Irrigation, technology and the crop regime

In this note

Detail

The monsoon was the backbone of Indian farming. Rain, not the state, decided the harvest.
Rainfall drew the crop map:
Areas with 40+ inches (about 100 cm) of rain a year grew rice.
Middling-rain areas grew wheat.
Dry areas grew millets (jowar, bajra).
Crops that drink a lot of water could not depend on rain alone. They needed artificial irrigation.

Babur, in his memoir the Babur Nama, described two different water-lifting devices he saw in India.
Persian wheel (also called sakia / saqiya) — used around Lahore and Dipalpur.
A chain of small pots or buckets fixed to an endless rope or belt runs over a big wheel. As each pot reaches the top it tips its water into a trough. [2][3]
The wheel is turned by a shaft linked to a horizontal wheel that bullocks, horses or donkeys walk around — animal power, not human. [2]
Traditional wheels used earthenware pots on the rope chain; later versions used galvanised sheet steel. [3]
Output of an animal-powered Persian wheel: about 8–10 cubic metres of water per hour at a 9 m lift, rising to 15–17 m³/hour at a 3 m lift. Efficiency about 50% at medium lifts. [3]
It stayed in wide use in north India and Pakistan into modern times. [2][3]
Bucket-lift / counterpoise lift (shadoof-type) — used in the Agra–Chandwar–Bayana belt.
A bucket on a pole, balanced by a weight at the other end. A person swings it down, fills it, and the weight helps lift it. [3]
It only raises water 0.5–1 metre at a time, but works fast. On sloping land several can be placed one above the other to raise water higher in steps. [3]
Point to note: two regions, two machines. Technology was local, not uniform across the empire.

The state dug new canals (nahr, nala) and repaired old ones.
Best-known case: the shahnahr in Punjab, repaired under Shah Jahan.
So irrigation had two layers — peasant-level lift devices (wheel, bucket) and state-level canal works.

Light wooden plough with an iron tip.
It was light enough for a pair of oxen to pull.
It cut only a shallow furrow, which preserved moisture in the soil below — important in a hot country where deep turning would dry the land out.
It was cheap to make and easy to mend in the village.
Oxen-drawn seed drill — dropped seed into the furrow. But broadcasting (throwing seed by hand) stayed the main method of sowing.
Narrow iron hoe — used for hoeing and weeding in the same operation.
Big point: the kit was simple, animal-powered and cheap. Output grew by adding land and labour, not by heavy machines.

The farming year had two seasons:
Kharif — the autumn crop (sown with the monsoon).
Rabi — the spring crop (sown after the rains, harvested in spring).
At least two crops a year (do-fasla) were taken almost everywhere.
Where water was assured, three crops a year were possible.
Abul Fazl's Ain-i Akbari records the range:
Agra — 39 varieties of crops
Delhi — 43 varieties
Bengal — 50 varieties of rice alone
This is the proof of a rich and varied crop regime, not a bare subsistence one.

Jins-i kamil means "perfect crops". These were cash crops the Mughal state actively pushed, because they brought in more revenue.
The two best examples:
Cotton — central India and the Deccan.
Sugarcane — Bengal par excellence.
Also in this class: oilseeds (like mustard) and lentils.
Key idea for answers: subsistence and commerce sat in the same holding. The same peasant grew food to eat and a cash crop for the market. They were not two separate kinds of farmer.

Maize (makka) — came to India via Africa and Spain. By the 17th century it was a major crop of western India.
From the New World (the Americas) came tomato, potato and chilli — part of the wider Columbian Exchange, the two-way movement of crops after 1492 that also carried maize, potato and cassava to Europe. [4]
Also new: pineapple and papaya.
Tobacco — the sharpest case study:
Reached the Deccan first, then spread north by the early 1600s.
Absent from the Ain's lists of northern crops — strong evidence it arrived after Akbar's survey.
Akbar's court saw it for the first time in 1604.
Jahangir banned smoking — the ban failed. (Jahangir ruled 1605–1627.) [5]
By 1700 tobacco was a major article of consumption, cultivation and trade.
Tobacco is native to the Americas; Nicotiana rustica was the first tobacco carried to Europe in 1558, and it is still grown in India. [6]

Population rose by about 50 million between 1600 and 1800 — a rise of roughly 33 per cent.
This happened despite famines.
Read it correctly: the growth was real but slow. The agrarian system could feed more people over two centuries, but it could not produce a sudden jump.

Persian wheel was noted by Babur at Lahore and Dipalpur; the bucket-lift at Agra–Chandwar–Bayana — both in the Babur Nama.
Shahnahr canal in Punjab was repaired under Shah Jahan.
Do-fasla = two crops a year (kharif autumn + rabi spring).
Ain-i Akbari: Agra 39 crop varieties, Delhi 43, Bengal 50 rices alone.
Jins-i kamil = "perfect crops" = cash crops; best examples cotton and sugarcane.
40 inches of rain marks the rice zone; below that, wheat, then millets.
Tobacco: first seen at Akbar's court in 1604; absent from the Ain; Jahangir (r. 1605–1627) banned smoking and failed. [5]
Maize entered India via Africa and Spain, big in western India by the 17th century.
Population up about 50 million (≈33%) between 1600 and 1800.
An animal-powered Persian wheel lifts about 8–10 m³ of water per hour at a 9 m lift. [3]

Technology was simple but well matched to Indian conditions. The light iron-tipped plough gave shallow furrows that saved soil moisture; the seed drill and iron hoe raised labour output without costly machinery. So low technology did not mean low farming skill — but it also capped how fast output could rise.
The state shaped the crop mix, not just the tax rate. By favouring jins-i kamil (cotton, sugarcane, oilseeds), the Mughal state pushed peasants towards the market. Revenue demand in cash made commercialisation a state policy effect, not only a merchant effect.
Subsistence and commerce were not separate worlds. The same holding grew grain to eat and cotton or cane to sell. This blocks the old picture of a "self-sufficient, unchanging village" and links directly to Mughal monetisation, mandis and export trade.
New World crops show the Indian economy was open to global flows. Maize, chilli, potato, tomato and tobacco entered through the Columbian Exchange [4]; tobacco's rise from unknown (absent from the Ain) to a major trade item by 1700, despite a royal ban, shows market demand beating state order.