Java. 



Sanskrit Names. 



I ndian Names. 



European 

 Travellers. 



SESAMUM 



INDICUM THE GINGELLY OR SESAME PLANT 



History 



the sesame in three islands, very different one from the other and from the 

 Sanskrit word, which supports the theory of a more ancient existence in the 

 Archipelago than on the continent of India." He also adduces the fact that a 

 plant found wild on the mountains of Java was determined to be s. iiuiicmn. If 

 this were so, however, we might expect to discover some trace of the Sunda name 

 in the languages of India. Instead we find a singular uniformity throughout the 

 most diversified tongues in the names for the plant, its seed, and oil, which are 

 clearly of unmixed Sanskrit origin. Moreover, the name enters into the early 

 primitive conceptions of domestic life and religious ceremonial, and even assumes 

 a generic from a specific significance, becoming " oil " (taila) in more recent times 

 on the discovery of other oil-yielding plants. Sesamum is frequently mentioned 

 by the Greek and Latin authors. Indeed some of the Indian names given to it 

 come from Arabic or Persian ; few or none belong to the aboriginal languages of 

 India. In this connection may be mentioned the names gingeli, gergelim, and 

 jinjili or jinjali, which Dr. Rice derives from the Arabic chul-chulan, and Yule 

 and Burnell from the Arabic al juljuldn. There is, moreover, no reason to doubt 

 that the tila of the Sanskrit authors is the til of India to-dav (Dutt, Mat. Med. 

 Hind., 216-7). 



Though sesamum has not hitherto been recorded as found wild in any of the 

 warmer tracts of Central Asia, it is cultivated everywhere in the Himalaya, in 

 Afghanistan, Persia, Arabia and Egypt. There would, therefore, seem little 

 evidence opposed to the statement that, if not originally native of the warm 

 temperate tracts of India, it was probably brought to India before it found its 

 way to Egypt and Europe. But it is certainly very remarkable that few, if any, 

 of the early European travellers in India, such as Garcia de Orta, Linschoten, 

 etc., etc., make mention of this plant or of its oil. In the Ain-i-Akbari (1590) 

 frequent reference is, however, made to both the black and the white-seeded 

 forms, so that there is abundant evidence of its having been an important crop 

 in India for at least the past 300 years. [Cf. Paulus Mgineta (Adams, transl.), 

 1847, iii., 331 ; Varthema, Travels (ed. Hakl. Soc.), 86-7 ; Camerarius, Hort. 

 Med. et Phil., 1588, 159, t. xliv. ; Prosper Alpinus, De PL Mgypti, 1592, 38-9 ; 

 Hunting, Phyt. Curiosa, 1696-1702, 46, t. 239 ; Milburn, Or. Comm., 1813, i., 292 ; 

 Heyne, Tracts on India, 1814, 206 ; Taleef Shereef (Playfair, transl.), 1833, 

 59-60 ; Buchanan-Hamilton, Stat. Ace. Dinaj., 1833, 174, 184 ; Hobson-Jobson 

 (ed. Crooke), 1903, 373-4 ; Joret, Lea PL dans VAntiq., etc., 1904, ii., 269-70, 

 338 ; Hanausek, Micro. Tech. Prod. (Winton and Barber, transl.), 1907, 380-4.] 



CULTIVATION. Sesame is grown as a pure crop all over India, 

 and in certain localities, such as the United Provinces, also as a mixed 

 crop. According to the Agricultural Statistics, the area in British India 

 under the crop in 1904-5 was 4,023,847 acres. An estimated area for 

 the same year, excluding Burma but including the Native States of 

 Bombay and Sind, was stated at 4,178,700 acres for the pure crop with 

 a yield of 300,400 tons ; 600,000 acres for the mixed crop with a yield of 

 35,000 tons, the latter being in the United Provinces. In that year 

 also the area in the Native States (as officially returned, but excluding 

 Hyderabad, Kathiawar and Baroda) is stated to have been 487,277 

 acres. In Noel-Paton's Final Memorandum on the sesamum crop for 

 1905-6 mention is made of the area in Hyderabad having been 780,000 

 acres in 1904-5 and 431,200 acres in 1905-6. For the ten years ending 

 1905-6 the annual average area in British India, including Burma, was 

 3,904,000 acres, of which Burma had 930,000 acres ; the Central Pro- 

 vinces, 832,000 acres ; Madras, 737,000 acres ; and Bombay with its 

 Native States of Kathiawar and Baroda, 633,000 acres. For the years 

 1905-7 the estimated area and yield (excluding Burma) were : 1905-6, 

 3,914,200 acres (pure) yielding 344,800 tons, and 700,000 acres (mixed) 

 yielding 45,000 tons ; 1906-7, 3,844,100 acres (pure) yielding 441,100 tons, 

 and 775,100 acres (mixed) yielding 90,000 tons. 



There are two crops, a rabi and a kharif, and various cultivated forms 

 of the plant, some specially suitable for growing in the kharif season, 



' 982 



Cultiva- 

 tion. 



Area. 



Yield. 



Provincial 

 Distribution. 



Recent 

 Estimates. 



Forms 

 Grown. 



