Part 5 - Details of Oil and Oilseeds in the Mahabharata

Oil was derived from a number of sources. (1) Tila: (Sesamum indicum), was the most important raw-material for oil. In fact, one wonders, if the Sanskrit word for oil "taila", might not owe its origins to 'tila'.

- 130 011 was extracted from sesamums by squeezing them through a machine (XII.204.9). Sesamum was regarded as a quality food, a bestower of strength and beauty (XIII.65.10), recommended as the best offering to the departed manes (XIII.65.6, 8, 88.3), and to the Brahmins (XIII.65.7). This special status in religious ceremonies may either be due to scarcity and high cost, or was merely indicative of its nutritional value, particularly during the winter months of Magha (XIII.65.7). (11) Sarsapa: (Brassica Campestori), the mustard seeds, were probably another source of oil, although the references to mustard seeds and flowers are only figurative. Sakuntala likens her minor lapses to tiny mustard seeds and the more serious ones of Dusyanta to a large Bilva fruit (1.69.1). Similarly tawny horses are compared to orange mustard flowers (VII.22.24). (111) Atasi : (Linium usitatissimum), the Linseed, too, was probably utilized for the purpose of extracting oil, although the Mahabharata refers only to Atasipuspa or the Linseed flower, in an oft-repeated but beautiful simile, which compares Lord Krsna, dressed in a yellow garment to a bright yellow

- 131 Linseed flower (V.92.52; XII.47.60, 51.8). (iv) Inguda: (Terminalia cattapa), the Indian wild Almonds, was an extremely popular tree in the Mahabharata, its fruit edible, its leaves nourishing fodder for the camels from Kamboja, while precious oil was extracted from the kernel of its fruit. The use of this oil was more or less strictly restricted to the forest-dwelling hermits and asectics, to whom the tree was a great boon (XIII.130.7). (v) Pinyaka : was an oil-cake, although it is difficult to say if of any particular oil as such. It was a raw-material for the extraction of oil (XII.161.34), an important ingredient of food, as well as an edible item consumed directly (XII.172.21, 208.21). According to Dalhana, commenting on Susruta, it was a preparation with the viscous sediment of sesamum which was used as a dry vegetable (Om Prakash 1961 : 290). Thus Tila oil for the general population, and Inguda oil for the forest-dwelling minority, were the two edible oils known to the Epic. The use of mustard and linseed oil is highly doubtful. Tila, unknown to the Rgveda, however, appears CP POONA LIBRARY

as the most important oilseed in the Atharva and the Yajurveda (Macdonell and Keith 1912 : I-312). - 132 Its supreme importance in sraddha and other religious rites is very much evident in the Sutra texts, where tila oil is often used as a substitute of the coveted ghee. a Archeo-botanical records too, confirm the great antiquity of sesamum, which has been reported from Mohenjo-daro (2500-1750 B.C.) (Kajale 1974: 69). The Aryans hade picked up its use from the local inhabitants, so that by the time of the Atharvaveda and the Yajurveda Samhitas, it became a very important item of diet. Inguda too, appears in the literature of the same period, in the aphorisms of Panini (Agrawala 1963 : 213). The mustard plant Sarsapa was known even earlier, the in the Brahmanas and Upanisads (Om Prakash 1961 : 265), but it is doubtful if any of these texts knew of mustard oil. In the Mahabharata too, the plant is mentioned as a food item (probably as a leafy vegetable, as indicated by Caraka), but mustard oil is nowhere alluded to. Thus all important sources of oil mentioned in the Mahabharata, Tila, Inguda and Sarsapa, were well-known by the time of the Kalpasutras and Panini (4 th-5 th centuries B.C.). Of these Tila and Sarsapa go back to the Vedic Period. Atasi or linseed, the only other rawmaterial for oil refered to in the Mahabharata appears a little late in

= 133 literature, in the Buddhist Pali texts and in the Artha- -sastra of Kautilya (Om Prakash 1961: 264). These texts refer to other sources of oil as well, which were as yet not tapped in the Mahabharata, e.g. Eranda or castor oil, and Kusumbha or safflower oil. Even as regards Atasi, it is only the Atasi flower thet occurs in the Mahabharata, but not exactly Atasi oil. The absence of Atasi in earlier literature is a in striking contrast to its very early archeo-botanical records, in Chaleolithic levels at Maheshwar-Navadatoli (2000-1750 B.C.) (Kajale 1974: 69), and at Chandoli (1500-1000 B.C.) (Gulati 1965: 199-201), where a fragment of a thread in one of the copper beads was identified as (linum Linn). The plant was ofcourse known, but not necessarily the oil, which may have come to be used much later. Other oilseeds like (Carthamus tinctoris) or Kusumbha, (Brassica juneea) or Sarsapa, and (Ricinus Communis) or Eranda, have been reported only from Historical levels (Kajale 1974: 69). However, in the a case of these oilseeds, the present archeological record is the only solitary evidence so far unearthed, and naturally not much can be made of it. We have to wait for the spade to bring out a more varied evidence.