Agricultural practices in India during the Holocene: A pollen view point and a critical appraisal

Abstract

Pollen assemblages provide valuable insights into the beginning of cereal-based agricultural practices and the transition from a hunting and gathering to a sedentary and food-producing way of life. Anthropogenic pollen indicators (APIs) and their precise identification, with respect to taxonomic resolution, can help to document the history of agricultural development, pastoral activities and human-induced land-use changes, particularly for the Holocene Epoch. Moreover, careful selection of pollen types, and/or indices, established for a particular region, are useful for obtaining meaningful reconstructions of anthropogenic activities through time. Specific pollen-markers have been used to deduce the inception of agriculture and the impact of anthropogenic activities on the landscape, from the different regions of the world. For India, Cerealia, and other cultural plant pollen taxa, such as Amaranthaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Brassicaceae, Polygonaceae, Artemisia, Cannabis sativa, Alternanthera, Urtica, Rumex and Borreria have been used as marker pollen types for indicating agricultural practices and other anthropogenic activities. In this communication, we have made an attempt to trace the advent and intensification of agricultural practices in the varied physiographic regions of the Indian sub-continent, on the basis of the available palynological records. We have further critically analysed the plausibility of agricultural practices and other human activities during the Late Pleistocene/Pre and Early Holocene with respect to the Indian scenario.