Origin of agriculture in india

          Origin of agriculture in India

Early history 

The origin of agriculture in India is obscure. The belated Neolithic opens up with extralocal crops domesticated elsewhere. Evidence is now forthcoming of the antiquity of the Neolithic with the local crop rice but its origin remains unknown. Evidence from the Mesolithic reveals that, as elsewhere, the animal domestication had preceded the plant domestication. Howsoever uncertain the evidence is, it does indicate the possibility of the occurrence of such wild grasses which are today the forgotten cereals and are cultivated by the tribals.

The extralocal crops which entered the extreme northwest of the sub-continent were diffused among diverse and contemporaneous cultures from the west to the east and subsequently from the north to Maharashtra. Rice entered the wheat-barley and/or millet-based economy from the north (Ganga Plains) to the south subsequent to the diffusion of wheat and barley, and entered the deep south during the Iron Age, during which its cultivation had expanded into the rest of the sub-continent.

Both cultivation and exploitation of wild plant life went on side by side. Dolichos biflorus and Paspalum scrobiculatum appear to have been domesticated in Neolithic and post-Neolithic times.

Vadic era-

Agriculture was the principal occupation in the villages. Its adoption took place undoubtedly at a very early age, though we have nothing, which can tell us as to the period when it was adopted. Historical evidence goes to prove that among pastoral peoples or even semi-savages, agriculture in some form or other has been practiced.

In regard to the Indo-Europeans, Dr. Schrader who tried to estimate their agricultural development with the aid of Philology, came to the conclusion that these peoples had a considerable amount of agricultural knowledge; not only did they cultivate millets, oats flax, and beans but had devised a rude wooden plough.

Coming to the Indo-Iranian period when the Vedic Aryans are supposed to have lived along with the Iranians, we find that the Indo-Iranian agriculture was considerably developed and this is proved by a careful comparison of a number of Vedic and Avesta words relating to agriculture.