Unknown History of Rice and Its Cultivation in India

Rice is an important food of India. Most of the people in India use rice in their daily use. It is the seed of the plants Oryzasativa. Rice is a popular cereal grain and it is the grain which is mainly consumed by a large number of people all over the world. Most importantly, in Asia, rice is used by the majority of people. Rice cultivation is the major occupation of ancient peoples of Asia after maize and sugarcane.

It is one of the earliest crops which have been cultivated by man for a number of years. Around 5000 years back the earliest form of rice was found in China. In fact, the Chinese farmers are the first to cultivate rice paddy. They grow the rice paddy in an artificial pond and this helps them to save water and in killing the weeds. In India, the roots of rice were founded in 3000 BC.

Then the production of rice is spread to Asia and other parts of the world such as Southern Europe, North Africa and some parts of Greece. In India, people those who are living during Harappan civilization began to cultivate and grow rice by around 2500 BC. The Spanish brought rice in the beginning of the 18th century to South America. Nowadays it is exported to many parts of the world by many rice exporters in India.

History of Rice

Historic people believe that the Indica variety of rice was initially cultivated in the Eastern Himalayan areas. Then it expanded to nearer regions such as Thailand, Burma, Vietnam, Laos and Southern China. The japonica type of rice was cultivated in southern parts of China. Chinese were cultivating rice over than 4000 years back. Rice was first introduced in 1500-800 BC in Yajur Veda. There is a saying in India that rice grains are like twin brothers but not stuck together.

Rice is often directly connected with wealth and productiveness; hence there is the tradition of throwing rice at newlyweds. In India, rice is forever the first food offered to the children when they begin eating solids or to the spouse by his new bride, to make sure they will have children. The oldest leftovers of rice are found in the west and north region from around 2000 BC. The perennial rice type which is an ancient rice type still grows in Nepal and Assam of India. It is found that in Southern India this type of rice appeared from 1400 BC.

After that, it spread to all other cultivation plains that are watered by rivers. The methods of cultivation and cooking are thinking to have spread to the west quickly and by medieval times, southern Europe find the rice as an important grain. Some people said that the word rice is derived from the Tamil word arisi. Presently, rice is used by a large amount of people all over India and some other parts of the world. Due to its ancient property, rice is still cultivated and considered as a majority food product.