Agriculture and Technology in Medieval India MDU.pptx

origin of agriculture with advancement in technology

1. AYUSH JAIWAL Agriculture and Technology Ayush Jaiwal Department of History & Archaeology Maharshi Dayanand University

2. Indian Agriculture Indian agriculture began by 9000 BCE as a result of early cultivation of plants, and domestication of crops and animals. Settled life soon followed with implements and techniques being developed for agriculture. Double monsoons led to two harvests being reaped in one year. The middle ages saw irrigation channels reach a new level of sophistication in India and Indian crops affecting the economies of other regions of the world under Islamic patronage. Land and water management systems were developed with an aim of providing uniform growth. AYUSH JAIWAL

3. Wheat, barley and jujube were domesticated in the Indian subcontinent by 9000 BCE . Barley, lentil and wheat cultivation—along with the domestication of cattle, primarily sheep and goat—was visible in Mehrgarh , Baluchistan by 8000-6000 BCE . Agro pastoralism in India included threshing, planting crops in rows—either of two or of six—and storing grain in granaries. Stone blades used as sickles for harvesting the crop. AYUSH JAIWAL

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6. Zaheer Baber (1996) writes that 'the first evidence of cultivation of cotton was in Indus Valley Civilization '. Cotton was cultivated by the 5000 BCE – 4000 BCE . The Indus cotton industry was well developed and some methods used in cotton spinning and fabrication continued to be practiced till the modern Industrialization of India. Earliest evidence of ox as a draught animal comes from Early Indus cultures 3000 BCE – 2500 BCE Plough fields at Kalibangan , clay models of ploughs come from Banawali in Haryana and Jawaiwala in Bahawalpur (Pakistan) AYUSH JAIWAL

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8. The farmers of the Indus Valley grew peas, sesame, and dates . Rice was cultivated in the Indus Valley Civilization. Agricultural activity during the second millennium BC included rice cultivation in the Kashmir and Harappan regions. Mixed farming was the basis of the Indus valley economy. Sophisticated irrigation and water storage systems were developed by the Indus Valley Civilization, including artificial reservoirs at Dholavira dated to 3000 BCE , and an early canal irrigation system from circa 2600 BCE . AYUSH JAIWAL

9. A variety of tropical fruit such as mango and muskmelon are native to the Indian subcontinent. The Indians also domesticated hemp , which they used for a number of applications including making narcotics, fiber, and oil. Sugarcane was originally from tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia. Wild Oryza rice appeared in the Belan and Ganges valley regions of northern India as early as 4530 BCE and 5440 BCE respectively. AYUSH JAIWAL

10. Denis J. Murphy (2007) details the spread of cultivated rice from India into South-east Asia: Several wild cereals, including rice, grew in the Vindhyan Hills, and rice cultivation, at sites such as Chopani-Mando and Mahagara , may have been underway as early as 7000 BP . The relative isolation of this area and the early development of rice farming imply that it was developed indigenously. Domesticated Rice in Gangetic basin around 3000 BCE By 2000 BCE , peasants followed Rabi and Kharif seasons according to crops grown. AYUSH JAIWAL

11. In India, both wheat and barley are held to be Rabi (winter) crops and—like other parts of the world—would have largely depended on winter monsoons before the irrigation became widespread. Jute was first cultivated in India, where it was used to make ropes and cordage. Trees were also domesticated, worshiped, and venerated— Pipal and Banyan in particular. Others came to be known for their medicinal uses and found mention in the holistic medical system Ayurveda . AYUSH JAIWAL

12. In the later Vedic texts (c. 1000–500 BCE), there are repeated references to Iron . Cultivation of a wide range of cereals, vegetables, and fruits is described. Meat and milk products were part of the diet; animal husbandry was important. The soil was plowed several times. Seeds were broadcast. Fallowing and a certain sequence of cropping were recommended. Cow dung provided the manure. Irrigation was practiced. AYUSH JAIWAL

13. By the time of Atharvaveda (900BCE) sugarcane had also begun to be cultivated Panini (350BCE) mentions fiber crops such as linseed and hemp, and the important dye crop, indigo Manusmriti (150CE) , the peasants’s plough began to have an iron tip instead of stone. Evidences in the Mauryan period (300BCE) levels at Atranjikhera (west UP), along with curved iron sickles Strabo (100CE) and later Kalidasa (400CE) attested to rice transplantation in India Ashoka (270-234BCE) mentions mango orchards Coconut cultivation on the western coast (200CE) came from the eastern coast, evidence at Arikamedu near Puducherry (100BCE) AYUSH JAIWAL

