History of India/Volume 1/Chapter 3

by Romesh Chunder Dutt

CHAPTER III

AGRICULTURE, PASTURE, AND COMMERCE

THE main industry of the ancient Hindus was agriculture; and the very word ārya, "cultivator," is the one term in the Rig-Veda which distinguishes the conquerors as a class from the aborigines of the country. There are, however, two other words in the Rig-Veda, which are synonymous, not with the Aryan tribe, but rather with man generally; and both of them come from roots which indicate cultivation. These are charshana and krishti, and both come from modifications of the root krish, to cultivate.

There are numerous direct allusions in the Rig-Veda to agriculture, but the most remarkable among them is found in the fourth book in the fifty-seventh hymn, which is dedicated to a supposed god of agriculture, the Lord of the Field, as he is called, and which we translate in full:—

"We will win (cultivate) this field with the Lord of the Field; may he nourish our cattle and our horses; may he bless us thereby.

"O Lord of the Field! bestow on us sweet and pure and butter-like and delicious and copious rain, even as cows give us milk. May the Lords of the water bless us.

"May the plants be sweet unto us; may the skies and the rains and the firmament be full of sweetness; may the Lord of the Field be gracious to us. We will follow him, uninjured by enemies.

PLOUGHING IN ANCIENT INDIA.
From a Buddhist sculpture.

"Let the oxen work merrily; let the men work merrily; let the plough move on merrily. Fasten the traces merrily; ply the goad merrily.

"O Suna and Sira! accept this hymn. Moisten this earth with the rain you have created in the sky.

"O fortunate Furrow! proceed onwards, we pray unto thee; do thou bestow on us wealth and an abundant crop.

"May Indra accept this Furrow; may Pushan lead her onwards. May she be filled with water, and yield us corn year after year.

"Let the ploughshares turn up the sod merrily; let the men follow the oxen merrily; may Parjanya moisten the earth with sweet rains. O Suna and Sira! bestow on us happiness."

We shall seek in vain in the entire range of later Sanskrit literature for a passage in which the humble hopes and wishes of simple agriculturists are so naturally described; and equally naive is another hymn, also relating to agriculture, part of which may be translated thus:—

"Fasten the ploughs, spread out the yokes, and sow the seed on this field which has been prepared. Let the corn grow with our hymns; let the scythes fall on the neighbouring fields where the corn is ripe.

"The ploughs have been fastened; the labourers have spread the yokes; the wise men are uttering prayers to gods.

"Prepare troughs for the drinking of the animals. Fasten the leather string, and let us take out water from this deep and goodly well which never dries up.

"The troughs have been prepared for the animals; the leather string shines in the deep and goodly well which never dries up, and the water is easily got. Take out water from the well.

"Refresh the horses; take up the corn stacked in the field; and make a cart which will convey it easily. This well, full of water for the drinking of animals, is one drona in extent, and there is a stone wheel to it. And the reservoir for the drinking of men is one skanda. Fill it with water."

Irrigation and cultivation in the Panjab are only possible by means of wells, and wells are reserved also for the drinking of men and of beasts; and it is not surprising therefore that we should find references to wells in the Rig-Veda. Another remarkable fact is that horses were used for cultivation in those days, a custom still common in Europe, but not in India in modern times. In yet another hymn we are told how

PRIMITIVE INDIAN WELL.

water was raised from wells for irrigation. The contrivance was the same as is still in vogue in Northern India; a number of pots are tied to a string, and as the pots go up and down by the movement of a wheel, they are filled in the well and pulled up and emptied and sent down again. One hymn of the tenth book alludes to irrigation of fields by means of canals which were replenished with water by means of a drona; and in another we are told that cultivators who irrigated their fields kept away birds by uttering loud cries.

Allusions to pasturage, however, are by no means so frequent as allusions to agriculture. Pushan is the god of shepherds–he is the sun as viewed by shepherds–and is supposed to protect them and travellers generally in their wanderings over the country. And here and there in a hymn to Pushan, we find that the Aryans of India had brought with them recollections and songs about those migrations which they occasionally undertook in their primitive home, if not after their settlement in India. We translate one such hymn below:—

"O Pushan! help us to finish our journey, and remove all dangers. Son of the Cloud, do thou march before us!

"O Pushan! do thou remove from our path him who would lead us astray, who strikes and plunders and does wrong.

"Do thou drive away that wily robber who intercepts journeys.

"Do thou trample under thy foot the vile carcass of him who plunders us in both ways (by stealth and by force) and who commits outrages.

"O wise Pushan, destroyer of enemies! we implore of thee the protection with which thou didst shield and encourage our forefathers.

"O Pushan, possessed of all wealth, possessed of golden weapons, and chief among beings! bestow on us thy riches.

"Lead us so that enemies who intercept may not harm us; lead us by an easy and pleasant path. O Pushan! devise means (for our safety) on this journey.

"Lead us to pleasant tracts covered with green grass; let there be no extreme heat by the way. O Pushan! devise means (for our safety) on this journey.

"Be powerful in thy protection; fill us with riches; bestow on us wealth; make us strong and give us food! O Pushan! devise means (for our safety) on this journey.

"We do not blame Pushan; but we extol him in our hymns. We solicit wealth from the handsome Pushan."

There is also another interesting hymn on the practice of taking out cattle to pasture-fields and bringing them back. A few verses are worth translating:—

"We call the cowherd, let him take out these cows; let him pasture them in the fields; let him know and pick out the animals; let him bring them back to the house; let him pasture them on all sides.

"The cowherd seeks for the cows and brings them back to the house; he pastures them on all sides. May he come home safe.

"O cowherd! pasture the cows in all directions and bring them back. Pasture them in various parts of the earth and then bring them back."

References to trade and commerce must necessarily be rare in a collection of hymns to gods; but, nevertheless, we are here and there surprised by passages which throw a curious light on the manners of the times. Loans and usury were well understood in those days, and in one remarkable verse we are reminded of the finality of a sale-transaction, when once the sale is completed:—

"One sells a large quantity for a small price, and then goes to the purchaser and denies the sale and asks for a higher price. But he cannot exceed the price once

OLD INDIAN JEWELRY.

fixed, on the plea that he has given a large quantity. Whether the price was adequate or inadequate, the price fixed at the time of sale must hold good."

A passage like this would indicate the existence of current money for the purposes of buying and selling. We have instances of Rishis, or Vedic bards, acknowledging the gift of a hundred pieces of gold, and there can be no doubt that pieces of gold of a certain fixed value were used as money as indicated in these passages. At the same time it must be admitted that there is no distinct allusion to coined money in the Rig-Veda. The word nishka is often used in the Rig-Veda with a connotation that is by no means clear. In some passages it means money, in others it implies a golden ornament for the neck. The two interpretations are not necessarily contradictory, for in India pieces of gold which serve as money have been used as ornaments for the neck from times immemorial.

On the other hand, there are distinct references to voyages by sea, though of course the words used may mean rivers only, and not the sea. The shipwreck of Bhujyu and his deliverance by the gods Asvins, is constantly alluded to, and the god Varuna is said to know the paths of the birds through the sky and the paths of the ships over the sea. Allusion is also made to the "people who, desiring to acquire wealth, pray to the sea before undertaking a voyage"; and another passage runs:—

"When Varuna and I went on a boat and took her out to sea, I lived in the boat floating on the water and was happy in it, rocking gracefully (on the waves)."

While there are these and other distinct allusions to voyage, there is absolutely no prohibition against it in the Rig-Veda, such as prevailed in later times and still holds among the orthodox of India.