Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/641

 A RIO UL TUBA L OBiANISATION O28 hold of Sita; may Pushan guide her; may she, well stored with water, yield it ss milk, year after year" (iv, 7, 7). The whole plough was known, ss it is known even now', as one hymn says: "May langala. In the Eig Veda the agaa furrow happily" {iv, 57, 4). It Rishi Budha, was' also known as sira (iv, 57, 41!. perhaps on the advent of the rains, asks the people to harness the. s/ras (x, 101, 8), and, in the next verse, says that the wise harness the ploughs at that time. The plough was drawn by one ox, as it is now-a-days (iv, 57, 4). At the time of kept the than harnessing the plough, the yoke had to be asunder (x, 101, 41!. This perhaps shows that cultivation was with the help of one ox, rather two. But the point is doubtful since in the later Samhitas there are copious references' to th si'a being drawn by six, eight, twelve or even twenty-four oxen. When the ox at the plough slackened its work the astra was used as a goad to make it mindful of its work. Irrigation and Manure The ancient people did not depend on the natural water of the river and the rains alone. The arts of irrigation as well as the use of manure were known to them. The use of the word, khanitra, shovel, wherewith to dig wells, etc., 'is mentioned in one passage ti, 176, 6). It is said that the use here is metaphorical. But metaphors can be conceived only when actual counterparts of them exist in fact. Even f we leave out this reference as of doubtful signi- ficance as of further a proof of irrigation, we are not in want evidence for our purposes. Elsewhere (vii, 49, 2) it is found: "May the waters that are in the sky., or those that flow on the earth, those whose channels have been dug, etc." This is explailed by