14. The Mauryan Empire (322–185 BCE) categorized soils and made meteorological observations for agricultural use. Other Mauryan facilitation included construction and maintenance of dams, and provision of horse-drawn chariots—quicker than traditional bullock carts. The Tamil people cultivated a wide range of crops such as rice, sugarcane, millets, black pepper, various grains, coconuts, beans, cotton, plantain, tamarind and sandalwood. Jackfruit, coconut, palm, areca and plantain trees were also known. Systematic ploughing, manuring, weeding, irrigation and crop protection was practiced for sustained agriculture. Water storage systems were designed during this period. AYUSH JAIWAL

15. AYUSH JAIWAL Agriculture Crops Irrigation Tools Agriculture Processing

16. Plough : no fundamental change in the structure of the ox drawn plough Gandhara sculpture from 100 CE Miftahu’l Fuzala ( Malwa , 1469 CE) AYUSH JAIWAL

17. AYUSH JAIWAL Beam Three-point hitch (hake) Height regulator Coulter Chisel Share Mouldboard

18. Crops Rabi crops 16 to 21 Kharif crops 17 to 29 Additions from the Islamic world: Opium and Henna Portuguese introduced Tobacco, Maize, Capsicum, Groundnut, Okra, Potato etc. Sericulture: silkworms native to India, ‘ tasar ’, ‘ eri ’, ‘ champa ’ and ‘ muga ’ Fruit grafting AYUSH JAIWAL

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20. Needham confesses that the origins of the Indian mill are quite unknown, but his own detection of its affinity with the classical olive-mill raises the question of origins of both of its additional elements, the rotary mill and the draw bar. The rotary mill seems to appear almost simultaneously in Mediterranean Europe and in China by second century BCE. The fifth century is the earliest date for the appearance in India of both the rotary mill and the vertical peg handle. AYUSH JAIWAL Draw Bar and Rotary Quern

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22. Draw-bar : this device enabled the draught animal to walk round in a circle and so carry out threshing and turn rotary mills The draw-bar was in use in the Mediterranean world from the second century BCE and in China from the second century CE, but its arrival in India is not evidenced until fifth century CE Lallanji Gopal – Abhidhanaratnamala (950CE) and Vaijayanti (1050CE) define ‘ medhi ’ as the post on the threshing floor round which the cattle turn to thresh out grains Ramacharita of Sandhyakaranandin (1100CE) refers to threshing by bollocks which went round and round AYUSH JAIWAL

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24. K T Acharya draws our attention to the term tailika-yantra-cakra , the ‘oil-mill wheel’, in the Bhavisya Purana for which he gives the date 500 CE. This could be related to Tamil cekku found in two Tamil texts assigned respectively to the seventh and eighth century, there used for an oil-mill. This must have been rotary, since cekku is surely derived from Prakrit cakka , Sanskrit cakra , also modern Hindi cakki , the rotary mill. Baijnath , Himachal Pradesh Madurai, Tamil Nadu AYUSH JAIWAL

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29. Irrigation Technology AYUSH JAIWAL Ananda K. Coomaraswamy There has been a lack of distinction between different kinds of water-wheels, so that all references to a water wheel were deemed by Coomaraswamy and others to stand for the Persian wheel. A P Usher drew attention to the confusion between the two forms of water-wheels, ‘the noria and the chain of pots or saqiya ’. Evidence gathered by Coomaraswamy and Laufer argue that the earliest water-wheel in India was the noria and India was probably the country of origin of this device.

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33. AYUSH JAIWAL The noria was in use in the Hellenistic world in the first century BCE and in China in the second century CE, and this proximity of date in such distant civilisations suggested an intermediate source of diffusion. The earliest recorded reference to the noria in the term cakkavattka (turning wheel) used in the Cullavagga Nikaya (c. 350 BCE). Arahattaghatiyantra mentioned by Buddhaghosa (c. fifth century CE), ‘a well-wheel with water pots attached to its spokes’. Lallanji Gopal cites example of araghattavaha purusah from the earliest version of Pancatantra (c. 300 CE). Yashodharman Mandasor inscription (532 CE), Banabhatta refers to ‘pot-garland’ (650 CE), Mandore Frieze (c. 12 th century CE).

