Indian’s climate is dominated by the monsoon, a wind that brings
alternating seasons of hot, dry weather and heavy rain and flooding. In
the drier west and north, wheat was the crop from early times.
Wheat was used by the people of the Indus Valley Civilization. Grains of
wheat have been found from various sites of Indus valley civilization.
Historians believe that the Harappans ate mostly wheat, rice and
lentils. They use the wheat to make stews, soups and flat bread called
chapati.
According to research bread wheat was cultivated in west Asia long
before the date of the earliest finds in India, it remains certain that
the northwest of the Indian subcontinent is a major center of diversity
of the species, T. sphaerococcum, which is a wheat of great antiquity
and which has been found in the excavations at Mohenjo-daro dating back
to 2300 BC , is supposed to have originated in the northwestern are of
the Indian subcontinent.
Emperor Anoshirwan (531 AD to 579 AD) arrange for a land survey and
determine the amount of land tax to be paid by tillers on the field
growing of wheat, and also other crops.
Wheat in ancient India
