Note 92 — Chapter VII

The object of agriculture in India is almost exclusively rice, and that kind of it the growth and increase of which are particularly promoted by inundating the fields. As the chief point is to devise proper means for watering the land, the large rivers have been divided into small streams, and conducted by ditches and canals to the nearest plains. When the rivers are not swelled up by abundant rains, so as to overflow their banks, the water is raised by machines put in motion by men or oxen; or large reservoirs are formed, which the Europeans call Tangs or Tanks. In these reservoirs the rain water, which pours down in torrents during the time of the monsoons, is collected, and afterwards conveyed through different channels to the rice fields. A great deal of sesamum is sown on account of its oil; and poppies, particularly in Bengal, are cultivated, in order to produce opium. Millet, maize, and the kind of rice which grows in dry soil, are less generally cultivated. Rice, when freed from the husk, is called Nella. Every Indian has in his house a wooden mortar and pestle for reducing it to that state.—Horticulture, in India, consists only in planting certain portions of ground with palms and different kinds of fruit trees. The fruits are figs, oranges, lemons, pomegranates, &c. The coco, areca, and butter-palms are the trees most common in gardens: roses, jasmin, and different kinds of lilies, are reared on account of their smell.—Botany is comprehended only in the Upaveda books, written in the earliest periods, in the Samscred language; one division of which, the Adschurveda, gives an account of the uses of the Indian plants, together with the method of cultivating them. This part of the sacred books is, however, studied by very few of the learned Brahmans. It is not improbable that it contains a number of observations carefully made and collected in the most remote ages, though it may readily be supposed that a great deal of useless and superstitious matter must be interspersed throughout them; for every plant and flower is dedicated to one or more of the Indian deities. Lovers in India have the art, as may be seen in the play called Sacontala, to express various ideas by flowers, and by the method of arranging them, or interweaving them into garlands; and this art is, no doubt, taught in the before-mentioned work.—Hunting is the occupation of great men and princes, who employ, for that purpose, tamed leopards (Tschittahs), falcons, dogs, nets, and a great number of attendants.—Fishing is the employment only of the Mucoas, or persons of the meanest and lowest classes.—The architecture of the Indians, in their large public buildings, and particularly those devoted to religious worship, or the sciences, such for example as observatories, is far from being contemptible. Their cement, with which they mix oil, is durable, and almost indestructible. Their style in their oldest edifices, such as the temple of Elephanta at Bombay, has a great likeness to the Egyptian. Whether the Indians were taught architecture by the Egyptians, or the Egyptians by the Indians, will always remain doubtful, until better and more decisive proofs are produced to determine the question. F.