3,500 years ago, people in today’s TN ate millets, pulses: Study

CHENNAI: Millets and pulses were the staple diet of people who lived around 3,500 years ago in the foothills of the Western Ghats near Coimbatore, a new study has found.

The archaeobotanical study by researchers from Deccan College examined samples collected from Molapalayam, a later period Neolithic site (dated 1,600BCE), near Coimbatore. The researchers found plant remains including kodo millet (varagu), little millet (samai), proso millet (panivaragu), browntop millet (kulasamai), foxtail millet (tinai) and barnyard millet (kuthraivali), some of which find mention in Sangam literature (3rd century BCE–3rd century CE).

“For the first time we’ve found evidence of a variety of millets cultivated during the Neolithic period,” said archaeobotanist Satish S Naik of department of ancient Indian history, culture and archaeology at Deccan College Post-Graduate Research Institute in Pune. He, along with his student Adithya Remesan, studied the samples.

Archaeobotanists identified the species by collecting the charred remains of seeds and examining taxonomic characteristics. The samples also showed traces of black gram (ulundu), green gram (pacchai payaru) and horse gram (kollu), hyacinth bean (avarai) and fruit seeds such as Indian jujube.

“The site also yielded the earliest evidence for the use of tur dal in Tamil Nadu. It shows people from this region used tur dal some 3,500 years ago,” Satish Naik said.

Previously, researchers found evidence for agriculture at Paiyampalli, another Neolithic site in Tirupattur district, where they identified charred remains of horse gram, green gram and ragi millet. “This study gives important evidence for the grain basket of ancient Tamil Nadu and early agricultural practices. Even now, horse gram and other millet crops are cultivated in the Coimbatore region,” said archaeologist V Selvakumar of department of maritime history and maritime archaeology at Tamil University, Thanjavur, who excavated the site.

“These drought-resistant crops indicate a rain-fed agricultural system practised under semi-arid to sub-humid conditions. The cropping pattern reflects a seasonal agricultural calendar, with millets cultivated during the monsoon and legumes in the post-monsoon period,” Selvakumar said.

Bone remains of goat, sheep, cattle and buffalo also showed domestication and dietary habits of the ancient people. Traces of deer and antelope indicated they hunted for meat. The earliest evidence for rice cultivation in Tamil Nadu was recorded in the Tamirabarani river basin, including sites such as Adichanallur and Sivagalai.

Satish Naik also found evidence of cultivated rice and fragments of green gram during the archaeobotanical study of Adichanallur, an Iron Age site. At Boothinatham, an early historic site, they found evidence of millet cultivation, including browntop millet, sawa millet, ragi, kodo millet and rice, as well as pulses including horse gram, hyacinth bean and green gram.

“The cultivation of bajra millet, or pearl millet (kambu), shows that in the early historic period agriculture evolved, with rice cultivation spread across the landscape,” Satish Naik said.