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

INTRODUCTION ix
sciences. Though there is some divergence of views among different
scholars regarding his exact date, yet there seems to be a consensus
of their opinions in placing him sometime between the 5th and the
6th century A. D. Even if the author of the Kṛṣi-parāśara be supposed
to be the borrower in this case, the above may be the upper limit of
his date. Conversely, if Varāha be the borrower, the date of our
author must be placed in the early centuries of the Christian era. That
Varāhamihira knew a Parāśara as an authority on Astronomy as well
as on cattle-science is borne out by numerous prose quotations attri-
buted to Parāśara in the Bṛhatsaṁhitā, and in verse 1, ch. 61⁷ of the
same work. Thus, inspite of the lack of conclusive evidence, we may
say that the author was perhaps earlier than the 6th century A.D., and,
by no means, later than the 11th. Jogesh Chandra Roy would,
however, place Pārāśara's work on agriculture between the 6th and the
8th Century A.D. (p. 30).
Provenance of the work
If it is difficult to determine the date of the author of this work,
it is no less so to ascertain exactly the part of the country to which he
belonged. Here also we have no other alternative but to hazard a few
conjectures from the nature of the author's treatment of the subject,
from his language and also from certain customs and superstitions to
which he incidentally refers. The first thing that strikes the reader
is the mention of the bull as the only means of cultivation. It should
be carefully noted that though various animals, as buffaloes, horses, etc.
were used in ancient times and are being used even to-day in differ-
ent parts of India for purposes of cultivation, yet the author mentions
bulls as the only means. It may be pointed out that, now-a-days,
in the major part of Bengal, only bulls are used for this purpose.
This seems to hint at the Bengali provenance of the book. This
argument, however, loses much of its cogency when we consider
that, even in Ṛgvedic times, bulls are mentioned in connection with
agriculture oftener than other animals. Among the agricultural imple-
ments is mentioned the "madikā" (or 'maiā' = ladder), a word which
7 Cf. parāśaraḥ prāha bṛhadrathāya golakṣmaṇam.