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

204

GYULA WOJTILLA


made of these in ignorance he perishes along
with his crops. Those who are experts in
draught-poles say it should be adjusted ac-
cording to the tall or small stature of the
bulls. The yoke should be made 4 hastas
(=188 cm long) with a half-moon shape at the
ends, to suit the shoulders of bulls. It should
be made of sesasrngi (?) kadamba (Nauclea
cadamba) trees or sdla tree (Vatica robusta)
which is not the best. The outer pin of the
yoke should protrude 10 angulas (= 20 cm)
out of the opening and the two inner pins of
the same size to a length of 10 angulas (= 20
cm). The goad, made of bamboo, must con-

tain an odd number of joints and should be as
long as 4 hastas (= 188 cm). Its point should
be made of the shape of a barley grain of iron.
One should not make anything more or less
than its prescribed size. We learn from the
Hindi commentary on VII, 82 that this
plough by Parasara can be equipped with a
funnel placed behind the handle and can be
used as a seeder-ard. At work it requires two
men and two oxen (Fig. 3).
The Krsisasana is unusual in listing plough-
like instruments so far not very richly exem-
plified in the specialist literature (cf. Leser
1931, 382; Steensberg 1971, 241-51).