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DOI: 10.1177/097194580701100103

2008 11: 63The Medieval History JournalR.L. Hangloo

Agricultural Technology in Kashmir (A.D. 1600 to 1900)

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Agricultural Technology in

Kashmir (A.D. 1600 to 1900)

R.L. Hangloo∗

This article seeks to locate and analyse the ecological and socio-political

conditions specific to hill agriculture within Kashmir in a medieval context.

It draws upon a range of sources—texts, travel accounts and personal ob-

servation, as also interaction with farmers—to put the story together.

Scientists in the past were able to neglect all but their immediate predecessors’

work and even to reject the traditions of the past as more likely to block than

assist progress. Now, however, the troubles of the times, together with ines-

capable connection between them and the advance of science, have focussed

attention on the historical aspect of science. To find how to overcome the dif-

ficulties that face us and to release the new forces of science for welfare ra-

ther than destruction, it is necessary to examine anew how the present situation

came about.1

∗Visiting Chair of Indian Studies, Department of History, The University of West Indies,

Trinidad. E-mail: [email protected]

The Medieval History Journal, 11, 1 (2008): 63–99

SAGE Publications � Los Angeles/London/New Delhi/Singapore

DOI: 10.1177/097194580701100103

Acknowledgements: I thank Professor Pale Rama Rao, former Vice-Chancellor, University

of Hyderabad, and also principal co-ordinator of the University with Potential for

Excellence (UPE) programme, for his encouragement and support. I also thank the

following people for their valuable suggestions and help: Professor Harbans Mukhia,

Abdul Wahab Malik, my brother M.L. Hangloo, my colleague Sanjay Subodh, my re-

search scholars Senthil Kumar and Salil Kader, and my wife Sharika Kaul.

1 Bernal, Science in History, Vol. I: 1.

64 � R.L. Hangloo

� The Medieval History Journal, 11, 1 (2008): 63–996

The last few decades of the twentieth century have seen increasing aware-

ness among Indian historians of the relevance of studying the nature of

science and technology. As a result, various studies have appeared which

cover the diverse aspects of medieval Indian science and technology.2

Specialists will have their own explanations of why the studies of regional

patterns of such aspects were not paid adequate attention. To establish a

coherent understanding of the nature of science and technology of any

particular region may well turn out to be beneficial for establishing

a new framework for understanding the nature of that region’s society

in totality. With this objective in view, I have taken up Kashmir’s agricul-

tural technology for study in this article. The two terminal points of this

study—the sixteenth and the nineteenth centuries—are marked by major

transitions in Kashmir’s history.3

Agriculture in Kashmir has always been an exceptionally important

aspect of people’s lives, straddling as it does even today, in the highland

and low land zones, extensive forests and wastes.4 The physiography of

the area that we are dealing with in this article was appropriately charac-

terised by Walter Roper Lawrence, the nineteenth-century expert on

Kashmir’s agriculture, in the following words:

2 Some of these writings include: Tennant, Indian Recreations; Voelker, Report on Im-

provements in Indian Agriculture; Clarke, ‘Some Aspects of Soil Improvement’; Howard

and Howard, The Development of Indian Agriculture; Randhawa, A History of Agriculture

in India; Habib, ‘The Technology and Economy of Mughal India’ and ‘Technological

Changes and Society’, and ‘Technology and Barriers to Technological Change in Mughal

India’; Mukhia, ‘Agricultural Technology in Medieval North India’.3 In the sixteenth century, for the first time, Kashmir’s economy began to integrate with

the rest of the Indian economy. The extension of Mughal rule to Kashmir introduced

various changes in the system of revenue assessment and collection and promoted trade

and commerce. These developments increased the mobility of Kashmiri cultivators and

exposed them to various tools used in agricultural and craft production technology in the

neighbouring regions. Similarly, the onset of the eighteenth century also exposed the

Kashmiris to new tools and knowledge systems which were part of the process of incor-

poration of Mughal India into colonial India.4 Following are the details of land under cultivation in Kashmir in the last few years of

the nineteenth century:

1887 1888 1889 1890 1891

2,73,737 6,73,739 6,26,968 7,05,139 5,48,989

Note: Area in Kanals.

Source: Majmui Reports (in Urdu) for the concerned years.

Agricultural Technology in Kashmir � 65

The Medieval History Journal, 11, 1 (2008): 63–99 �

This is a celebrated valley, perched securely among the Himalayas at an

average height of 6000 feet above the sea. It is appropriately 84 miles in

length and 20 to 25 miles in breadth. [In the] North, east and west range after

range of mountains guard the valley from outer world, while in the south it is

cut off from Punjab by rocky barriers, 50 to 75 miles in width. As one descends

the mountains and leaves the wood land glades, cultivation commences imme-

diately and right up to the fringe of the forests maize is grown and walnut

trees abound. A little lower down, at an elevation of about 7000 feet, rice of

a hardy and stunted growth is found and shady plane tree appears. Lower

still superior rices are grown, and the watercourses are edged with willows.

The side valleys which lead off from the vale of Kashmir, though possessing

distinct charms of their own, have certain features in common. At the mouth

of the valley lies the wide delta of fertile soil on which the rice with its vary-

ing colours, the plane trees, mulberries and willows grow luxuriantly; a little

higher up the land was terraced and rice still grows and the slopes are ablaze

with the wild indigo, till about 6000 feet the plane tree gives place to walnut,

and rice to millets. On the left bank of [the] mountain river endless forests

stretch from the bottom of the valley to the peaks; and on the right bank,

wherever a nook or corner is sheltered from the sun and hot breeze of India,

the pines and firs establish themselves. Farther up the valley, the river already

a roaring torrent becomes a veritable waterfall dashing down between lofty

cliffs, whose bases were fringed with maples and horse chestnuts, white and

pink, and millets are replaced by buckwheat and Tibetan barley. Soon after

this the useful birch tree appears, and then come grass and glaciers, the coun-

try of shepherds. Where the mountains cease to be steep, fan like projections

with flat arid tops and bare of trees run out towards the valley. They are

known as Karewa.5

The total area of Kashmir Valley according to the 1931 census was 6,071

square miles.6

Soil Variety and Manure

The soil of the entire valley can be broadly classified into three categories:

the table lands of the Karewas (uddars), the flat basin of the river Jhelum

and its tributaries, and the terrace lands of areas near the foothills (Kandi

illaqas). Due to its river system Kashmir was endowed with a large portion

5 Lawrence, Imperial Gazetteer of India: 5–6.6 Census of India, Jammu and Kashmir, Part I: 7.

66 � R.L. Hangloo


of alluvial soil of various types, e.g., the new alluvial located in the bays

and deltas of mountain rivers. This new alluvial was very fertile and its

fertility was renewed and enriched every year by the silt of the mountain

streams.7 The second type of soil was the old alluvial lying above the

banks of Jhelum River and which extended up to the Karewas. It was

less fertile but during years of good rains it gave good dry crops, even

with moderate tillage.8 In the sixteenth century, Mirza Haider Dughlat

had classified the soil of Kashmir into four varieties: (a) artificially irri-

gated lands; (b) naturally irrigated lands; (c) garden lands; and (d) level

lands which were unfit for cultivation because of excessive moisture.

However, it was Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin’s network of canals and other

measures carried out for development of agriculture in the valley much

before Mirza Haider’s occupation of it which rendered this classification

possible.9

Kashmiri cultivators had their own classification for the soils termed

by them as:

1. Gurtu zameen (rich loam). This type of soil contained a large portion of

clay and held water in years of scanty rainfall; it was appropriate for rice

cultivation. The heavy rainfall would result in poor out-turn.

2. Bahil zameen (light loam). A rich soil of great natural strength; there

was always a danger that with excessive manuring this soil would become

too strong to allow paddy to grow. It was in such soils that rice crops

were prone to disease (Rai), which will be referred to in this article later.

3. Sekul zameen (sandy sub-soil). This was a light loam with a sandy sub-

soil. A good out-turn of crop on this type of soil depended on good rains

and good irrigation.

4. Dazanlad zameen (low-lying swamps). This kind of soil was chiefly found

in low-lying ground near the swamps, but it sometimes also occurred in

higher villages. This type of soil is generally hot and feverish. Therefore,

the cultivators had to take special care while irrigating it, particularly

when rice plants showed signs of rapid growth.10 Lime was necessary for

7 Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir: 320–43.8 Ibid.9 Dughlat, Tarikh-i Rashidi: 424–25. See also Zutshi, Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin: 126.

