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

INTRODUCTION¹
Title of the work
The work, as we find it in the present edition, opens with a verse
telling us that sage Parāśara is relating Kṛṣi-karma-vivecanam. This
word appears to have been used only to denote agricultural operations
in general, and not to indicate the name of the work. The colophon
of our text names it as Kṛṣi-parāśara, and agrees with MS. D² in this
respect. According to the colophon of the printed text, the title of
the work is Kṛṣi-saṃgraha, while it has been named Kṛṣi-paddhati in
the India Office MS., and Kṛṣi-tantra by Jogesh Chandra Roy in his
Ancient Indian Life (p. 30).
Authorship and date
Both the title of the work and its colophon associate the name of
Parāśara with it. There are many proofs of its high antiquity. In
the first place, the versification throughout the work tends to prove
that it belongs to a period anterior to the rise of the Nibandha litera-
ture which dates back approximately to the eleventh century A. D.,
if not earlier. None of the well-known Smṛti-digests or Nibandhas is
written in verse though, of course, there are innumerable verses cited
from various authorities. Again, the author of the present work cites
only two authorities, viz., Manu and Gārgya, contrary to the usual
practice of Nibandha-kāras whose works abound in quotations not
merely from earlier works but also from contemporary ones. This is a
singular feature which makes it probable that the work was composed
before the rise of the Nibandhas. It may also be noted that the work
is written in a fashion which is rarely met with in the Indian literature
after the eighth century A.D., since when the attention of the Indian
scholars has mainly been directed towards the exposition of the recogni-
1 For a detailed account of the work, its authorship, date, contents, etc.
See S. C. Benerji in ABORI, Vol. XXXVI, 1955.
2 See under description of the MS.