Ancient India Inventions & Discoveries Agriculture

The excavation of the Mehrgarh period sites that is around 8000-6000 BC throws some startling facts about Indian agriculture that began as early as 9000 BC. The domestication of plants and animals are reported in the subcontinent by 9000 BC. Wheat, barley and jujube were among crops, sheep and goats were among animals that were domesticated. This period also saw the first domestication of the elephants.

With implements and techniques being developed for agriculture settled life soon followed in India. Double monsoons that led to two harvests being reaped in one year in the country facilitated the settled mode of production.

 

In the Neolithic period roughly 8000-5000 BC, agriculture was far from the dominant mode of support for human societies, but those who adopted it flourished. Agro pastoralism in India included threshing, planting crops in rows—either of two or of six—and storing grain in granaries. They passed their techniques of agricultural production to the next generation. This transformation of knowledge was the base of further development of agriculture in India.

Cotton Spinning

Agricultural communities became widespread in Kashmir valley around 5000 BC. It was reported that Cotton was cultivated by 5000 – 4000 BC in Kashmir.As early as 4530 BC and 5440 BC wild Oryza rice appeared in the Belan and Ganges valley regions of northern India.  At that time hemp was also domesticated and its applications was in number of things including making narcotics, fibre and oil. 

Indus Valley civilization relied on the considerable technological achievements of the pre-Harappan culture, including the plough. The farmers of the Indus Valley grew peas, sesame, and dates. Rice was cultivated in the Indus Valley Civilization.Indus civilization people practiced rainfall harvesting. At a recently discovered Indus civilization site in western India, archaeologists discovered a series of massive reservoirs, hewn from solid rock and designed to collect rainfall, that would have been capable of meeting the city's needs during the dry season.

The Indus cotton industry was well developed and some methods used in cotton spinning and fabrication.Agricultural activity during the second millennium BC included rice cultivation in the Kashmir and Harrappan regions are noticed. Mixed farming was the basis of the Indus valley economy.

Several wild cereals, including rice, grew in the Vindhyan Hills, and rice cultivation, at sites such as Chopani-Mando and Mahagara, was underway as early as 7000 BC. Chopani-Mando and Mahagara are located on the upper reaches of the Ganges drainage system.

Irrigation was developed in the Indus Valley Civilization by around 4500 BC. The size and prosperity of the Indus civilization grew as a result of this innovation. It eventually led to more planned settlements making use of drainage and sewers.

Sophisticated irrigation and water storage systems were developed by the Indus Valley Civilization, including artificial reservoirs at Girnar dated to 3000 BC, and an early canal irrigation system in 2600 BC.

Archaeological evidence of an animal-drawn plough dates back to 2500 BC.  Some animalsthought to be vital for survival were worshiped. Trees were also domesticated and worshiped. Pipal and Banyan tree was venerated. Others tress that had their medicinal uses found mention in the holistic medical system Ayurveda.

Ancient Indian Agriculture in Vedic period

There are repeated references to iron in the later Vedic texts (BC. 1000–500 BC). Cultivation of a wide range of cereals, vegetables, and fruits is described in the text. Meat and milk products were part of the diet; animal husbandry was important. The soil was ploughed several times. The importance of seeds was emphasised and a certain sequence of cropping were recommended.  Cow dung provided the manure and irrigation was practiced was during this time.

Ancient Indian Agriculture in Mauryan Empire

The Mauryan Empire (322–185 BCE) categorized soils and made meteorological observations for the agricultural use. Other Mauryan facilitation included construction and maintenance of dams and provision of horse-drawn chariots—that was quicker than traditional bullock carts.

The Greek diplomat Megasthenes (300 BC) in his book Indikaprovides an   eyewitness account of Indian agriculture at that time.

He writers, “India has many huge mountains which abound in fruit-trees of every kind, and many vast plains of great fertility. The greater part of the soil is under irrigation, and consequently bears two crops in the course of the year.In addition to cereals, there grows millet, anddifferent sorts of pulse and rice throughout India.  Since there are two monsoons in the course of each year the inhabitants gather in two harvests annually. “

Ancient South Indian Agriculture

The agriculture scene of South India was equally bright in Ancient India. 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 etc.