10 Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir: 319–21.



this category of land, but in Kashmir water used for irrigation was rich in

lime and therefore no lime was applied.

5. Nambal (rich peaty soil). This type of soil was located near the banks of

the Jhelum, in the vicinity of Wular Lake and some other rivers. It was

rich in organic matter.11

In years of good rainfall these lands grew good crops of rapeseed and

maize. The lands that were reclaimed from the forest bases were known

as Tand.12 The land that was injured by percolation from irrigated fields

was known as Zabulzameen. Khar zameen was the soil that was located

in fertile areas. The land that could not hold water was referred to as

Trosh (hard). The soil in which springs occurred was called Lemb. Another

soil, mentioned as Tats, was rendered too warm by stones and was always

liable to suffer from Rai.13 Another category of soil was Ront. It was

stiff, bad clay. The soil on the slopes of mountains generally reclaimed

from forests was known as Tand. Shath was a variety of strong sandy

soil by the sides of the mountain rivers.14

The Karewas are generally between 100 and 300 feet in depth and are

composed of stiff alluvium soil (Gurtu zameen). The Karewas and their

dividing ravines occupied a width, varying from 8 to 16 miles (about

12.8 to 25.6 kilometres) along the south-western side of the valley for a

length of about 50 miles (80 kilometres) from near Shopian to the flat

river between Sopore and Baramullah.15 Beyond Sopore again, at the

north-western end of the valley, was mostly Karewa ground. On the north-

eastern side of the valley, across the river on its right bank, was Karewa

land. Of the two varieties of Karewas one was that which made, on its

summit, a tableland perfectly flat; and the second was of a continuous

sloped character right up to the mountains. In the last quarter of the

nineteenth century, when Walter Roper Lawrence tested the soil of each

Karewa in Kashmir, he found a lot of variations in different areas. In

colour the soil varied from a light yellowish hue of the Ompara Karewa

to the red hued soil of the Budgam Karewa.16 The most famous flat-topped

11 Ibid.12 Ibid.13 Ibid.14 Ibid.15 Ibid.16 Ibid.

68 � R.L. Hangloo


Karewas were in Pampore and Parspore, both of which grew saffron.17 It

was a flat tableland about 150 feet above the level of the Jhelum and its

alluvial plain ended towards the river in a bluff, partly worn down to a

slope by weathering. This tableland was cut through by narrow valleys,

which were made by the streams that carried away the drainage of the

half ring of mountains.18 The Karewas are divided from each other and

are sometimes cut into stripes by ravines of from 100 to 300 feet in depth.

Occasionally they are surrounded altogether by lower ground but more

generally they connect to some of the mountains that bound the valley.

The Karewas and their deep ravines, along with the south-western side

of the valley, stretch for a length of about 50 miles (80 kilometres) from

near Shopian to the river flat between Sopore and Baramullah.19

The surface of the Karewas was dry and bare of trees and therefore

received very little rainfall. There was a natural, deep drainage of its soil

to the side valleys and the end cliff and therefore the moisture vanished

quickly. The surface of the Karewas, however, still bore some crops.20

From Shopian there was a large tract of ground sloping to the north-east

from a height of 7,000 feet down nearly to 5,500 feet.21 This can also be

classed as Karewa, although its surface was not so regular as that of most

Karewas and its slope seemed to be radial like that of a very flat cone.

Watercourses were led over it from the hill streams and they produced

such fertile land that the tract was crowded with villages.22

Water was sometimes brought from rivers to these areas through canals

and rivulets for irrigation and then a fertile tract was the result; more

commonly the cultivation of crops depended on rain alone; as a result it

was precarious and meagre. According to Howard, this soil water was

the habitat of the soil microflora. It took the form of a thin film of moisture

bathing each soil particle. The water which made it up was derived both

from above and below:23 from above, by the percolation of the rain, and

17 Abul Fazl, Ain-i Akbari, vol. II: 358. For details see also Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir:

339–43.18 Stein, Ancient Geography of Kashmir: 118. See also Wadia, The Geology of India:

382.19 Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir: 320–24.20 Drew, Jammu and Kashmir Territories, 1875: 209.21 Ibid.22 Ibid.23 Howard, The Earth’s Green Carpet: 30.



from below, by the rise of sub-soil water through capillary action. The

soil water was in constant slow movement. It was also impregnated with

what was washed down by the rain out of the atmosphere and thus drawn

on by soil microflora when they manufactured their nitrates and other

compounds.24 The supply of oxygen was fully facilitated and moving

conditions were favourable to the life of soil. If it was stagnant and de-

prived of oxygen, there was a great slowing down in the activity of the

soil inhabitants.25

Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin made special efforts to reclaim considerable

area of land for rice cultivation in the Pargana of Zaingir.26 According to

Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605–27) the area under rice cultivation in Kashmir

was 75 per cent of the total cultivable land.27 It was for the first time

during Zain-ul-Abidin’s reign (1420–70) that floating islands were con-

structed by depositing grass on the surface of the water and putting earth

on it.28 Abul Fazl also acknowledges the existence of these floating islands

under cultivation on the surface of Dal Lake in the sixteenth century.29

Kashmiri cultivators have been considered fortunate in that they have

possessed large varieties of manures. All the dung from animals like sheep,

cattle and horses was collected in the winter months and was preserved

for the fields. In the spring, when flocks of sheep moved towards moun-

tains for pasture (Neur), they were folded on to the fields for Behwad (to

deposit their dung on these).30 In England, horse dung ranked above cow

dung, but in Kashmir cow dung (gupan guh) was always considered more

efficacious because, generally, in winter months, cows received oil cakes

and a variety of pulses (Moth) as fodder which also added to the organic

compounds of nitrogen content in their dung. Apart from the yearly farm-

yard manure and the animal dung, fresh earthen clods were also cut from

the sides of watercourses which were rich in silt and enriched the soil for

years.31

24 Ibid.25 Ibid.26 Sayyid Ali, Tarikh-i Kashmir: folio 19. See also Baharistan-i Shahi: 49.27 Jahangir, Tuzuk-i Jahangiri, vol. II: 146.28 Srivara, Rajatarangini, vol. I: stanza 45.29 Abul Fazl, Ain-i Akbari, vol. II: 361.30 The information is based on my personal observation because the practice continues

even today in remote villages. It was also supplemented by oral information given by

Abdul Wahab Malik of Pahalgam, District Anantnag, Kashmir.31 Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir: 319–21.

70 � R.L. Hangloo


Manure has always been essential in establishing and maintaining

contact between the soil and the plant and this has been characterised in

agricultural sciences as a mycorrhizal relationship.32 Howard says that

since most of the soil organisms possess no chlorophyll and moreover

have to work in the dark, they must be supplied with energy. This was

obtained by the oxidation of humus (pah)—the name given to a complex

residue of partly oxidized vegetable and animal matter together with the

substances synthesized by the fungi and bacteria which break down these

wastes.33 Thus humus also helped cement the minute mineral soil particles

to aggregate into larger compound particles and so maintained the pore

space. If the soil is deficient in humus, the volume of pore space is reduced

and the aeration of the soil impeded. In addition, there is insufficient or-

ganic matter for the soil population, the machinery of the soil runs down,

the supply of oxygen, water and dissolved salts needed by root heirs is

reduced, the synthesis of carbohydrates and proteins in the green leaf

proceeds at a lower tempo and growth is affected. Humus is therefore an

essential material of soil if the first phase of the life cycle is to function.34

Besides the humus, cow dung and the fertile silt collected from small

rivulets also provided nutrients and nitrogen to the soil.35 The dung of

cattle, sheep and horses dropped during the winter months was reserved

for agriculture. Even though during the summer months this dung was

dried and used as fuel by mixing it with twigs, when it was reduced to

ashes it was carefully stored and used as manure, containing potash, for

vegetable crops.36 Nitrogen was required to form the proteins and these

were the substances that held the secret to the growth and well-being of

plants.37 Another kind of manure was prepared by burning the standing

32 Howard, An Agricultural Testament: Goa, 1940: 24.33 Ibid.34 Humus is always in a dynamic condition because it constantly forms from animal and

plant residues and is continuously decomposed further by micro-organisms. It serves as an

important source of energy for the development of various groups of micro-organisms

and during the process of decomposition it gives off a continuous stream of carbon dioxide

and ammonia. For details see Waksman, Humus Origin. Also see Howard and Wad, The

Waste Products of Agriculture.35 Howard, An Agricultural Testament: 15–16.36 Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir: 322–24.37 Howard, An Agricultural Testament: 22–31. For the vegetable crops in and around

the city of Srinagar and other towns, Poudrttee, a night soil mixed with the dust of the city



weeds and stubble of the previous crop on peaty soils. For the rice fields,

peasants also used turf clods (mal sar) for renewing their fertility.

