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MATERIAL CULTURE
135
like matulunga and mangoes were also ripened by mixing them with ripe fruits (gandha). Lastly were the fruits ripened on trees (vaccha) in their natural process. The forests yielded a rich crop of fruits (pauraphala), from where the people carried the fruits to villages and towns in carts or wagg India in those days must have been rich in fruits, although the Jaina monks were not allowed to eat many of these fruits on the ground that it amounted to the killing of a number of souls.
Vegetables were also a necessary item of food. It was believed that food (ahara) taken with vegetables was easily digestible. Most of the vegetables would have been consumed by the people during this time, although only a few have been occasionally mentioned in the text. These are : (i) alabu or lâu (Lagenarea Vulgaris), (ii) a suri (a kind of Brassica)?, (iii) kalaya (field-pea) , (iv) kovidāra (Bauhinia Variegata), (v) kusumbha (safflower), (vi) lasuni (garlic root)' , (vii) mūlaga (radish), (viii) nimba (Margosa tree), (ix) ņipphäva (flat beans)?\,(x) palam Ju (Allium Cepa, onion)'2, (xi) saņa (Crotalaria Juncea', (xii) sari sava (Brassica Compestris, mustard) 13, (xiii) niluppala (blue lotus)?+ and (xiv) valuṁka (cucumber: 15
1. Ibid, 2. NC. 3, p. 490. 3. See-Yuan Chwang's description of Indian fruits-Watters, op. cit. 1,
pp. 292-93. 4. NC. 1, pp. 88-90; NC. 3, pp. 516-17. 5. quemfefTTO TUE STETT FOTcfisatfd-NC. 3, p. 517. 6. NC. 1, p. 70. 7. BEHETET FCHETTE IMATI BERETTİ 2–NC. 3, p. 319. 8. NC. 3, p. 327. 9. NC. 3, p. 489. 10. NC. 3, p. 319. 11. NC. 2, p. 109. 12. NC. 3, p. 489. 13. NC. 4, p. 153. 14. NC, 3, p 319. 15. NC. 1, p. 103.
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