Systematic ploughing, manuring, weeding, irrigation and crop protection was practiced for sustained agriculture in South India.Water storage systems were designed during this period. Kallanai (1st-2nd century AD), a dam built on river Kaveri, is considered the as one of the oldest water-regulation structures in the world that is still in use.

Agriculture Trade in Ancient India

Foreign crops were introduced to India and Indian products soon reached the world via existing trading networks. Spice trade involving spices such as cinnamon and black peppergained momentum and India started shippingthem to the Mediterranean.

The detailed archaeological record and the Periplus of the ErythraeanSea show that India’s trade with Roman Empire flourished. During the early centuries of the Common Era, Chinese sericulture attracted Indian sailors.

The agrarian societyThe earliest reference of candied sugar or crystallized sugar comes from the time of the Guptas (320-550 AD). Soon the traveling Buddhist monkstransmitted the process of making sugar to China. Chinese documents confirm at least two missions to India, initiated in 647 AD, for obtaining technology for sugar-refining.Indian spice exports find mention in the works of IbnKhurdadhbeh (850), al-Ghafiqi (1150), Ishak bin Imaran (907) and Al Kalkashandi (fourteenth century).

Ancient Indian Agriculture in Chola Period

The agrarian society in South India during the Chola Empire (875-1279) reveals that collective holding of land slowly gave way to individual plots, each with their own irrigation system during Chola rule.

The Cholas also had bureaucrats which oversaw the distribution of water, particularly the distribution of water by tank-and-channel networks to the drier areas. The growth of individual disposition of farming may have led to a decrease in areas of dry cultivation.

