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

78 KRṢI-PARĀŚARA
146. Or, if there is breach of the īśā, (it will) cause loss of
life to the cultivator. There is loss of brother if the yuga be broken,
and the son dies at the breach of the śaula.
147. The yotra being snapped there take place disease and
damage to crops. The cultivator having fallen down, there becomes
trouble at the royal mansion.
148. Man will surely die of fever and dysentery if a cow falls
down at the time of ploughing.
149. If, when the plough is driven, the bull runs away then he
(i.e. the cultivator) sustains failure of agriculture or gets physical ailment.
150. Crops become fourfold if, at the very outset of ploughing,
a cow bellows and licks the nose.
151. When, the plough is being driven, there be voiding of
dung and passing of urine (by the bulls), there take place increase of
crops by the falling of dung and flood by urine.
152. Whence can there be hope for fruits in agricultural opera-
tions to the cultivator by whom hala-prasāraṇa is not performed in
Capricorn and Aquarius¹ ?
153. He, who carries on cultivation without performing hala-
prasāraṇa, takes to agriculture in vain only through (physical) force
and pride.
154. The soil is said to be like gold in Māgha, silver in
Phālguna, copper in Caitra and like paddy in Vaiśākha.
155. The soil should be known like the soil (itself) in Jyaiṣṭha,
full of mud in Āṣāḍha and that (soil) which is raised by ploughs in
Śrāvaṇa is barren.
So also (says) Parāśara—
156. Gold is cultivated in the dewy season (hemanta), copper
and silver in spring (vasanta), paddy in summer (nidāgha) and
poverty at the advent of the rains.
1 The times intended seem to be the months Māgha and Phālguna when
the sun is supposed to enter these Zodiacal signs respectively. In northern
India, these are the months when rice-fields are usually cultivated. So, S. P.
Roy Chaudhuri's rendering of 'mṛga' as the 'asterism Mṛgaśiras' does not seem
plausible. Moreover, a dvandva compound between a Nakṣatra and a Rāśi is
not usual. Our interpretation is corroborated by V. 154 below.