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273
Sec. 1]
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
preservation of the germination-capacity (yoni) of the seeds of rice, wheat, barley, pulses, etc. kept in a well-built store before sowing them by the broadcasting method in a cultivated field at proper time and season.
The mention of some crops, such as, sugarcane1, tuberous root, ginger etc. clearly suggests that the method of transplanting the germinated cuttings and seedlings was also adopted by the cultivators for growing certain crops whose plant life exists in their adventitious buds or roots.
Reaping
The terms Lavae' and 'Luejja" occurring in the BhS denote ear or stalk of corn and its reaping by a sickle respectively. When the crops, sali (rice), Vrihi (a kind of rice), Godhuma (wheat), Yava (barley), etc. became mature and ripe, they were reaped by the cultivator holding and compressing together the scattered stalks of those yellow-stemmed crops in arms with a newly sharpened and well-tempered sickle (navapajjanaenam asiyaenam) (datrena).
Storing
out.
A great precaution was taken by the cultivators to store the harvested corns, such as, different kinds of cereals, pulses, oil seeds and other grains for the future use, as already pointed The method of storing grains of these crops is described thus that they were kept in granaries made of the palya (grass), sack of corn, straw and bamboo on an elevated platform without walls (mamca) and also on the roof of the house (mālā) (abhittiko manco malaśca grhopari bhavati, comm.)", besmeared with the cowdung at the door together with the lid, and covered with the cowdung from all sides, closed (pihita) and completely sealed up with the mud and marked with the lines (lamchiya), in order to main
1 Bhs, 21, 5, 691,; 23, 6, 693.
2.3 Ib, 14, 7, 525.
4 Ib, 6, 7, 246
5 Ib, 6, 7, 246. Dr. J. C. Jain has translated the word 'Mamca' & 'Mala' as a granary standing on pillars (mañca) & the upper storey of the house (mala). But it appears that 'mala' was the granary made on the roof of a building as it is found in Bengal.
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