कृषि-पाराशर (महर्षि पराशर - प्राचीन भारतीय कृषि, मृदा-परीक्षण, वर्षा-पूर्वानुमान व बीज-संस्कार)

PREFACE
Agriculture has been playing a vital rôle in the economy of India
ever since the dawn of Aryan civilisation, as is evidenced by count-
less references to it scattered in various works starting with the
Ṛgveda. It is, therefore, natural to expect specialized works on this
subject. Curiously, however, the Kṛṣi-parāśara is the only work in
Sanskrit, known hitherto, devoted exclusively to the different agricul-
tural operations; this fact alone underlines the importance and
interest of this work.
The work, entitled Kṛṣi-Śāsana, is nothing but a compilation of
passages, referring to agriculture, culled from different sources. The
anonymous MS. No. 5276, called Kṛṣi-śāstra (Appendix), in the
Govt. Oriental MSS. Library,¹ Madras, is of no practical value or
interest dealing as it does only with the time suitable for some of the
items of agricultural operations; the modest object of the work is
indicated in the second verse where the author promises to set forth
the time for agricultural operations (samayaṃ kṛṣi-karmaṇaḥ)
Despite the great interest and importance of the Kṛṣi-parāśara, it
has not yet received as much attention of scholars as it deserves. The
Vaṅgavāsī edition of the work, printed forty years ago, has long been
out of print. Moreover, being presumably based on a single MS.,
it does not note the variant readings excepting one or two which might
be marginally noted in the MS. at the disposal of the editor, and
suffers from lapses, grammatical and otherwise.
The Bengali translation, accompanying the text in the said edition,
and the English translation by S. P. Roy Choudhuri, based on the
printed text, are necessarily defective. It is with a view to constitu-
ting the text, as accurately as practicable, that the present critical
edition has been undertaken. The text, presented here, is based on a
¹ Triennial Catalogue of MSS. 1925-26 to 1927-28. Vol. VI, Part I
Sanskrit (1935), pp. 7277-78. R. No. 5276, foll. 16. Date and authorship
unknown.