Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 300

Sec. 1] STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATİ SÜTRA
275 Agricultural Produce
In connection with the topic "Different kinds of food' as already discussed in the sixth section of the fourth chapter, it has been pointed out that the BhS presents an account of staple foods, such as, cereals, pulses, other grains, vegetables, fruits, etc.
Here an attempt will be made to give a list of varieties of the field crops and other agricultural produces raised by the cultivators of the society of that period.
Both the accounts are almost the same, for the agricultural produce is consumed by the people as food for the sustenance of life.
So the varieties of field crops and other agricultural produces as presented in the BKS are given below :Cereals!
Sali (a kind of rice harvested in winter), Vihi (a best type of rice), Godhūma (wheat), Java (barley), Javajavā (a kind of jowar) and Nipphāva (a kind of wheat).' Pulses
Kalāya, Masūra, Mugga (Phaseolus Mungo), Māsa (a valued kind of pulse having seeds marked with black and grey spots, Phaseolus Radiatus), Kulattha (cabalikākāraḥ, a kind of pulse, Dolichos Uniflorus), Alisamdaga' (cabalakā prakārāḥ), Satīna (tubar cānā, Pisum Arvense) and Palimanthaga (matara), vrtta caņakā (round pulse). Other crops
Ayasi (bhangi), Linseed ; Kusunbhaga (latļā), Safflower, Carthamus tinctorius; Koddava (kodrava), a species of grain eaten
13 Bh8, 6, 7, 246 ; 21, 2, 691. Nipphava is also called Valla.
See Brhatkalpa Bhāsya, 5.6049. According to Jacobi it is Dolichos Senensis (Jain Sūtras XIV, p. 374). According to Weber Alisamdaga was a grain imported from Alexandria after the name of which it is called Alisamdaga.
See Indian Antiquary Vol. XIX. 6 Bhs, 6, 7, 246.