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37. Textile Technology AYUSH JAIWAL

38. Wild indigenous silk moth species found at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, suggesting the use of silk during Indus Valley Civilisation , one of the world's earliest civilizations. Excavations at the site of Mohenjo-Daro revealed the presence of dye vats together with woven and madder-dyed cotton fragments wrapped around a silver pot, reflecting an advanced understanding of the process of colour fixing on the cloth. Cotton fragments excavated from the site of Mohenjo-Daro. Spindle whorls of stone, clay, metal, terracotta and wood found from various Harappan sites. AYUSH JAIWAL Textiles in Indus Valley Civilization

39. Needles found from Harappan sites indicates the practice of sewing during this time. Priest King figurine from the site of Mohenjo-Daro wearing a robe with trefoil designs suggests that the art of fabric decoration was in practice during the Indus Valley Civilisation . Depiction of boats on seals, tablets and amulets indicate maritime trade activities during Indus Valley Civilisation . References to clothes regularly sent to Mesopotamia from Meluhha (Sumerian name for Indus Valley Civilization), found in the Mesopotamian writings. AYUSH JAIWAL

40. Textiles in Vedic Literature References to weaving found in the  Rig Veda  which describes a weaver as a  vasovaya . References to embroidery found in Vedic texts which mentions  pesas  or an embroidered garment probably worn by female dancers. Apastamba Srauta Sutra , a text from the Vedic age, refers to printed fabric or  chitranta . Vedic  Samhitas  frequently mention woollen threads made up of goat’s hair and sheep’s wool. Satapatha Brahmana   mentions the use of silk and wool in sacrificial garments. AYUSH JAIWAL

41. Ramayana  mentions Sita’s trousseau which includes woolen clothing, furs, fine silk vestments of diverse colours among others. Panini in his  Ashtadhyayi , Sanskrit treatise on grammar, mentions cotton yarn as being one of the prominent yarns. Greek physician Ctesian’s writing mentions the popularity of brightly coloured Indian textiles among Persians indicating that Indian fabrics were exported to Persia. Mahabharata  mentions silk fabrics among the presents brought to Yudhisthira by feudatory princes from the Himalayan regions. Mahabharata  mentions printed cloth or  chitra vastra   suggesting the art of printing had developed by this time. AYUSH JAIWAL

42. Textiles in Classical Age Megasthenes , a Greek ambassador to the court of Chandragupta Maurya , in his book Indica mentions that Indian robes are worked in gold and ornamented with precious stones and they wear flowered garments made of the finest muslins. This is a reference to brocade, embroidery and printing. Kautilya’s   Arthashashtra  mentions spinners and weavers who were either a part of guilds or worked privately. Kautilya’s   Arthashastra  mentions  Haimavatamarga  or the route from Balkh to India via Hindukush which was used to trade horses, wool, hides and furs among other goods. AYUSH JAIWAL

43. Arthashastra , written by Kautilya mentions use of fabrics such as linen from Banaras and cotton from south India. In  Arthashastra , written by Kautilya , cotton is mentioned as a source of the King’s revenue. Buddhist literature mentions fabric of Banaras known as  ‘ kaseyyaka ’  or silk of Benaras and woolen blankets of Gandhara (present day parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan). Buddhist literature refers to different types of textiles and fabrics like linen ( Khoman ), cotton ( kappasikam ), silk ( kosseyam ) etc. Also, there are mentions of weavers ( tantuvaya ), the place of weaving ( tantavitatatthanam ), weaving appliances ( tantabhanda ) and the loom ( tantaka ). Buddhist Jataka texts refer to tools for spinning and weaving. AYUSH JAIWAL

44. Jain texts mention cotton thread ( Kappasikasuttam ) and cotton cloth ( kappasi   kadusam ). The Periplus of the Erythrean sea, a Greek text mentions ancient trade routes and refers to trading of fabrics including muslin from India. References are found to Chinese silk imported to Kanchipuram and exported from there to Malaya (Malaysia) as found in Chinese works. Uttarapath  (northern land routes) and  Dakshinapath  (southern land routes) constituted the grand trade route of India during the Kushana period. During Gupta period, cotton preparation is evident from Ajanta paintings. AYUSH JAIWAL