Along with this commenced the process of mostly spreading manure

evenly; the manure comprising cow dung, forest waste and ash, was stored,

until the start of this process, in heaps of almost equal sizes in the fields.38

It has been stated that manure was not used before Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin’s

time and that it was Helmat Ganai who first introduced this practice.39

Agricultural Techniques and Tools

The peasants practised two systems of rice cultivation. Under the first

rice was grown broadcast while under the second rice was first sown in

the nursery and then transplanted.40 The second system is a later develop-

ment. The broadcast system involved much labour because it was sown

earlier and required more watering, more weeding and was labour in-

tensive. It needed more ploughing than the nursery system and was fairly

unproductive. In comparison, the nursery system was in greater vogue.41

There were two methods for preparing the soils, namely, Tao and Kenlu.

Under the Tao system the soil was made absolutely dry to eliminate mois-

ture before sowing the seeds. According to the Kenlu (wet) method the

field was allowed to remain wet.42 Agriculture in the valley depended

largely on the timely arrival of the monsoon and due to the uncertainty

of the weather there was a considerable variation in production levels.

The valley received precipitation during two periods—the cold season

from December to April and the south-west monsoon period from June

to September. The rainfall in October and November was less. November

was generally the driest month of the year.43 See Table 1 for average

rainfall in Kashmir.

alleys and pulverised by the action, is used. Lawrence noticed that night soil was more

widely distributed in Kashmir than in the rest of India. See Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir:

320–21.38 Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir: 321; also see Vigne, Travels in Kashmir, vol. I: 309.39 William Moorcroft’s collection at the Oriental and India Office Collections, the British

Library, London, MS EUR.D. 265: 79.40 Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir: 319–24.41 Ibid.42 Ibid.: 325.43 Lawrence, Imperial Gazetteer of India: 19–22.

72 � R.L. Hangloo


Ta

ble

1

Ra

infa

ll i

n K

ash

mir

(Av

era

ge

Ra

infa

ll i

n I

nch

es f

or

29

Yea

rs,

En

din

g 1

90

5)

Mo

nth

Jan

Feb

Ma

rA

pr

Ma

yJu

ne

Ju

lyA

ug

Sep

Oct

No

vD

ec

To

t

Sri

nag

ar3

.13

2.2

43

.58

3.2

92

.93

1.6

73

.03

2.2

61

.64

1.1

20

.47

1.3

42

6.7

0

Note

: T

he

tota

l ra

infa

ll i

s 2

6.7

0.4

4

44 L

awre

nce

, Im

peri

al

Ga

zett

eer

of

Ind

ia:

82

.



The cold season precipitation from December to March was chiefly due

to storms which advanced from Iran and Baluchistan across northern

India. These disturbances occasionally resulted in very stormy weather

in Kashmir with violent winds on higher elevations and much snow. The

fall was heavy on the Pir Panjal range, being the heaviest in January and

February.45 In the valley and in the mountain ranges to the north and

east this was the chief precipitation of the year and it was very heavy on

the first line of permanent snow; it rapidly decreased eastwards to the

Karakoram Range. Srinagar, Dras and Anantnag in the region received

the largest amount. In April and May, occasional thunderstorms occurred

in the valley and surrounding hills, resulting in light-to-moderate showers.

This hot season rainfall was of considerable importance for cultivation

in the valley.46

Generally, the cultivation of Kharif crops began around Nouroz in

the month of March and in some areas in early April. Rice fields were

ploughed four times while wheat, barley and maize fields were ploughed

only twice. In March, in the rice fields which remained uncultivated since

the last rice crop was cut in September, sometimes the soil became hard

and stiff. The soil was softened by the frost and snow but if sometimes

there was less or no snowfall it was difficult to plough these lands. There-

fore, special watering was carried out before the ploughing commenced.

In contrast, in some other villages the soil was so damp that ploughing

was done perforce while the soil was wet and such lands were not very

productive.47 Zain-ul-Abidin endowed the revenues of Khuyhama pargana

to a department entrusted with the task of stopping soil erosion.48

For obtaining a good rice harvest, heavy snowfall on the mountains in

winter was necessary in order to fill up the streams in summer. Besides,

the timely rains in March and early April and clear sky and bright warm

days in May, June, July and August, with an occasional shower in Sep-

tember, were essential. All Kashmiri cultivators believed that a good

rice harvest depended on the cold dew which penetrated the outer husk

and helped in the swelling, hardening and the formation of the grain.49

45 Ibid.:14—20.46 Ibid.47 Ibid.: 48.48 Chadurah, Tarikh-i Kashmir: 46; see also, Zutshi, Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin: 143.49 This argument is based on oral information collected from Kashmiri cultivators like

Abdul Wahab Malik of Pahalgam.

74 � R.L. Hangloo


Technically agriculture in the valley was practised along traditional

lines. Agricultural implements were few and simple. There were varieties

of plough made of various woods like mulberry, ash and apple.50 The plough

used for the first ploughing was tipped with an iron blade and was worked

using a pair of oxen. This plough was sharply designed. Subsequently,

the clods were ploughed and broken with wooden mallets (yeta phur,

also known in some parts of the valley as yabchot); women mostly did

this job. All the fields were turned into smooth earth before they were

again ploughed (ala) using a plough with an iron tip. This plough was a

little broad so that it could help smoothen the soil.51 After distributing

the manure evenly the fields were irrigated and again ploughed. This

time simple ploughs (heege) without the iron tip were used. A willow

ring (kaniv aer) was put around the tip of the plough so that the plough

did not go deep into the soil.52

The non-use of soil inverting ploughs—generally used in the West—

in the hot climatic areas of India, is justified but it is surprising that these

soil-inverting ploughs were not in use in Kashmir even though it had a

European climate.53 If this indicates that the cultivator in Kashmir was

aware of the advantages of storing nitrogen in the soil which would have

got oxidized by deep ploughing, then the cultivation of rice as the main

food crop year after year defies the principle of dependence of rice crops

on the nitrogen preserved in the soil.54

There are three sources of nitrogen: First, the nitrogen which exists

as gas in the atmosphere, known as uncombined nitrogen or free nitrogen;

second, the nitrogen existing as organic compounds either in decaying

matter in the soil or in animal waste; and third, the nitrogen contained in

50 Bamzai, Socio-Economic History of Kashmir: 178–79.51Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir: 322–24. See also William Moorcroft, MS. EUR.D.265:

77. Also see Joo, Various Trades in Kashmir. This book contains illustrations of trades in

Kashmir with their respective implements. The paintings in the book were all done by a

local artist named Mahad Joo.52 Abdul Wahab Malik, personal interview.53 Howard and Howard, The Development of Indian Agriculture: 15.54 The cultivable lands in Kashmir have highest fertility compared to the Indian mainland.

Besides, the soils in Kashmir carried large fertility silt as a reserve. These reserves were

carried in the upper layer of the soil in the form of humus. The humus got mixed with the

upper layer of soil automatically because of the activities of burrowing earthworms and a

variety of other insects. For details on the role of earthworms in soils see Darwin, The

Formation of Vegetable Mould.



inorganic compounds resulting from final breakdowns of these two ma-

terials. Both the last forms of nitrogen are usually referred to as combined

nitrogen because they exist in combination with other materials. The

plants had some difficulty in assimilating any of this nitrogen. Therefore,

the soil had to wait for soil flora to break down the organic wastes and

wait further for the soil solution to dissolve the products thus procured.

Only when all this had been done could the soil use these food materials.55

My discussions with some of the peasants and their oral testimonies also

revealed that if the soil was deeply ploughed there was always a chance

of seeds and small rice plants rotting in the water and hence no deep

ploughing was permitted.56 In the last quarter of the nineteenth century,

the area of cultivation per plough in Karnah tehsil was less than 4 acres.57

However, when the heege (third ploughing after the fields were

watered) was over, the fields were subjected to combing (danth), which

removed the dry leftovers of the previous crop and other bushy items

which would have come to the surface of the soil after ploughing. The

Danth of the Kashmiri cultivator was what Tuhafat-i Punjab mentions

as dandal in the context of Punjab.58 The difference was that in Kashmir

it was driven by two oxen while in Punjab it was driven by four. But the

more important task of danth was to help close (wodere) the rat holes. If

these holes were left open and unattended they would result in water

drainage from the fields. The comb was made of a wooden log, slightly

curved and approximately six feet long and three feet in girth. This log

was yoked to a pair of oxen. If some of the earthen clods remained uneven

till then, a simple wooden log (mond ) driven by two oxen was used in

the irrigated fields to level the fields before the sowing of rice crops took

place.59

The rice seeds were carefully selected at threshing time and were

stored in grass bags (vethren). Before sowing, the seed was tested by

winnowing and dried, and immediately after was soaked in water when

it was warm. After this these grass bags were immersed in water until

55 Howard, The Earth’s Green Carpet: 32–33.56 Abdul Wahab Malik, oral testimony.57 Note on Assessment Report of Karnah Tehsil Muzaffarabad: 6.58 Mukhia, ‘Agricultural Technology in Medieval North India’: 225.59 Abdul Wahab Malik, oral testimony.

