seasonal monsoon rains, scholars worked out
methods to predict rainfall.
 Kṛṣiparāśara and Bṛhat Saṁhitā describe such methods in every season. Parāśara’s main
technique was based on the positions of the Moon and the Sun in the sky. Varāhamihira in his
Bṛhat Saṁhitā considered lunar mansions(nakṣatras) in predicting seasonal rainfall.

Implements
 Early Simple Plough: The Ṛigveda describes a simple bullock-drawn wooden plough with a metal
bar attached as a ploughshare to open the soil.
 Complex Plough: Kṛṣiparāśara gives details of the plough’s design with Sanskrit names for its
different parts.

Seed and Sowing


 Selection of Seeds: Farmers knew how to select healthy seed from a ripening crop. The
importance of good seed was so clearly recognized that the law-giver Manu recommended
severe punishment for the adulteration of seed.
 Seed Treatment: Surapāla(Vrikshaayurveda) listed several herbs as seed treatment materials for
shrubs and trees. Cow dung has long been used for treating cotton and some other seeds by a
large number of farmers.
 Rice Transplanting: It was perhaps first perfected in the deltas of Godavari and Krishna rivers in
the 1st century CE.

Manures
 Manure: According to Parāśara, crops grown without manure will not give good yield. Kauṭilya
mentioned the use of cow dung, animal bones, fish and milk as manure.
 Panchagavya: Studies have shown that panchagavya works as a biofertilizer, enhancing growth
and productivity of crops and increasing resistance to diseases.

Cattle Management
 Since Vedic times, owning cattle meant possessing wealth. The Ṛigveda is replete with
references to cattle and their management.

Pests and Their Management


 Varāhamihira’s chapter on treatment of trees mentioned that trees are vulnerable to disease
when exposed to cold weather, strong winds, and hot sun; this possibly laid the foundation of
classifying tree diseases based on humours such as vāta, pitta and kapha (the tridoṣa of
Ayurveda), which were formalized in later centuries in Surapāla’s Vṛkṣāyurveda.

Horticulture and Arboriculture


 A method of grafting described in Bṛhat Saṁhitā was what is known today as ‘wedge grafting’.

System of Land Ownership


The debate regarding the ownership of land in ancient and early medieval India has focused on
assessing the evidence for communal/corporate ownership, royal ownership, and private ownership

Vedic Age
 In the early Vedic age, land was not an important resource at all.

Pre-Mauryan Age
 Private Ownership: The concept of private property had emerged. The land was divided into
cultivable plots and allotted to individual families. – Sethi-Gahapati + Anaha-Pindaka
 Community Ownership: Despite private ownership, transfer of rights over the land remained
with the community. Irrigation projects and field fencing were also done collectively.
 Royal Ownership: The claim of state over the land was strengthening and it was accepted that
the state owns all the wasteland. This entitled him to a bhaga (1/6th) of the produce as tax on
the land that had been cleared and was under cultivation.
Mauryan Age
 State Ownership:
o Megasthenes tells us that all land was owned by the king but this is clearly incorrect.
o State had vast tracts of land of its own (and managed by sitadhyaksha and worked upon
by PoWs, slaves, hired labor etc.).
 Land Leasing:
o There was also some land which the state used to lease out to the peasants.
o Arthashastra tells us that if on such land the oxen, implements etc. were provided by
the state then the state could appropriate 2/3rd to 3/4th of the produce for itself.
o If, on the other hand, the peasant brought his own implements, he could keep half of
the output.
 If somebody brought a new piece of land under plough then the ownership of that land
belonged to him so long as he paid the taxes.
 Then there was some old land which was owned by the peasants directly.

Post Mauryan Age


 Manusmriti tells us that the land belonged to the person who first brings it under cultivation.
 This also tells us that expansion of agriculture was going on in this age.
 It also indicates that the ownership of land was private and not state owned.

Gupta Age
 Debate on Communal, Royal and Private ownership

Community Ownership
 Although the village community didn't have ownership of land, it had an important say in sale of
land (transfer of ownership), boundary disputes.
 King was supposed to inform the community when he made a land grant.
 While according to Vishnu and (earlier Manu Smriti) village commons such as pasture land,
water resources were community property.
 But these references are of earlier period.

Royal Ownership
 Supported by: The earlier Indica and Manu Smriti and landgrants
 Oppossed by: Inscriptions mentioning purchase of land by the King, private individuals(Jataka
story anathpindaka) and Arthashastra and smritis discussing rules of inheritance, sale and
division of property
 The king was considered 'lord of all land' but not the owner in legal sense. Private property
existed under the vague umbrella of royal control.
 The king owned all the mines, treasures etc. The idea that even the agriculture land belonged to
the king was strengthening.
Meaning of Ownership
 The Gautama Dharmasutra and Manu Smriti describe ownership rights as consisting of the right
to do whatever the owner wanted to do with the property and specifically mention the rights to
sell, gift, and mortgage.