45. During Gupta period, the text  Jambudvipa   Prajnapati  mentions about 18 traditional guilds including silk weavers ( pattaila ), sellers of napkins ( ganchhi ), calico-printers ( chhimpa ) and tailors ( sivaga ). Bana’s   Harshacharita  mentions tie and dye fabric or  bandhyamana . (7 th century CE) Hieun Tsiang , a Chinese monk in his eye witness account mentions  Kiau - shi -ye  (product of silkworm) and Cotton. (7 th century CE) Emergence of a specialized trading group for weavers known as  Saliya Nagaram  in South India. (10 th century CE) AYUSH JAIWAL

46. The cotton handloom industry of India is one of the great manufacturing institutions of the world. Indian textiles were traded for Roman gold at the time of the Roman Empire; Pliny , the Roman historian of the 1st century AD, calculates the value of imports of Indian fabrics to Rome at a hundred million sesterces [equal at the time to 15 million Indian rupees] every year, and complains that India is draining Rome of her gold. Suleiman , an Arab trader who visits Calicut in 851 A.D writes in his diary “…garments are made in so extraordinary a manner that nowhere else are the like to be seen. These garments are wove to that degree of fineness that they may be drawn through a ring of middling size.” Pyrard de Laval in the early 17th century says Indian fabrics clothed “everyone from the Cape of Good Hope to China, man and woman…from head to foot.”  Certainly the largest manufactured trade item in the world in pre-industrial times, Indian cotton cloth, paid for in gold and silver, was the source of India’s fabled wealth. AYUSH JAIWAL

47. The oldest examples of Indian trade textiles have been found at sites near the Red Sea. Small fragments from 15th century were discovered at the Greek trading post of Berenike in Southern Egypt. Other discoveries at Quesir Al Qadim and Fustat , both in Egypt, have been dated to ninth and 10th centuries respectively. During the peak of the trade in mid-17th century, millions of yards of Indian cloth were being sold in markets as far as Japan, Africa, Middle-East and Europe. India's central location in the Indian Ocean basin was ideal for trading textiles to both East and West, with Gujarat, the Coromandel Coast and Bengal being the major trading centers. The  Calico Acts  (1700, 1721) banned the import of most cotton textiles into England, followed by the restriction of sale of most cotton textiles. It was a form of economic protectionism, largely in response to India (particularly Bengal), which dominated world cotton textile markets at the time. The Acts were a precursor to the Industrial Revolution, when Britain eventually surpassed India as the world's leading textile manufacturer in the 19th century. AYUSH JAIWAL

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59. Artisans in India used natural dyes to color textiles as they lasted for a long time without fading. The leaves of the indigo plant was used to produce blue; roots of madder, shell of lac beetle and wood of sappan tree for red; seed of myrobalan tree, jackfruit tree root, turmeric and pomegranate rinds for yellow; an extract of acacia tree for brown; and a mineral form of iron acetate to produce black. The artists used to over-dye yellow on indigo blue for producing the green color. The most widely-used production technique was called   Ikat  (a Malay word which means ‘to tie’). In this, the threads were tied and dyed prior to being woven into cloth. This was done either with warp (vertical) or weft (horizontal) threads. When both were dyed before weaving, it was called double  Ikat  or  Patola . Other techniques included Kalamkari , resist dyeing (batik) and block printing. Kalamkari was a method used to draw or paint designs onto cloth using a mordant – a colorless substance that binds dye to the cloth. In batik technique, molten wax or some other thick paste containing ash or mud was painted onto the cloth to block the absorption of color in a dye bath. The medieval Indian textile trade to Europe mainly depicted design pattern called Chintz , which was resist-dyed fine cotton with elaborate floral designs. AYUSH JAIWAL

60. Patola Cloth This method involves pre-dyeing sections of wrap and weft. Because of the extreme difficulty it is only economically viable in manual production only for use with an expensive fiber like Silk. AYUSH JAIWAL

61. Thakkura Pheru (1310) classes patola among fine silks Barani (1357) includes pattolaya among the items important items of booty obtained by Alauddin Khilji from his Deogiri expedition. AYUSH JAIWAL

62. Dyeing of Fabric Much evidence for the dyeing methods comes from cloth depicted in Ajanta and other paintings, refrences in literary texts, and extant fragments of Indian cotton cloth. It would seem that the application of mordants and resists to the cloth surface in order to produce colour patterns, while immersing the whole in particular dyes if of quite an early date. A mordant is thus  a chemical agent which allows a reaction to occur between the dye and the fabric . In textiles, mordants are used to fix the color in dyeing or fabric printing, especially for fabrics of plant origin. Resist-dyeing is a widely used method of applying colours or patterns to fabric. A  substance that is impervious to the dye blocks its access to certain areas of the fabric , while other parts are free to take up the dye colour . Tie-dyeing involves pinching areas of cloth and tying them tightly with thread before dyeing. AYUSH JAIWAL

