The Date-Palm 391 



was made in the Sasanian empire: in the tax laws of Khosrau I (a.d. 

 531-578), four Persian date-palms were valued and taxed equally with 

 six common ones. 1 As already remarked, the Wei and Sui Annals 

 attribute the date to Sasanian Persia, and the date is mentioned in 

 Pahlavi literature (above, p. 193). At present dates thrive in the low 

 plains of Kerman and of the littoral of the Persian Gulf; but the crops 

 are insufficient, so that a considerable importation from Bagdad takes 

 place. 2 



A. de Candolle 3 asserts, "No Sanskrit name is known, whence it 



j may be inferred that the plantations of the date-palm in western India 



: : are not very ancient. The Indian climate does not suit the species." 



j There is the Sanskrit name kharjura for Phoenix sylvestris, that already 



/occurs in the Yajurveda. 4 This is the wild date or date-sugar palm, 



which is indigenous in many parts of India, being most abundant in 



Bengal, Bihar, on the Coromandel Coast, and in Gujarat. The edible 



[ date (P. dactylifera) is cultivated and self-sown in Sind and the southern 



Panjab, particularly near Multan, Muzaffargarh, the Sind Sagar Doab, 



and in the Trans-Indus territory. It is also grown in the Deccan and 



Gujarat. 5 Its Hindi name is khajilra, Hindustani khajur, from Sanskrit 



kharjura. It is also called sindhi, seindi, sendri, which names allude to 



its origin from Sind. Possibly Sanskrit kharjura and Iranian khurma(n), 



at least as far as the first element is concerned, are anciently related. 



1 N6ldeke, Tabari, p. 245. 



2 Schlimmer, Terminologie, p. 175. 



3 Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 303. 



4 Macdonell and Keith, Vedic Index, Vol. I, p. 215. 



5 G. Watt, Commercial Products of India, pp. 883, 885. 