Early Medieval S India


There were 4 types of land ownership.

 State owned:
o This was a large part directly owned by the king. It included the land confiscated for
non-payment of revenue / revolts. Sometimes the king would purchase land from the
private owners.
o (Medhatithi and Mitakshara)But generally the state used to respect property rights.
Even when someone died without leaving any successor, the land was not acquired by
the state and instead distributed among his gotra members.
 Peasant owned or khud-kasht land: This was the ordinary peasant land and they would pay
revenue to the king or their brahman grantee in case of land grants.
 Land owned for rendering special service to the state:
o Land owned by officials and soldiers, brahmadeyas and the temples fell under this
category.
o Land held by an individual brahman was called Ekbhogya and that jointly was called
Ganbhogya.
o Normally they would not cultivate themselves and instead give land on tenancy for
which they would get a share in produce as rent. The tenants had no right to mortgage /
transfer the land.
 Land owned by the community:
o This was the village commons. It was managed by the committees of the sabha.
o It used to be jointly cultivated by the community.
o The committee could also give it as a grant in special cases.
o The income from this land was used to pay the temple and community labor, maintain
irrigation works etc.

Vijaynagar Empire

Bhandarwad
 Some villages (called Bhandarwad villages) were under the direct administrative control of the
kings.
 The peasants of these villages used to pay LR directly to the king.
 The king could also make land grants out of such villages.

Amaram
 But most villages (called Amaram villages) came under the Nayankar system where the king
would grant his military officials (called nayaks) some land in lieu of their service.
 Initially these amarams were in return for service to the king but later on they became
hereditary.
 The nayaks also had to pay a certain portion of the LR to the king.

Land Rights
 The brahmans, temples and other big land lords who didn't cultivate the land themselves used
to lease it out. The tenant could not be removed unless he failed to pay the LR and had
inheritable rights. But he had to cultivate according to the wishes of the landlord.
 Absentee landlordism, feudalism and exploitation grew in the Vijaynagar kingdom.
 State used to respect the personal ownership of land. If it had to make a land grant from a
personally owned land then it would buy the land after paying a compensation.

System of Land Grants

Types
 Brahmadeyas / Agraharas: Tax-free land grant given to a brahman or temple or math.
 Kraya-Shasan: Land grants given for secular purposes. Vassals, military officials etc.
 Kara-Shasan: Revenue bearing land grants.

Vedic Age
 The later Vedic literature clearly indicates the preference of brahmans for land indicating its
growing importance. The books prescribe donation of land for Vedic sacrifices.

Mahajanpada Age
 The Brahmanical literature became more vocal in preference of land grant as dakshina.
 Land Grants by Royals: Pali literature suggests that Bimbisara of Magadha and Prasenjit of
Kosala used to gift land to the Brahmans.
 Land Grants by Individuals: Anatha Pindaka donated Jetavana to Buddhist Sangha.

Mauryan Age
 The system of land grants was used to extend cultivation over fallow land.
 The Arthasastra gives the earliest indication that some of the Brahman settlements established
by royal decree enjoyed tax exemptions and other privileges.

Post-Mauryan Age
 The law books (Manusmriti) of this era explicitly state that land grants made to Brahmans
should be tax free and with other privileges.
 The earliest inscriptions recording royal land grants as well as land grants with exemptions and
privileges comes from Satvahana era in Naneghat and Nasik inscription.
Gupta Age
 By this time, the practice of land grant had become widespread all over the sub-continent and
kings throughout were making grants and recording on copper plate inscriptions. Such grants
were called agraharas, brahmadeyas, shasanas.
 On the whole, the Imperial Guptas were not great donors of land. Only two copper plate
inscriptions attributed to SG at Gaya and Nalanda which talk about a land grant to brahmans.
They clearly instruct villagers to obey the brahman and to give him all the taxes. It also prohibits
other villagers and artisans from entering this village.
 The Bhitari stone pillar inscription of Skandagupta mentions of a land grant in favor of a Vishnu
temple but the terms of the grant are not specified.
 The Vakatakas were great donors of land. A wide range of exemptions and privileges associated
with land grants are mentioned in their inscriptions.
 Land grants were also made by the vassals of Gupta and Vakataka kings.

Post-Gupta Age
 Huen-Tsang mentions Harsha's officials were paid in tax-free land grants as were the religious
men.
 From about 10th cent, there was a shift from land grants to brahmans to land grants to temples.
The grant was hereditary but the donees didn't have the right to alienate the land.

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