63. The cotton ground of this fragment was dyed using one technique but two different types of application. The brown colored pattern is formed by the use of a mordant applied to the ground cloth with a single stamp. The stamp is coated with the mordant (a metallic salt) and then pressed onto the cloth. The cloth is then immersed in a dye bath. The mordant helps bind the dyes, creating a pattern. The mordant for the red dye was applied in a different way: iInstead of using a block to apply the mordant, it was painted on, possibly with a brush. AYUSH JAIWAL

64. A fragment of cotton cloth with ‘indigo dye resist work’, recovered by Aurel Stein in Xinjiang (western China) but apparently brought from India, may be older than the 8 th century. This was a blue piece of cloth with white flower like patterns achieved by use of resists and was dyed by the tie-and-dye method (‘knot-dyed’). Tie and dye method, also known as ‘ bandhna ’. VS Agrawala located a reference to the bandana device ( bandhyanama ) in Harshcharita . AYUSH JAIWAL

65. Block Printing The word ‘chit;, which 17 th century Iranian poets like Tahir Wahid and Tughra used for cloth printed with a wooden stamp ( qalib ), was of Indian origin, a corruption of the word ‘ chhint ’. The dictionary by Tekchand Bahar (1740) which quotes these poets equates qalib , the printing stamp, with ‘ chhapa ’. Moti Chandra, locates some forms of ‘ chhapa ’, Rajimati , a chhimpika from Ahmedabad in a text from 14 th century. We have ‘ chippa -ka-sari’ in Jayasi’s Padamavat in mid 16 th century. There is much evidence about cloth printing gaining ground in India during Mughal times. AYUSH JAIWAL

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67. Embroidery Zarbaft or Zardozi or gold brocade, it is the woven cloth that is woven with gold-thread and silk yarn, or mixed. AYUSH JAIWAL

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69. Warfare and Weaponry Cavalry Equipments Yoke Saddle Horseshoe Stirrup Gunpowder Rockets Canon Muskets AYUSH JAIWAL

70. Yoke AYUSH JAIWAL

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74. Saddle AYUSH JAIWAL

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76. Stirrup AYUSH JAIWAL

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79. Horseshoe AYUSH JAIWAL

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94. AYUSH JAIWAL Rockets as a form of pyrotechny or fireworks pre-date the true artillery (cannon and muskets). Gun powder in China 9 th century, depiction of rockets in the tenth century. Rockets in use in Europe and China by 13 th century. P K Gode on the basis of a study of formulae for fireworks in a Sanskrit work of circa 1500, that these were transmitted from China to India in about 1400. ‘Ban’, a wooden or bamboo stick propelled by gunpowder packed in a cylinder attached to the stick. P K Gode 16 th century, I A Khan 14 th century Bahmani Kingdom This did not come to India through the Islamic world but apparently over sea directly from China to Deccan.

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96. Cannons China and Europe by about the middle of 14 th century 1575 Chinese canons were technologically inferior to European canons Cipolla latter half of the 14 th century I A Khan true gunpowder canon was being used in various parts of India only by the latter half of the 15 th century Source of its introduction was Ottoman Turkey in North India but recent evidences shoe transmission from China to Deccan earlier or around the same time. AYUSH JAIWAL

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100. Muskets Hand-gun Match-lock Wheel-lock Flint-lock AYUSH JAIWAL

101. Building Industry The technique before medieval period was pre-eminently trabeate , that is of pillar and beam. In buildings of any scale, this implied either towering roofs with walls tapering by means of corbelling, to meet at the top, or the installation of thick pillars close to each other to carry heavy beams that, in turn, bore the weight of large roofing slabs. A radical change in the mode of building construction came in 13 th century. There were changes in the materials used and a shift to the techniques of arcuate construction, that involved the use of arch, vault and dome. AYUSH JAIWAL

102. Trabeate vs. Arcuate AYUSH JAIWAL

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106. Mughal Bridges Delhi Jaunpur Hadaf near Rajmahal Nurabad Narwar Srinagar Karnal Faridabad AYUSH JAIWAL

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