THE GREAT MILLET 



Names. 



Sorgho. 



First 

 mentioned 



SORGHUM 



VULGARE 



History 



Africa it is of greatest value in the upland tracts between latitudes 15 

 and 30. In warmer, moister regions, as in Bengal, in large portions of 

 Madras, in Lower Burma, and in Ceylon it hardly ranks as an important 

 cereal, since in these regions the grain ripens but indifferently. 



History. According to Crooke (Rural and Agri. Gloss., 1888, 139 ; also his 

 edition of Hobson-Jobson, 1903, 468), the word judr has been derived from the 

 Sanskrit yava-parkdra or akdra, which means " of the nature of barley." Dutt 

 (Mat. Med. Hind., 324) mentions ydvandla and rakta-khurna as its special San- 

 skrit names. From ydvandla it would become javandla, jauandra, and finally 

 judr. The Arabic dura (or, as it is variously written, dhurra, dhaura, douro, etc. ) 

 readily becomes zura and has been Sanskritised as zurna, and is thus but a 

 variant of judr. It would seem probable that the earliest mention of the name 

 dura (or dorah) occurs (9th century A.D.) in Avicenna's reference to the people 

 of Zanzibar living very largely on the grain of that name. The Javanese name 

 for it is djagomutri. The cholam is probably also the tsjolam of the Malabar 

 (Rheede, Hort. Mai., xii., 113, t. 60). It certainly is the battari of the Malays 

 (Rumphius, Herb. Amb., v., 194, t. 75). 



The origin of the name sorghum or Sorgho might be expected to throw much 

 light on the history of the crop. Rees (Cyclopcedia, 1819), followed by Paxton, 

 Johnson, and most botanical lexicographers, says it is an Oriental word and 

 comes from the Indian sorghi. This doubtless is a mistake, since no such name 

 for it exists in any Indian language. Kornicke and Werner (Handbuch Getreide- 

 baues, 1885, i., 294-315) seem to think that it came direct from the Arabic 

 dorah. The initial letter, on its passing westward, became softened into " th " 

 and ultimately into " s." Sadebeck (Kulturgew. der Deut. Kolon., 1899, 48-52) 

 and many other authors speak of it as the sirch of the Southern Tyrol. 



John Arduin in his notes on Pliny (ii., 105, n. 23), published 1723, observes 

 that Scalinger (Exercit., 1557, 292, 869) is responsible for the statement that his 

 countrymen, the Italians, called it surgurn. Schweinfurth (Heart of Africa, 

 1873, i., 246) says that Petrus de Crescentius, about the year 1290 A.D., is 

 the first author who definitely alludes to sorgo. However, in the editions of the 

 Agricultura, dated 1471, 1519, and 1553, melica (milica) and in Italian versions 

 sagina occur, but not sorgo. Porta (Villce, etc., 1592, 865), accepting Pliny's 

 statement that this millet came from India to Italy in the time of Nero, observes 

 that it was called by the Italians sagiria, melica, or surga. He then gives a deriva- 

 tion of the last name from " surgo, to rise," in allusion to its towering above all 

 other crops. It would seem that the word Sorghum, as it now exists, originated 

 in Europe, and is strictly speaking the name for the warm temperate grain- 

 yielding races of the plant, the forms that correspond with the rabi judr of India 

 presently to be described. 



Few, if any, of the European travellers in India, whose writings, as a rule, 

 are so fruitful of historic evidence, make any reference to this grain. Yet we 

 can have little doubt that it was extensively cultivated in India during at least 

 the period of the explorations indicated. In the Ain-i-Akbari the Adminis- 

 tration Report of the Emperor Akbar for the year 1590 its price is quoted in 

 a list of autumn grains, and in a further passage (Gladwin, transl., ii., 62) it is 

 remarked that " Jewary and Bajera are the grains chiefly cultivated in the 

 Subah of Guzerat." So again, speaking of Khandesh (Jarrett, transl., ii., 223), 

 we read " Jowari is chiefly cultivated, of which, in some places, there are three 

 crops in a year, and its stalk is so delicate and pleasant to the taste that it is 

 regarded in the light of a fruit." It is, however, comparatively little grown on 

 the Malabar coast even to the present day, and was hardly likely, therefore, to 

 have been seen by the traders and travellers who for the most part visited the 

 coast towns. Koernicke, who maintains with De Candolle, that as a cultivated 

 plant it originated in Africa, not India, observes that it probably reached Asia 

 by sea and not by land routes, as was often the case. But if that were so, we 

 might expect to find it most extensively cultivated near the coast, whereas when 

 we first learn definitely about it in India, it is the staple food of the people 

 who occupy the interior and drier tablelands, not the warm, moist regions near 

 the sea. It is, in fact, met with approximately in regions where its presumed 

 wild stock Sorglt-utn, halej>en*ie is most plentiful. 



We may, therefore, conclude that in all probability the Sanskrit people first 

 learned of this grain in India, but gave themselves very little concern regarding 

 it. Everything, however, points to its having been cultivated in the peninsula 



1032 



Rabi Juar. 



European 

 Travellers. 



African, not 

 Indian. 



Indian Forms. 