76 � R.L. Hangloo


the process of germination of seeds commenced. The seeds were kept in

big earthen vessels (mache or kye) for nearly 40 days for sprouting before

they were sown. In some areas, fresh walnut tree leaves were also used

for covering these grass bags and pots full of paddy seeds. The walnut

leaves had a heating property which speeded up the process of sprouting.

Every day, after sunset, water was drained out from these clay pots using

grass rings which disallowed the rice seeds to move out with the water.

Again, every morning, fresh water was poured into the clay pots. At night,

these clay pots and grass bags with the seeds were kept in warm places,

generally in cow sheds (Gupangan). Once the seeds sprouted, they were

sown broadcast. Up to the late nineteenth and even early twentieth cen-

turies all lands were sown using the broadcast method (wotur).60

Rice was grown up to an altitude of 7,000 feet. In higher altitudes it

was convenient to sow even earlier than in the lower regions as the cold

season came quickly and it was essential to harvest the crop before snow-

fall. In slopes and steppes terrace cultivation was a common feature be-

cause it also prevented the soil from being completely washed away.61

Even in certain lower villages, where it was the custom to sow rice earlier

than usual, the out-turn was always heavy. After the rice crops grew

between 8 and 10 centimetres, the operation (lath dein or wubhat) of

weeding out the tender grass (aiv ta sol) that grew along with the rice

plants, as also the practise of placing the rice plants almost evenly in the

fields, was taken up. This exercise was carried out by men with two

sticks in two hands and sometimes women also joined in depending on

the availability of labour of each peasant family.62

This practice was also known as Khushaba for which there is no

English equivalent. It was very essential for the broadcast system. It in-

volved putting the rice plants in the right place and pressing the soft mud

gently around the green seedling. No novice could do this work; therefore,

it always involved experts who could detect the counterfeit grasses which

60 Ibid. In the hilly areas (Kandi illaqas) the process of sowing broadcast continued

even up to the early 1950s when finally the Chinese varieties of rice known as china and

K39 arrived in Kashmir.61 A Report of British Empire Exhibition: 16.62 Joo, Various Trades in Kashmir.



looked like rice. In Kashmir this practice was known as goad rove, or

taking out the plants from thickly sown areas and planting them in a va-

cant space in the field. Generally this task was assigned to women. One

of the reasons for this almost even adjustment was that the plants could

never be starved of nitrogen. In the soil there was a struggle between

plants to obtain nitrogen.63

The practice of Khushaba was learnt at young age. This operation was

performed with the hands but was also done by using the feet. Sometimes

it was carried out by using animal labour, like cattle splashing up and

down the wet fields (gupan nend or huel). After this, the weeds usually

grew back in the fields within a month and the next weeding (nendeh)

commenced.64 In case of broadcast rice crop, weeding was generally

carried out four times because in these fields the growth of weeds (hama)

was quick. Once the weeds got ahead of the rice it became extremely

difficult to repair the damage and root out the grasses which only experts

could detect. However, the uprooted weeds too were not wasted; these

were folded and placed under the soil to rot and become manure.

In the transplantation system only three weeding operations were

required. Weeding of rice crop was very painful and required intensive

labour.65 In 1888, A. Wingate, after carefully observing the behaviour of

Kashmiri cultivators, noticed that the cultivator in Kashmir was not an

early riser as he did not begin any real work before 7 A.M., though he

boasted rising with the cock’s crow when the weeding of the rice fields

commenced.66 There were no special implements used for weeding as it

was done with the hands and feet. While carrying out weeding in rice

fields, the peasants had to remain constantly postured on their knees

with their backs bent with one foot backwards and one foot forward in

the wet fields till the end of operation with very brief intervals of rest.

Sometimes, when the crop was two feet high, the whole crop was ploughed

up. This operation was known as sele.67

63 Howard, The Earth’s Green Carpet: 32–33.64 Abdul Wahab Malik, personal interview.65 Ibid.66 Lawrence, Impact of New Settlement on the Cultivator of Kashmir: 252.67 Abdul Wahab Malik, oral testimony.

78 � R.L. Hangloo


During the weeding operation, particularly of rice crops, the peasants

suffered from eruption (khaez) caused by the constant immersion of their

legs and wrists in water. Water was drained out, though not totally, during

all these operations so that the plants did not root out of the soil and get

away with the water. Their legs and wrists were specially affected but

hands and feet remained relatively undamaged owing to the protection

provided by the mud. The peasants applied pine pitch (kelmteel), a kind

of oil which was extracted from pine, and applied it to the affected parts

of the body.68

Both men and women did transplantation work but the ploughing

operations and the broadcast sowing and weeding operations were done

by the men alone. When rice crop bloomed and the grains began to form,

the water was drained off the fields. This process was known as rabe

dadeh and a little before harvest a final watering (paph sag) was given

which helped the crop’s ears to swell. Before the harvesting of rice crops

in September the little rainfall which usually took place was considered

beneficial. Such rains were known as kambar kah and were welcome.

They not only improved the rice crops but also enabled the cultivator to

sow the spring crops.69

The annual produce of rice in the time of Zain-ul-Abidin was 77 lakhs

of kharwars.70 In 1822–23, Moorcroft states that the total rice production

was 20 lakh kharwars. Civil war and consequent Mughal occupation

following the death of Zain-ul-Abidin diverted attention from the main-

tenance of canals causing them to enter into a state of dysfunction as the

elements of nature wrought havoc on these. None of the rulers after him

focused their energies in this direction as a result of which rice cultivation

remained confined only to the flat portion of the valley where water could

reach with ease and in plenty. Second, rising taxes drove the peasants

and rendered it impossible for them to attend to the renovation and upkeep

of the canals.71 This is also specifically attested by A. Wingate, the First

Land Settlement Commissioner who visited Kashmir in the second half

of the nineteenth century. He recommended to the Maharaja that irrigation

68 A Report of British Empire Exhibition: 23–25. Also see Hangloo, Agrarian System of

Kashmir: 15, fn.13, and Bates, Gazetteer: 14.69 Hangloo, Agrarian System of Kashmir: 12–15.70 Jonaraja, Zaina Rajatarangini: St. 974.71 NCAER, Techno-Economic Survey of Jammu and Kashmir State: 17–18.



be treated as an issue of prime importance and that it was heavily depend-

ent on the tanks and diversion of various watercourses that required im-

mense amount of human labour and which, he lamented, had fallen into

disrepair.72

In 1861, when a rice exhibition was held in Lahore, the Kashmiri au-

thorities also sent three varieties of rice—Chogul, Kunj danya, Basmati

danya—to be displayed there. The out-turn varied between 10 and 60

maunds per acre but 20 to 40 maunds covered most of the rice lands in

the valley. The quantity of seed sown per acre varied between 20 and 24

seers.73

The varieties of rice were: Pranzagid, Kamrezreban, Lulenzun,

Gurukoin, Shalkeo, Kamad, Chanazag, Kashurreban, Kath chaen, larbyol,

mushk budij, braz danya, Sukhdas, Pothibrer, Raen, Mokhta hal, Lachahal,

Shahguru, Guru tanz, Lalkrehna, Kenuputhau, Nur, Karhana sheshar,

Surimal, Chatabraz, Kamad, Tachitachee, Mukhta braz, Dudhakrid, Neka

byol, Breb bezol, Nihali, Budbraz, Malwar, Chata zag, Gurah, Ghunder,

Chatanevar, KawhamahMaitarael, Babeer, Mohiwan, Kawakrahna,

Keoziv, Moglubeyol, Chandahal, Sukal, Mohiaznun, Munkashahd,

Shalanzun, Ozulkrid, Baidanzun, Karalanzun, Bathal, Nekanzun, Lenha

zag, Nekhazag, Krahna zag, Basmat, Zazid zekahtatar, Teyilbyol Chogul.74

Pir Hassan Shah has stated that there were 96 varieties of rice and that

the best among them was Chogul.75

However, the process of cultivation of other crops was not as com-

plex as rice. The slopes and uplands which were devoted to the cultivation

of maize and pulses required neither regular water supply nor multiple

ploughings. The ploughing for maize and autumn millets was not so me-

ticulously done as for rice. Two or three ploughings were sufficient; the

final one covered the seeds. In the case of maize crops, it was done using

72 Wingate, ‘Preliminary Report of Land Settlement in Jammu and Kashmir 1889’: 13.

For details also see Hangloo, Agrarian System of Kashmir: 40–41.73 Lawrence, Provincial Gazetteer, 59; Raina, Geography of Jammu and Kashmir State:

100–1.74 Kripa Ram, Gulzar-i Kashmir: 278. See also Gazetteer of Kashmir and Ladakh: 57.75 Khoihami, Tarikh-i Hassan, 3 vols. The Urdu translation of only one volume was

done by Moulvi Muhammad Ibrahim and published from Srinagar in 1967. Recently, it

was also translated into Kashmiri, vol. I: 185. The original text reads: Chugul az anhha

brinj shireen me shud.

