Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/634

 616 PBAPHULLA (HAND] BAIU not know exactly if the climate of that part of India has undergone a revers of wht it was in the Vedic Age. But the probability is that although it my have chsuged much, yet it is not an altog new thing. The fivers were wider and. more hat*flowing even in the time of Alexander. 'The sea was perhaps nearer than it is now. The desert of Rsjpu must have been less arid and less extensive than it is now. This latter fact will be evident from the abundant rsinf desc-ribed in the hu pasnge that we lmve quoted fim the R Vs, whereas the modern monsoon can rarely bestow much water there, the water vapour heine absorbe by the hot desert ar and carried drectly towards th Halayas wt lettn in much to the arid and [rrtiult lnjab. Mak al! these allowances, t seems that the climate o! the Punjab 'as it was and its clma now must  in fundamentals, for example, n the extremes of heat amt cold, want of much water for cattle etc. The present writer has had some expsrience o! the modern Punjab and he appreciates fully the sentimnts expressed in the I Veda when he recalls to the parched delightfully of the rains months agrble in such the modern system not exist. mind of May and June, and how must have been the advent a climate at a time when of extensive can irrigation did The orgsnisstion and arrangement of fields are very interesting and instructive showing the holding of the cultivated lands and also the waste lands' lying between them. Agriculture must have been universal