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

x KṚṢI-PARĀŚARA
is not to be found in the standard lexicons of the Sanskrit language,
thus indicating that it is probably a deśīśabda or provincial term.
Its equivalent, used in Bengal, is “mai” which is philologically a
very easy step (madikā>̄maiā>̄mai), because the softening of these
medial consonants is a well-known feature of the Prākṛta language
(cf. āgatam = āaam in Māhārāṣṭrī Pkt.). The word “paccanikā”
or “prājanikā” (goad) has a direct derivative in Bengal in the word
“pācan’ or “pājan”. Another such Prākṛtism in the work is very
significant. The term “kaṭṭanam” (derived from Skt. kartanam),
meaning the cutting of paddy sprouts, used in the book, has the
Bengali equivalent “kāṭān” which is chiefly used in some parts of
Bengal in the same sense. The latter seems only to be a derivative
of the former.
The customs of marking the cows with heated iron and of cutting
the hairs of their bodies and tails, which are mentioned by the author,
are still to be found in most of the interior districts of Bengal, and the
practices have the same significance even to-day. Again, the practice
of selling or, otherwise parting with, cowdung on Saturday and Tues-
day (v.95), which is condemned in the work, is reprehensible even in
the present-day Bengal.
The most remarkable feature of the book is that it considers
agriculture as depending merely on rainfall (vṛṣṭi-mūlā kṛṣiḥ sarvā), and
all forms of irrigation, resorted to in the areas of scanty rainfall, are
conspicuous by their non-mention in the book. It can, by no means,
be argued that the methods of artificially watering the paddy fields
were unknown in ancient India, because, the Ṛgveda, the earliest
Indo-Aryan work, and the Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya, a fairly old book,
mention quite a number of methods. The Śukranīti, also an ancient
work on politics, refers to irrigation by means of tanks, wells and
canals.⁸ This seems to suggest that the Kṛṣi-parāśara described the
conditions of Bengal, or, at least of the rice-producing areas of
Northern India enjoying plenty of rainfall. It should not, however, be
left unnoticed that the seasons, prescribed by the author for different
8 See The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology, by B. K. Sarkar,
Allahabad. 1914.