80 � R.L. Hangloo


hands and hoe. The best maize crops were raised in reclaimed swamps

and black peaty soils which were under the banks of the Jhelum.76

Generally, as in other parts of the Orient, the practice of mixed crops

was prevalent in Kashmir as well. Various crops like maize beans and a

variety of pulses were cultivated in a mixed manner. Sometimes maize

and pulses were grown with some other crops barring rice and saffron.

According to Howard this practice of mixed cultivation of crops helped

both sets of crops and when the two grew together the character of growth

improved.77

Wicker baskets and kanvots (knight caps) were used by peasants for

carrying manure. In between the ploughing and harvesting time, shovel,

hoe and rake were used. The shovel was used for digging the corners of

the field which the plough had not reached, and for embanking. The hoe

was used for loosening the soil and for uprooting the weeds of previous

crops. The rake was used for drawing together straw and for smoothing

the soil whenever necessary.78 The sickle was used at the time of harvesting.

It was a very important and integral implement in Kashmiri agriculture

but certainly not ‘imbued with any community spirit’ as understood by

Marc Bloch in the case of medieval France.79

There was no special arrangement for threshing paddy which could

have saved any great amount of labour. In most parts of the valley there

were no carts except near the area of Wular Lake to carry crops to the

threshing ground or home after sheaves were harvested. For the threshing

of paddy, bundles of rice straw were tied against a wooden log in the

presence of the shiqdar, the supervisor of crops, on the threshing ground.

Then commenced the beating of sheaves of paddy on this wooden log.80

That was how the grains were detached from the stalk. The straw was

carefully stored because it was considered the best fodder for cattle and

very useful as thatching straw for huts and houses. Rice straw was the

most popular fodder in Kashmir.81

76 Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir: 336–37.77 Howard, An Agricultural Testament: 9.78 A Report of British Empire Exhibition: 23–25.79 Bloch, ‘Technology and Social Evolution’: 88.80 See Jacquemont, Letters from India: 219–43.81 A Report of British Empire Exhibition: 23–25.



The barley and wheat were cut and threshed in June and July. The

ears were trodden out by cattle or sometimes beaten by sticks, and when

there was no wind a blanket was flapped to winnow the grain (wapat).

Anything that came with the spring crop was doubly welcome for Kashmiri

peasants regarded it as a kind of lottery in which they generally lost their

stakes.82

For the husking of paddy, a mortar and pestle were in general use. The

peasant did not have to receive any special training for using these imple-

ments; the techniques came to him from observation and practice from

early childhood.83

However, in the nineteenth century, there are references to Jindra or

husking machines. While touring Gilgit, Partap Singh noticed that these

machines were moved by water. The Jindra was a large wooden axle to

which two large curved wooden arms are affixed in the middle at an

interval of some distance and nearly opposite each other. This was being

constantly worked by falling water directed through an open pipe over a

wooden wheel also affixed to one end of the axle, something akin to a

water wheel. The two arms in turn stroked the near end of the machine

which worked to husk the paddy at the further end. There were only six

such machines in Kashmir in the early nineteenth century.84

Owing to the large amount of cattle dung and abundance of wood for

fuel, Kashmir was very fortunately placed. Rice fields were manured

and improved by the distribution of clods of fresh earth. Both men and

women carried the refuse from the village and the farmyard manure to

the fields. It was ploughed in or sometimes heaped at a place through

which the irrigation duct passed and, after the fields were irrigated,

it was then spread over the fields manually.85 In early April, the turf clods

were cut from the banks of streams and irrigation channels and flung

broadcast over the wet fields. However, it sometimes happened that the

entire land could be not be manured because of the scarcity of labour.

This happened when the most hated institution of begar (forced labour)

82 Ibid.83 Bamzai, Socio-Economic History: 184–85. See also Joo, Various Trades in Kashmir.84 Singh, Diary of an Inspection Tour to Gilgit: 5–7.85 Vigne, Travels in Kashmir, vol. I: 309.

82 � R.L. Hangloo


took away large amount of peasant labour during the cultivation season.86

This establishes the fact that technology and social problems were very

closely interlinked.

Crops suffered in most parts of Kashmir because of the non-availability

of the necessary means to minimise the damage done to the crops by ex-

ternal factors. In Kashmir proper, pests like Dadur, Halov, Kril and Mohur

were very common. The other factors that damaged the crops were

Handur and Rai. The first referred to a variety of paddy which failed to

mature in time. It was a disease which usually occurred when there was

an early snowfall resulting in cold winds which prevented the ripening

of the grain on the plant. As a result, the grain with the husk remained by

and large unripe. Rai on the contrary was a disease which ate up the sub-

stance of the grain.87 The husk cover of the grain would indeed ripen but

there would be no grain in it. This disease usually occurred due to failed

rains. There was an abundance of food plants like Euryale ferox, Nymphaea

stellata, N.alba, Nelumbium speciosum, the exquisite pink water lily,

Acorus Calamus and Typa sp, the reed mace, all of which contributed to

the sustenance of the Kashmiris.88

The Kashmiri cultivators believed that greater the number of plough-

ings the larger the out-turn of the crop. But, unfortunately, the number

of their cattle was small and the holdings large, though not as large as in

other parts of India.89

In relatively favourable weather, from October to December, the cul-

tivators were busy ploughing dry lands for wheat and barley. By the end

of December though the ploughing operations ceased and the Kashmiris

got busy with weaving blankets and other domestic work including the

tending of sheep and cattle.90

In the fifteenth century, Zain-ul-Abidin experimented with the

cultivation of sugarcane in Martanda pargana but this endeavour failed

because of the climatic conditions. We do not hear of it afterwards.91 Apart

86 Mirza, Akhbarat, vol. I: 29, 62ff. Also see Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir: 319–21, and

Grevis, This is Kashmir: 57–58; Khoihami, Tarikh-i Hassan, vol. II: 869–70.87 Lawrence, Assessment Report of Uri Tehsil: 40–41. See also Hangloo, Agrarian Sys-

tem of Kashmir: 38, fn.112.88 Lawrence, Provincial Gazetteer: 17.89 Ibid. For details also see Census of Jammu and Kashmir, 1881.90 Abdul Wahab Malik in personal conversation.91 Jonaraja, Zaina Rajatarangini: St. 974.



from the aforementioned crops there also were a number of horticultural

products such as apple, pear, grapes, mulberry, walnuts, quince, cherry,

peach, apricot, raspberry, gooseberry, and strawberry.92 Mirza Haider,

the maternal uncle of Babur, who ruled Kashmir from 1540–50, wrote

in 1541,

Pears, mulberry and cherries are met with but with the apples are particularly

good. There are other fruits in plenty, sufficient to make one break one’s

resolution. Among the wonders of Kashmir are the quantities of mulberry

trees (cultivated) for their leaves from which silk is obtained. In season fruit

is so plentiful that it is rarely bought and sold. The holder of the garden and

the man that has no garden are alike, for the gardens have no walls and it is

not usual to hinder any one from taking fruit.93

Small peasant holdings were more numerous in Kashmir. They were

generally less rigid and more adaptable to changing situations. Agri-

culture in Kashmir provided very modest livelihood. It was therefore

always combined with other occupations like pastoralism, woodcraft,

pottery, metal trades, shawl making and other items of artisanal produc-

tion. In many ways these circumstances continued to shape its historical

development.94

Crops and their Patterns

Time and again it has been stated that, in India, two crops were cultivated;

but as Harbans Mukhia very rightly remarks,

The fact that Indian soils yielded two crops a year is, of course, true merely

as a general statement; understandably there would be considerable regional

variation in the degree of soil fertility. Thus if some regions were capable of

yielding three or four crops a year, others evened out nature’s largesse by

producing more or less one crop and perhaps an insignificant second.95

92 Tarikh-i Kalan: 134. See also Bernier, Travels: 133; Moorcroft. MS EUR D.264:

170.93 Dughlat, Tarikh-i Rashidi: 425.94 Girdlestone, Memorandum on Kashmir: 29–30. See also Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir:

388.95 Mukhia, ‘Agricultural Technology in Medieval North India’: 214–15.

84 � R.L. Hangloo


The opinion expressed by Mukhia is very appropriate to the situation in

the Kashmir region during our period of study. The agricultural activity

in Kashmir revolved mainly around two seasons—autumn (Kharif ) and

spring (Rabi)—with Kharif being the more important of the two.

