



ORYZA SAT1VA. 269 





arundinacea. Willd 



^F5ff, Chdruka. Seeds of Saccharum Sara, Roxb. Sarahij, B. 



OATS. — Avena Sativa. No native or Sanskrit name. It is 

 indigenous to Europe and is oulti rated in Bengal. 



ORYZA. SATIVA. Rice is the principal and often the only 

 food of the great mass of the Indian population. JDhdyna the 

 Sanskrit name of paddv, means the supporter or nourisher of 

 mankind. It is regarded as the emblem of wealth or fortune. On 

 a thursday in the month of Pausha (December, January) after the 

 new paddy has been reaped, a rattan-made grain measure called 

 rek in Bengali, is filled with new paddy, pieces of gold, silver and 

 copper coins, and some shells called cauries, and worshipped as 

 the representative of the goddess of fortune. This appaiatus is 

 preserved in a clean earthen pot and brought out for worship on 

 one thursday in each oE the following Hindu months, namely, 

 Chaitra, Sravana, and Kartika. Such is the form of the domestic 

 goddess of wealth of an agricultural people living chiefly on rice. 



The three prinoipal classes of rioe are Sdli or that reaped in 

 the cold season, Vrihi or that ripening iu the rainy eeason, and 

 Shasfaika or that grown in the hot weather in low lands. This 

 «t is reaped within sixty days of its sowing. The varieties of 

 each of these three classes of rice are numerous and confounding. 

 Bakta sdli popularly known as DdudkUni is the variety of rice 

 that is considered superior to all others and suited for use by 

 sick persons. The preparations of rioe used in sick diet and 

 described iu Sanskrit medical works are as follows : 



**H, Yavdgu or powdered rice boiled with water for the 

 use of the sick and convalescent. It is made of three streng hs 

 namely, with nine, eleven and nineteen parts of water ; called 

 respectively Vilepi, Peyd and Manda. Sometimes, instead^ of 

 water, a decoction of medioinadj^^ 



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