Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (6.1988/1991)

96

GYULA WOJTILLA

Fig. 3. Ard-plough, clay model from Banwali, 2nd millennium BC (after Indian Archaeology 1983-84,
Fig. 21). □ Ton-Modell eines Hakenpfluges von Banwali, 2. Jahrtausend v.Chr.


cultural amalgamation took place between
the Aryans and the peoples they met in India.
It is reflected in the Vedas, the sacred books
of the Aryans. Information about the ard-
plough is plentiful, but it is restricted to the
linguistic evidence only. The earliest names of
the ard-plough are sira- and langala-. The de-

rivation of these terms is a matter of dispute
among specialists: some pursue the traits into
the domain of Indo-European languages,
other try to explain everything on the basis of
pre-Aryan languages. I would approach the
problem in a slightly different way. The expe-
rience of serious students of ard-ploughs and

Fig. 4. Copper share from Kulgara, 3rd-2nd millennium BC (after Indian Archaeology 1971-72, Plate
LXV. B). □ Kupferne Schar von Kulgara, 3.-2. Jahrtausend v.Chr.