The crops cultivated in the Kharif season were rice, maize saffron,

tobacco, millet, amranthus, buckwheat, pulses, sesame, and cotton. The

Rabi crops included wheat, barley, Tibetan barley, opium, poppy, rape,

flax, and mustard. Of all the Rabi crops only such crops were sown after

the Kharif season whose germination took place before the snowfall and

whose plants started growing once the snow had melted in the month

of late March or early April. These Rabi crops, which took four to five

months to mature in other parts of mainland India, took five to six months

to mature in the valley of Kashmir.96 Since the Kharif crop was harvested

by September, or sometimes in early October, that is, on the eve of snow-

fall, there was little time left to prepare the soil for the next crop. Therefore,

Rabi seeds were sown in fields which had not been cultivated during the

Kharif season. The crops harvested in the Rabi season were very insignifi-

cant, both in quantity and quality. Besides, not all lands under cultivation

except some of the rice lands produced two crops.97

The nature and growth of any crop was dependent on climatic con-

ditions but the resistance of a particular crop to frost, cold winds, etc.

depended on how the crop was fed. Moreover, cultivation was not possible

for the greater part of the year due to the climate which rendered a regular

double cropping pattern nearly impossible. Abul Fazl says that chickpea

and barley were not found in the Sarkar of Kashmir.98 Chickpea would

have been introduced in later times but there are references regarding the

cultivation of barley before the Mughal occupation of the valley in late

sixteenth century.99 Bernier, who visited Kashmir in 1665, mentions vine-

yards, ice, wheat, hemp, and saffron crops being cultivated in Kashmir.100

96 Hangloo, Agrarian System of Kashmir:12–17. See also Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir:

325–30 and Lawrence, Assessment Report of Baramulla Tehsil: 9.97 Drew, The Northern Barrier of India: 172–73.98 Abul Fazl, Ain-i Akbari, vol. II: 353–54.99 Kalhana, Rajatarangini. Here vol. II, book VII, verse 1864: 145 is being referred to.

In early texts too the word Yava is used to denote barley even though it did not constitute

a food item except for the poorest of the poor. Barley has always been an essential item in

most of the rituals of the Kashmiri Pandits.100 Bernier, Travels: 52, 309, 342, 397.



Among fruits he mentions the famous apples, pears, plums, apricots and

walnuts, melons, paleques, watermelons, water parsnips, red beet, radishes,

and most of the potherbs.101 The peculiarities of the physical features

and the climate that prevailed in Kashmir at that time disallowed intensive

farming as well as diversification of crops in the valley. Since the land

remained under snow for four to five months in a year, a time when no

cultivation was possible, the agrarian economy of Kashmir was generally

one crop based (yakfasli).102 Rice was the main Kharif crop and after its

harvest in September there was little time left to sow another crop. Abul

Fazl mentions no fine variety of rice in the sixteenth century even though

he acknowledges plentiful rice crops in the valley. In fact, he had the

Indian mainland in view where the finest varieties were produced.103 In

one of the tehsils of Kashmir, Lawrence counted 53 varieties of rice. The

white rice variety, basmati, was considered the best for food. This and

another white variety, kanyun, germinated very quickly and ripened more

rapidly than any other but these varieties were also very delicate and

could not stand the cold winds. Therefore, the white rice was less popular

with the cultivator than the red rice which was hardier and gave a larger

out-turn. The red rice (Zagbata) could be grown at higher altitudes and

was less liable to be damaged by animals.104

However, in spite of the obvious advantages of the system of crop ro-

tation, the peasants generally preferred the cultivation of rice when ad-

equate irrigation was available. They allowed the land to remain lea in

times of deficiency of irrigation and knew that their labour would not be

repaid if they sowed other crops. Further, the small quantities of commer-

cial crops grown in the valley afforded no scope for agro-based industries

during the period of our study.

In the high villages and uplands of Kashmir very fine crops of maize

were also grown even if rains were delayed. A month after sowing, when

the maize was about a foot high, women weeded the fields with a small

hoe and loosened the soil about the roots. As a rule, maize was grown on

dry land and it was rare to find such land irrigated. For a really good crop

101 Ibid.: 396–97.102 Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir: 329.103 Abul Fazl, Ain-i Akbari, vol. II: 353.104Abdul Wahab Malik, oral testimony.

86 � R.L. Hangloo


of maize, fortnightly rains are required but in the swamp lands the natural

moisture of the soil produced good crops. Timely rains could help produce

bumper crops of maize and pulses.105 According to nineteenth-century

estimates, the average production of maize per kharwar (80 seers) of

land was 24 kharwars. (The kharwar as a unit of measure of weight was

equivalent to 80 seers; but a kharwar as a unit of measure of land was

equivalent to the amount of land where 80 seers of seed could be sown.)

Some of the maize fields were irrigated but not much manure was added.

A large part of the stalk was left to rot on the fields under snow and

rains.106

Wheat seeds were sown in September and October and the crop ripened

in June. The common variety was red wheat with a small hard grain

which was considered very inferior in the rest of India.107 Abul Fazl says

this of the sixteenth-century Kashmir, ‘Wheat is small in grain and black

in colour and there is little of it and little consumed.’108 The Kashmiri

cultivators looked down upon the wheat and barley crops not only because

rice was their staple diet but also because the climate was unfavourable

for a reasonable harvest of wheat. The ploughings for wheat and barley

were very few and very slovenly.

Lawrence found that these fields of wheat and barley were choked

with weeds and he never expected to find any crops growing under such

conditions even in the nineteenth century. He says that the Kashmiris

were not ignorant of following a spring crop with an autumn crop but

rather that the scanty and uncertain rainfall and cold climate were the

serious handicaps for production of these crops on a larger scale.109 Three

ploughings for wheat at the most and two for barley were considered

sufficient. Unlike the Indian mainland or Punjab, no labour was spent on

weeding or manuring of wheat and barley crops.

Trumba or buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) was a useful crop

which was sown late in almost any soil which did not have any irrigation

105 Khoihami, Tarikh-i Hassan, vol. I: 185. Also see Raina, Geography of Jammu and

Kashmir: 103.106 Gazetteer of Kashmir and Ladakh: 61–62.107 Tarikh-i Kalan: 204; also see Raina, Geography of Jammu and Kashmir:102.108 Abul Fazl, Ain-i Akbari, vol. II: 353.109 Lawrence, Provincial Gazetteer: 50.



facility. Apart from being a feed for poultry and horses it was also con-

sumed by human beings in some villages in the upper reaches. The variety

of pulses included Mong (Phaseolus Mungo), Baqla (Vicia Faba), Mah

(Phaseolus radiatus) Moth (Paconitifolius), and Razmash (Phaseolus

Vulgaris).110 In the month of May these pulses were sown in the upland

areas and also in those rice lands which were given rest. The pulses did

not require much weeding or irrigation. They were mostly dependent on

natural rains.111

Among the oilseeds, rape (Tilgoglu) (Brassica Campestris) was the

main variety. It was sown in the month of September and October on dry

lands, and especially on reclaimed swamps. Its cultivation did not involve

any weeding except where wild hemp was very vigorous. Timely rains

were required for a good harvest in May and June. The second variety

was known as sarshaf (Brassica Campestris) or taruz. It was sown in the

spring and its ripening coincided with Tilgoglu. The other variety was

known as sandji. Often, when the rice crop was standing, rapeseed was

cast into the wet soil and no ploughing was given and a crop of rape

was obtained in the spring season. The harvesting of the rice crop, which

was carried out while sitting in the field, facilitated getting into the soil

and thus saved a lot of human labour. Its out-turn, however, was lower.

