Wojtilla Gyula

"Kuiper [...] clearly puts it [the word for wheat] in the group of foreign words adopted before the Aryans reached India, [...] there are problems [...]. The trouble begins with the non-attestation of the word in the Rigveda. [...] It is puzzling because this earliest extant text in Sanskrit is supposed to be linked with the earliest Indo-Aryan speakers who entered India. Moreover, the geographical area of the genesis of the Ṛgveda is considered a fertile wheat producing region [...] As a matter of fact, there is abundant archaeological evidence of wheat remains from the Punjab [...] from the period before the invasion of Indo-Aryan speakers."

"Pāṇini, ArthŚā, Bṛsam and Vṛkṣ(s) define the word [for wheat] as a type of grain distinct from barley and rice […] Additionally, NāmaMā makes a curious remark: it is a mlecchabhojya, a food of barbarians‘."

"An intriguing point emerges from the find of the term Pippali in the list of agricultural terms in the Saunakiya Atharvaveda by the famous Hungarian Sanskritist Gyula Wojtilla. Considering the importance of such an intense study relating to the agriculture of the later Vedic period, it may be useful to draw attention to the broad conclusions of Wojtillaís study (www.sanskrit.nic.in/SVmarsha/V6/ c3.Pdf) ëagricultural knowledge as it is reflected in the Saunakiya Atharvavedaóa reappraisalí.preponderance of rice cultivation indicated by the terms dhanya, vrihi and sasya and the strong position of barley (yava) production. The unambiguous term for wheat (godhuma) is missing here, but it can be attested in the Paippalada Atharvaveda (IX, 11, 12). ìVerse 5 of hymn II, 4 makes a clear distinction between the forest products and that of ploughing. Special hymns have been recited in order to make agriculture successful (III, 17), to promote the abundance of grain (III, 24), to increase barley (VI, 142). The king of gods, Indra, holds down the furrow and Pcan defends it (III, 17, 4). Indra has a hundred abilities (Aatakritu), is called siripati the master of the plough (VI, 30, 1). Visnuís stride is ëstirred up by ploughingí(X, 5, 34). Hymn XII, 1 extols the earth. Verse 3 and 4 say that the earth is ëon whom food, plowing, came into beingí. According to verse 17 she is ëthe all-producing mother of herbs ....The number of attestations is edifying: dhanya is attested nine times, phala seven times, krisi and tandula six times, ksetra, yava, vrihi and surpa five times, urvara, baja and sira three times, kinasa, khanitrima, khalva, tila, tusa, pippali, bija two times, while the remaining twenty-nine only once. It indicates the established position of agriculture among other economic activities, the preponderance of rice cultivation indicated by the terms dhanya, vrihi and sasya and the strong position of barley (yava) production. The unambiguous term for wheat (godhuma) is missing here, but it can be attested in the Paippalada Atharvaveda (IX, 11, 12) ....the text bears the testimony ofsignificant contemporary changes in agricultural production. The main points of these changes are as follows. New tools such as spade, (abhri), or probably varieties of tools or new names for already known tools appear: sickle (parsu), sieve (pavana, surpa). There are formerly unknown plant names: some of them arenot satisfactorily explained such as abayu, pippali and baja, while other are of great economical importance such as sugar-cane (iksu), cucumber (urvaru), black chick-pea (khalva), sesame (tila) and hemp (sana). There is a full-fledged inventory of the place, implements, products and by-products of rice processing: threshing-floor (khala), sieve (pavana, surpa), grain after threshing and winnowing (tanula) and chaff (tusa)."