Bharatiya Pragna - Dr. Th Chowdary

67
The pattern of the rainfall distribution in a sea- in farm-related activities, cattle management,
son points to the latitudes of 30” to 34°N in the describing soil properties, growing pulses on
old Punjab. If we study the total precipitation of
the agricultural areas around Taxila (375-500
mm) and around Sialkot (650-900 mm), both in
Pakistan, it would be tempting to conjecture that
Parashara could be covering the latter area, especially
keeping in mind the field crops that he
mentions; e.g., rice, sugarcane, barley, wheat,
sesame, black gram, and mustard. These crops
could not have been grown without irrigation in
the Taxila region, whereas these could be raised
in the Sialkot region.
uplands, growing vegetables, fruits, spice crops,
Kashyapiyakrishisukti (A Treatise on Agriculture
by Kashyapa) (c. 800 AD) and ornamental plants, growing trees, laying out
A copy of the manuscript (No. 38J8) in
Devanagari script exists in the Adyar Library,
gardens, marketing, and even mining. It is indeed
an excellent text on agriculture.
Chennai, India. Kashyapiyakrishisukti (KKS) Kashyapa has stressed that people who
was translated in English in 1985 by G. Wojtilla practice agriculture should possess good values
and was published in Hungary. The AAHF un- of life. Farmers should be free from jealousies,
dertook the present assignment because (i) be mutually helpful, truthful, compassionate, ani-
Wojtilla’s translation is not easily available; and mal lovers, hospitable to guests, devoid of an-
(ii) the translation was apparently not reviewed ger, laziness, and excessive desires, happy with
by an agricultural scientist.
children and relatives, loyal to the king, etc.; all
The language of KKS is very simple and these values should be respected by farmers of
easy, reminding one of the languages of Puranas. all castes. It seems Kashyapa was emphasizing
It has a natural flow. Clarity, ease, fluency, and a code of conduct for achieving happiness while
simplicity are the characteristics of Kashyapa’s pursuing farming.
language. Being a work on an applied science According to MS Randhawa, Kashyapa
such as agriculture, KKS has on the whole suc- possibly was a resident of Kosala (Oudh in cenceeded
in systematically instructing the agricultral Uttar Pradesh). Wojtilla suggests that
turist on various issues of farming in a simple lan- Kashyapa followed the ‘Vaishnava’ tradition of
guage.
South India and wrote the text sometime during
The present text (c. 700–800 AD) is a 700 to 800 AD. I find myself in agreement with
detailed one covering not only irrigated rice pro- Wojtilla’s view, although one must accept the
duction in India but also other aspects such as wide knowledge that Kashyapa possessed with
stressing strong support to agriculture from the regard to agriculture of several regions of the
ruler, stressing participation of people of all castes Indian subcontinent. I would like to suggest that
November & December 2008 Bharatiya Pragna