The average produce per kharwar was 16 to 20 kharwars.112 In the lower

slopes and mountains linseed was also cultivated. These lands were

ploughed twice and a third ploughing was given when the seed was sown

in April. The crop was harvested towards the end of July. It required

rains in May, failing which it withered.

Of all the oilseeds, Til (Sesamum indicum) was a very common crop.

It was sown in April and the land was ploughed four times; a fifth plough-

ing was given at the time of sowing. Til required rich soil and no manure

and it depended on timely rains. The two varieties were those of white

and black Til.113 This particular crop was weeded using hands and hoe

and deserved more careful attention than any other crop like rice. The Til

110 Khoihami, Tarikh-i Hassan, vol. I: 186.111 Gazetteer of Kashmir and Ladakh: 60–64.112 Wingate, ‘Preliminary Report of Land Settlement in Jammu and Kashmir 1889’: 64.

See also Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir: 330–39.113 Tarikh-i Kalan: f.133.

88 � R.L. Hangloo


crops were harvested after rice. The survey by Lawrence in the nineteenth

century reveals that an average yield was one and half maunds per acre.114

The barley cultivated in the valley was not of good quality and the

barley fields were neither weeded nor manured. In fact, barley had more

of a ritual or medicinal use than as a food crop. In the higher villages, at

an elevation of 7,000 feet, the kind of barley grown was known as Tibetan

barley (grim) which was a staple food among the mountain people. It

was sown in May and June and ripened in August and September. The

average production per kharwar of land was 16 kharwars.115

Cotton was grown in Kashmir up to a certain level of elevation. It

was grown on the Karewas and also in the low-lying land, which was

irrigable but required rest from rice. The soil was ploughed three times

in quick succession and the clods were pulverised using mallets.116 The

seed was soaked in water and mixed with ashes before sowing. The

sowing of the cotton crops took place at the end of April and May and

the fields often watered afterwards. The Karewas were best suited for

their cultivation. In the late eighteenth century, efforts were made to

introduce the brown cotton, the Yarkand variety, but it did not grow well

because of the nature of the soil even though the climate was not a prob-

lem.117 In the nineteenth century, the average production of cotton per

kharwar of land was about 6 kharwars.

Kangani or shol (Italian millet or Setaria italica) was a useful crop. A

large area of rice lands were also sown with this crop when cultivators

realised that water was scarce. The lands were ploughed four times for

this crop. This crop was always sown in April and May and was harvested

in September.118 It required only one weeding. The most popular variety

was a Chinese one which was known as ping or Chinese (panicum

miliaceum). Its appearance was like that of rice and it was occasionally

weeded.119

114 Lawrence, Provincial Gazetter: 56.115 Wingate, ‘Preliminary Report of Land Settlement in Jammu and Kashmir 1889’: 64.116 Younghusband, Kashmir: 199–203.117 Moorcroft, Travels, vol. II: 260.118 Tarikh-i Kalan: f. 133.119 Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir: 339.



Ganhar or Amranth was another crop cultivated in Kashmir. It was

introduced into India by the Portuguese.120 It was grown in rows among

the cotton fields and along the borders of the maize plots with its gold,

coral and crimson colours. It was sown in the month of May and the

land was given three ploughings and a large out-turn was harvested in

September. Apart from its food value, its stalks were used for the ex-

traction of alkaline substances.121 In the sixteenth century, 10,000 to

12,000 bighas were devoted to saffron (Crocus sativus) cultivation. The

saffron fields at Pampore extended over about 24 miles (39 kilometres)

and at Paraspore, 2 square miles (3.2 kilometres).122

In the nineteenth century, even though the cultivation of saffron lands

was spreading, only 132 acres out of 4,527 acres of land were used to

cultivate it. In the sixteenth century, saffron cultivation was a great source

of revenue for the state. For seed purposes a particularly sloping ground

was required and it took nearly three years before the bulbs could be

planted out in small, square plots where the saffron was grown. These

plots remained fallow for eight years and no manure was applied in order

to keep the specificity of the quality of the soil in tact.123

These lands were ploughed in the months of March and April. The

saffron fields were rendered soft and spades were used to plant the saffron

bulbs in the ground. They sprouted in a month’s time and grew until

September/October when they reached full maturity, taking at least six

months to do so. When the bulbs sprouted to the height of a human finger,

they would begin to flower; each bulb produced eight flowers. Each

flower had six lilac-tainted petals, among which three were yellow and

three ruddy, and it were the last three which yielded saffron. Once the

saffron bulb was planted it produced flowers for six years continuously.

For the first two years the produce was always less as compared to the

third year when the saffron bulb produced the maximum it could.124

In the nineteenth century it was noticed that when one bulb was planted

in the square it lived for 14 years without any help. It produced new

120 Randhawa, A History of Agriculture, vol. II: 184.121 Younghusband, Kashmir: 199–203.122 Randhawa, A History of Agriculture, vol. II: 214.123 Lal, Sayahat-nama: 38. Also see Abul Fazl, Ain-i Akbari, vol. II: 358.124 Lal, Sayahat-nama. See also Lal, ‘An Account of Kashmir’.

90 � R.L. Hangloo


bulbs while the old ones rotted away without any effort from the cultivator.

The bulbs were planted in July–August and all that cultivator had to do

was to break up the soil surface gently a few times and ensure proper

drainage of the plot by digging a neat trench on all four sides. The flowers

appeared around October. In 1871, the total production was 28,800 lbs,

i.e., 200 kharwars.125

Before the nineteenth century people came from various parts to

cultivate saffron. In the nineteenth century, however, except a few people

from Srinagar, the cultivation of saffron was in the hands of the local

cultivators in Pampore. Once the flowers were collected the real work

of extracting saffron commenced. The flowers were dried in the sun

and the three long stigmas picked up by hand. The stigma had a red tip

and this tip formed what was called Shahi Zafaran, the first quality

Saffron.126 The long white base of the stigma also made saffron but it

was considered of inferior quality. The article thus collected in a dry

condition was known to trade as mongla and sold for Re 1 a tola. When

the mongla saffron was extracted, the sun-dried flowers were beaten

lightly with sticks and winnowed. Then, the whole mass was thrown into

the water where the petals swam and the essential parts of the flower

(niwal) sank and were collected and those which rose to the top were

dried again and again, beaten with sticks and then immersed into the

water. The process was repeated three times and each time the niwal be-

came poorer. One form of adulteration was to mix the niwal of the third

class with the niwal of the first. The saffron obtained in this way was

lighter in colour and fainter in scent than the mongla.127

Tobacco was also grown in Kashmir, mostly in and around Srinagar

and other towns. In India tobacco was introduced during the last years of

Akbar’s reign, in A.D. 1600, in coastal Andhra Pradesh.128 It was known

as brewari (Nicotiana Tabacum). The finer tobacco was that of the Chilasi

variety. It was sown in April and harvested in August. It required very

125 Bates, Gazetteer, 1873: 43–44.126 Lawrence, Provincial Gazetteer: 55–57.127 Ibid.128 Randhawa, A History of Agriculture, vol. II: 280. For details also see Gokhle, ‘Tobacco

in 17th century India’.



fertile soil and was irrigated using the pot and lever system. In addition

to these crops, a number of vegetables and fruits were also grown in

abundance. The produce of the Digar Abi area in Ich Nagam pargana was

poor in 1861. Some of the villages were productive and the rice producing

area was a little over 3 per cent.129

Table 2 (below) shows the percentage of the various Rabi and Kharif

crops.

Rabi Crops % of Cultivation Kharif Crops % of Cultivation

Wheat 17 Rice 30

Barley 5 Maize 2

Mong 1 Kangani china 2

Vegetables 1 Vegetables 2

Sarshaf and Tilgoglu 1 Cotton 4

Oilseeds 10

Fallow land for the year 4130

Hops began to be cultivated from the late nineteenth century.131

Irrigation System

Irrigation was a factor of prime importance in Kashmir because agri-

culture was largely dependent on it. The almost annual flooding of rivers,

which was usually relied on in the exploitation of agricultural resources,

appears to have convinced the foreign travellers of the abundance of

irrigation. To increase agricultural production, Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin

constructed and reconstructed several canals some of which include the

Utpalpura canal, Naidashaila canal, Avantipura canal, Lalkul or Pohru

canal, Zaingir canal or Lachman Kol, Manas canal, and Mar canal. The

129 Wakefield, The History of Kashmir and Kashmiris: 139.130 Lawrence, Assessment Report of Ich Nagam Pargana: 8.131 The proportion of cultivation of rice is less than in Dansu where it is 49 per cent and

also in Lal Pargana where it was 36 per cent, but greater than Pakh Pargana where it was

27 per cent and the maize and wheat area was, on the contrary, larger than Dansu and

Pakh. The reason for this high proportion of wheat and maize in Ich Nagam is that these

were the two chief crops of a large area under Kandi illaqa. See ibid.: 8.

