Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/41



HE main industry of the ancient Hindus was agriculture; and the very word ārya, "cultivator," is the one term in the Rig-Veda which distinguishes the conquerors as a class from the aborigines of the country. There are, however, two other words in the Rig-Veda, which are synonymous, not with the Aryan tribe, but rather with man generally; and both of them come from roots which indicate cultivation. These are charshana and krishti, and both come from modifications of the root krish, to cultivate.

There are numerous direct allusions in the Rig-Veda to agriculture, but the most remarkable among them is found in the fourth book in the fifty-seventh hymn, which is dedicated to a supposed god of agriculture, the Lord of the Field, as he is called, and which we translate in full:—

"We will win (cultivate) this field with the Lord of the Field; may he nourish our cattle and our horses; may he bless us thereby. Rh