वेदों में कृषि-विज्ञान: अथर्ववेद-संहिता के विशेष सन्दर्भ में

Abstract

Some modern scholars opine that ancient Indian people did not attach much importance to the economic progress in life. This view seems to be incorrect when we go through the several references of Vedic literature. According to the Vedic approach, Artha (money) is as important as any other thing in life. In Vedas, there are many prayers for the prosperity and welfare of the society. The agriculture, animal husbandry, trade and other economic resources extant in the country at that time were properly developed for economic growth. This paper discusses development of agriculture including cultivation of crops. In Vedas, sufficient literary evidences are mentioned for availability of irrigation systems, use of manure, clearing of forests, ploughing of fields, and sowing of seeds. Earth was identified as forest and field. Farmer was known as the Lord or controller of plough (hala). By the end of Rigvedic period all the agricultural processes were known to Aryans. Siira, laangala, phala, ashtraa, vaaha etc. terms are used in the Atharvaveda (AV) for the related equipments of agriculture. The AV mentions ploughing of fields by six or twelve oxen. It states that canals were dug for irrigation besides natural resources such as rivers, wells etc. In times of famines, people suffered a lot. Two crops were cultivated every year. In the AV, there is mention of barley (yava), rice (vriihi), sesame, a type of pulse (maasha), sugarcane (iikshu) and some wild varieties of rice. The protection of crops from insects, and certain types of birds is considered in some hymns. It appears from this study that the Vedic agriculture was not much different from the current traditional agriculture practices seen in rural areas of India