92 � R.L. Hangloo


Martand canal and Karala canal were constructed earlier but Zain-ul-

Abidin reconstructed them.132 Bernier observed in the seventeenth century

that in recent years extensive water works had been carried out with the

object of bringing water to the Karewas.133 From the sides of all these

mountains innumerable springs and streams of water gushed forth, con-

ducted by means of embanked earthen channels even to the top of the

numerous hillocks in the valley, thereby enabling the inhabitants to irri-

gate their fields of rice.134

The river Jhelum has many tributaries. On its right bank it receives

the Liddar or Lambodri, which comes down from the everlasting snows

that overhang from the head of the Liddar valley and from the mountain

lake of Tarsar. Below Srinagar at Shadipur—the place of the marriage of

two rivers—the Sind river joins the Jhelum, and beyond lake Wular the

Pohru stream which drains the Lolab valley merges in a great river. On

the left bank the chief tributaries are the Vishav, the Rembiara, the Romshi;

the Doodganga joins the Jhelum at the lower end of the city, Srinagar.135

‘These waters, after separating into a thousand rivulets and producing a

thousand cascades through the charming country, at length collect and

form a beautiful river, navigable for vessels as large as borne on our

Seine... the numberless streams which issue from the mountains maintain

the valley and the hillocks in the most delightful verdure,’ observes the

French traveller, Bernier.136 He goes on to say,

The whole kingdom wears the appearance of a fertile and highly cultivated

garden. Villages and hamlets are frequently seen through the luxuriant foliage.

Meadows and vineyards, fields of rice, wheat, hemp, saffron and many sorts

of vegetables, among which are intermingled trenches filled with water,

rivulets canals and several small lakes vary the enchanting scene. The whole

ground is enamelled with our European flowers and plants and covered with

132 Jonaraja, Zaina Rajatarangini, stanza 863–71, 1330; Kalhana, Rajatarangini,

vol. I, book III: n. 467; see also vol. I: 474. Srivara, Rajatarangini, vol. I: stanza 53, 55;

Sayyid Ali, Tarikh-i Kashmir: f.19a.133 Bernier, Travels: 412, fn.1.134 Drew, Northern Barrier of India: 172–73.135 Lawrence, Provincial Gazetteer: 90.136 Bernier, Travels: 396–97.



our apple, pear, plum, apricots and walnut trees, all bearing fruit in great

abundance.... The fruit is certainly inferior to our own, nor is it in such variety;

but this I am satisfied is not attributable to the soil, but merely to the com-

parative ignorance of the gardeners for they do not understand the culture

and the grafting of trees as we do in France.137

But the examination of sources leads one to conclude that the existing

irrigation system presented a great hazard in carrying out normal agricul-

tural operations. It was adequate only in a few areas. Sultan Zain-ul-

Abidin converted depressions in lands into wells and also constructed a

lake in Padmapura (Pampore) and named zain sara.138 In most parts, water

canals could not be dug owing to difference in surface levels. The places

where the water could be led on to the land were relatively few and there

could be no question of involving human labour for raising the water

owing to the extreme intensity of labour involved.139 Jahangir had intro-

duced the system of water distribution. He laid down the rule that the

upper villages which had no local spring and the lower villages which

received no overflow water from the upper villages were entitled to a

share of irrigation from the main channel. The land settlement of 1889

by Lawrence recorded this information.140 Between the sixteenth and

nineteenth centuries there was no substantial increase in population be-

cause the number of villages mentioned in the Mughal statistics was the

same as in the 1901 census for corresponding districts.141 For instance,

the villages of Vihu pargana were situated at a great instance from Romshi

and Dood Ganga rivers and much of the land was dependent on Kanchi

Kol for irrigation purposes.142 In 1891, Kanchi Kol was utterly broken

and no arrangement was made for improving the same canal.143 Similarly,

the Hari Khul remained in a ruined condition for years together.144 In

1890–92, the land settlement commissioner laid down that there was much

137 Ibid.: 397.138 Srivara, Rajatarangini, verse 1, stanza 1.139 Raina, Geography of Jammu and Kashmir: 69–70.140 Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir: 324.141 Habib, Agrarian System of Mughal India: 18.142 Lawrence, Assessment Report of Vihu Tehsil: 12–13.143 Raina, Geography of Jammu and Kashmir: 69–70.144 Bhag Ram, Annual Administrative Report of Jammu and Kashmir: 117.

94 � R.L. Hangloo


to be done in the area of agricultural technology of the state. Bhag Ram

stated, ‘In sinking irrigation wells in certain dry localities, in utilising

peat as a fuel for steam pumps, to drain the great swamps of the valley

and so on I could enumerate several kinds of agricultural improvements

which would tend to benefit the state and people.’145 The problem in irri-

gating the land was the lack of organisation. Even as late as 1889, Wingate,

one of the land settlement experts, says,

I propose to reserve to the Durbar all rights in respect of water because in

Kashmir nothing is so important or stands so much in need of control and

organisation. There is abundance of water but the tail villages, unless very

strong in men and so able to send up contingent to fight for it, can not get it

and much water runs to the waste and much irrigable land is dry.146

In Kandi illaqas irrigation was difficult except where small water channels

were taken along the hillside. Although water was easily found from 70

to 100 feet below the surface, wells were very few and the peasants had

hardly any money to spend on sinking wells.147

The well irrigation system also existed in towns like Srinagar, Anantnag,

Baramullah, and Sopore. It was used as lift irrigation for vegetable lands

and also in kitchen gardens. For rice cultivation, well irrigation was hardly

used. The lift irrigation system, Tolsag system, was operated by the means

of a long pole, to which, half way down, a short pole was attached to form

a fork. A piece of wood joined to the upper end of the fork provided the

lever for a long pole placed at a right angle to it. The short end of the

pole carried a large stone as a counterpoise to the other end where a thick

rope hung with a bucket of wood attached to it. The bucket was lowered

into the well by pulling the rope and dragging down the pole and as the

rope was released the weight of the stone on the other end raised the

bucket. This is referred to by James Douie as the bucket well.148

145 Bhag Ram, Annual Administrative Report of Jammu and Kashmir (1890–91): 66–67.146 Wingate, ‘Preliminary Report of Land Settlement in Jammu and Kashmir 1889’.147 Wreford, Census of India: 22–23.148 Douie, The Punjab North Western Frontier Province and Kashmir: 143.



As far as the canal irrigation system was concerned it was also full of

defects, almost up to the end of nineteenth century. Some areas depended

on spring water for irrigation but this spring water was very cold and

took a lot of time to reach the certain degree of temperature necessary

for rice cultivation. Second, it did not carry the fertility of silt with it.

‘On the other hand spring water did not contain scum which is considered

bad for rice.’149

The winter rain enabled the peasant to proceed with the sowings for

the spring crop. He also depended upon the occasional recurrence of

such showers during the following three months for the harvest, which

the increasing warmth of the months of March and April were sure to

bring on well if the rains were fairly plentiful.150 The Pir Panjal range

was served by its various streams and there was an enormous amount of

water, some of which was utilised for irrigation. But there was no tech-

nology to bring the watercourses over the higher plateaus. As a result,

most of lands were dependent on rains.

The north-eastern end of the valley was irrigated by various streams

which united with the drainage of the Lolab and Utar to form the river

Pohru. This river helped to form a wide low level flat that may almost be

classed with the river alluvium plane. This flat made the pargana of

Zaingir a fine prosperous region because good crops were only grown

with rain moisture. As to the moisture, the valley was intermediately in

a position between that which was flooded by periodical rains and that

which was arid. Even though enough rains fell on the two mountain

ranges, yet the areas of Srinagar, Avantipur and Anantnag were without

rain. But the occasional cloud did spread over the whole area and did

give a supply of moisture enough to bring down the temperature of the

air but not enough to allow a double cropping pattern.151

149 Lawrence, Provincial Gazetteer: 55.150 Drew, Jammu and Kashmir Territories: 41.151 Sharma, Kashmir Agriculture and Land Revenue System under Sikh Rule: 19.

96 � R.L. Hangloo


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