• Cashmere wool:                                                                                                                     The fiber is also known as pashm or pashmina for its use in the handmade shawls of Kashmir, India. The woolen shawls made from wool in Kashmir region of India find written mention between the 3rd century BCE and the 11th century CE. However, the founder of the cashmere wool industry is traditionally held to be the 15th-century ruler of Kashmir, Zayn-ul-Abidin, who employed weavers from Central Asia.                                                     Kashmir in India for thousands of years. Famous shawls are the jamavar with the famous paisley pattern. The fiber is also known as pashm (Persian for wool) or pashmina (Persian/Urdu word derived from Pashm) for its use in the handmade shawls of Kashmir. References to woolen shawls appear in texts surviving from between the 3rd century BC and the 11th century AD. However, the founder of the cashmere wool industry is traditionally thought to have been the 15th-century ruler of Kashmir, Zain-ul-Abidin, who introduced weavers from Turkestan. Other sources consider cashmere crafts were introduced by Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani. In 14th-century Mir Ali Hamdani came to Kashmir along with 700 craftsmen from different parts of Persia when Mir Ali Hamadani came to Ladakh, home land of cashmere goats, for the first time in history he found that the Ladakhi goats produced soft wool. He took some wool and made socks and gave them as a gift to the king of Kashmir, sultan Kutabdin. Afterwards Hamadani suggested to the king that they start a shawl weaving industry in Kashmir using this wool. The United Nations specialized agency UNESCO reported in 2014 that Ali Hamadani was one of the principal historical figures who shaped the culture of Kashmir, both architecturally and also through the flourishing of arts and crafts and hence economy in Kashmir. The skills and knowledge that he brought to Kashmir gave rise to an entire industry. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, kashmir (then called cashmere by the British) had a thriving industry producing shawls from goat down imported from Tibet and Tartary through Ladakh. The down trade was controlled by treaties signed as a result of previous wars. The shawls were introduced into Western Europe when the General in Chief of the French campaign in Egypt (1799–1802) sent one to Paris. The shawl's arrival is said to have created an immediate sensation and plans were put in place to start manufacturing the product in France.
  Trading in commercial quantities of raw cashmere between Asia and Europe began with Valerie Audresset SA, Louviers, France claiming to be the first European company to commercially spin cashmere.The down was imported from Tibet through Kasan the capital of the Russian province Volga and was used in France to create imitation woven shawls. Unlike the Kashmir shawls, the French shawls had a different pattern on each side.The imported cashmere was spread out on large sieves and beaten with sticks to open the fibers and clear away the dirt. After opening, the cashmere was washed and children removed the coarse hair. The down was then carded and combed using the same methods used for worsted spinning.
  In 1799 at his factory in Reims, William-Louis Ternaux, the leading woolens manufacturer in France under Napoleon, began to produce imitation India shawls (cachemires) using the wool of Spanish merino sheep. By 1811, with government assistance, Ternaux also began experimenting with the production of real India shawls using what he called laine de Perse, i.e., the down (duvet) of Tibetan-cashmere goats. In 1818, Ternaux resolved to help establish herds of cashmere goats in France. A famous expedition to Persia, led by the orientalist and diplomat Pierre Amédée Jaubert,was organized to be financed in part by the French government. Of the acquired herd of 1,500 animals, only 256 arrived safely in the spring of 1819 at Marseilles and Toulon via the Crimea. About 100 of the cashmere goats were then purchased by the French government (at 2,000 francs each)and sent to the royal sheep farm at Perpignan. The remainder, about 180 including new-borns,went to Ternaux’s property at St.Ouen outside Paris. Although Ternaux had little success getting small farmers to add cashmeres to their sheep herds,a few wealthy landowners were willing to experiment with the goats. For example, Ternaux’s herd was seen in 1823 by C.T.Tower of Weald Hall, Essex, England. Tower purchased two female and two male goats and took them back to England, where in 1828 he was awarded a gold medal by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce for rearing a herd of cashmeres. Also,a few of Ternaux's goats were purchased for a model farm at Grignon, near Versailles, run by M. Polonceau. Polonceau crossbred the cashmeres with Angora goats to improve the down for spinning and weaving. This Cashmere-Angora herd was seen by William Riley of New South Wales in 1828, and again in 1831 when Riley purchased thirteen of the goats for trans-shipment to Australia. At the time, the average production of the Polonceau herd was 16 ounces (500 grams) of down. Ternaux's herd at St Ouen still numbered 150 when the famous industrialist died in 1833. The herd at Perpignan died out by 1829.
  By 1830, weaving cashmere shawls with French-produced yarn had become an important Scottish industry. The Scottish Board of Trustees for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures offered a 300 Pound Sterling reward to the first person who could spin cashmere in Scotland based on the French system. Captain Charles Stuart Cochrane collected the required information while in Paris and received a Scottish patent for the process in 1831. In the autumn of 1831, he sold the patent to Henry Houldsworth and sons of Glasgow. In 1832 Henry Houldsworth and sons commenced the manufacture of yarn, and in 1833 received the reward.
  Dawson International claim to have invented the first commercial dehairing machine in 1890, and from 1906 they purchased cashmere from China, but were restricted to purchasing fiber from Beijing and Tianjin until 1978. In 1978 trade was liberalised and Dawson International began buying cashmere from many provinces.
  Many early textile centers developed as part of the American Industrial Revolution. Among them, the Blackstone Valley became a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The town of Uxbridge, Massachusetts became an early textile center in the Blackstone Valley, which was known for the manufacture of cashmere wool and satinets.
  Austrian Textile Manufacturer Bernhard Altmann is credited with bringing cashmere to America on a mass scale beginning in 1947.
  
• Cotton cultivation:                                                                                                            Cotton was cultivated by the inhabitants of the Indus Valley Civilization by the 5th millennium BCE - 4th millennium 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. Well before the Common Era, the use of cotton textiles had spread from India to the Mediterranean and beyond.
• Indigo dye:                                                                                                                          Indigo, a blue pigment and a dye, was used in India, which was also the earliest major center for its production and processing. The Indigofera tinctoria variety of Indigo was domesticated in India. Indigo, used as a dye, made its way to the Greeks and the Romans via various trade routes, and was valued as a luxury product.
• Jute cultivation:                                                                                                                     Jute has been cultivated in India since ancient times.^[ Raw jute was exported to the western world, where it was used to make ropes and cordage. The Indian jute industry, in turn, was modernized during the British Raj in India. The region of Bengal was the major center for Jute cultivation, and remained so before the modernization of India's jute industry in 1855, when Kolkata became a center for jute processing in India.
• Sugar refinement:                                                                                                      Sugarcane was originally from tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia.Different species different locaations are' originating in India and S. edule and S. officinarum coming from New Guinea. The process of producing crystallized sugar from sugarcane was discovered by the time of the Imperial Guptas, and the earliest reference of candied sugar comes from India. The process was soon transmitted to China with traveling Buddhist monks. Chinese documents confirm at least two missions to India, initiated in 647 CE, for obtaining technology for sugar-refining. Each mission returned with results on refining sugar.